Introduction

Biography

Frank was the son of Tho­mas Hough­ton, cur­ate of Staf­ford, and hus­band of Do­ro­thy Cas­sels, daugh­ter of Bi­shop Cas­sels of West Chi­na (mar­ried 1923).

He at­tend­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don (BA 1913) Lon­don Col­lege of Di­vi­ni­ty (now St. John’s Col­lege, Not­ting­ham, gra­du­at­ed 1914).

He was or­dained a dea­con in 1917, and priest the next year. He served as cur­ate of St. Be­ne­dict’s, Li­ver­pool (1917–19), and All Saints, Pres­ton (1919–20).

Inspired by mis­sion­ary Hud­son Tay­lor’s ex­am­ple, he joined the Chi­na In­land Mis­sion, serv­ing at Liang­shan (1920–21) and Suit­ing (1921–24). In 1924, he be­came prin­ci­pal of the Theo­lo­gic­al Col­lege in Pao­ning, Si­chuan.

He re­turned to Eng­land for me­di­cal rea­sons in 1928, ex­pect­ing to stay on­ly a short time, but he stayed to ed­it Chi­na’s Mill­ions. He al­so served as Ex­am­in­ing Chap­lain to the Bi­shop of West Chi­na (1928–36).

He went on to serve as Con­se­crat­ed Bi­shop of East Szech­wan at Nan­chung (1934–40); Ge­ne­ral Di­rect­or of the Chi­na In­land Mis­sion (1940–51); vi­car of New Mil­ver­ton, Leam­ing­ton Spa (1953–60); and rec­tor of St. Pe­ter, Dray­ton, Ox­ford (1960–63).

Houghton re­tired in 1963, and he and his wife lived in Park­stone, Poole.