Bott, George Ernest, 1892-1952

George Ernest Bott was born in Blackwater, Ontario in 1892 and was a missionary in Japan for 31 years. He graduated from Victoria University in Arts and Divinity and was ordained as a Minister of the Methodist Church in 1921. Shortly afterward he married Edith Clark, and they left almost immediately for missionary work in Japan, stationed first to Tokyo and then to Kofu. They remained there until 1942 when, on the outbreak of the Pacific War, they were repatriated via the "Gripsholm." After the war, in 1946, Dr. Bott was asked to take charge of LARA (Licensed Agencies for Relif in Asia) and became a field director of Church World Service in Japan, representing the United Church of Canada Board of Overseas Missions in its work for relief in Japan. He and another missionary were the first two foreign missionaries to return to Japan in March, 1946. Bott remained in Japan until his death on March 5, 1952.