Adeney Views

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Adeney told the Sunday Mirror: d"It doesn't interest me that I'm going to be the oldest mum in the country. It's not my physical age that's important - it's how I feel inside.f" The Managing Director of a Mildenhall, Suffolk-based firm, - which produces plastic and textile products - Adeney still works full-time, and lives in a 3pound;400,000 home in nearby Newmarket.

Adeney's neighbors talk of her as an ambitious businesswoman who, two decades back, had a colorful marriage to Robert Adeney, the ex-Chairman of Swaine Adeney Brigg and Sons - the London-based luxury leather and hunting goods firm, which supplied horse whips to the Royal Family. The couple separated within six months, and Robert Adeney, now 70, has probably moved to the South of France.

Adeney was born into a British missionary family. His parents worked in Romania with the London Jews' Society (later known as the Church's Ministry among the Jews) and an aunt and uncle worked in Egypt. During his youth, family life was limited, with his father in Bucharest and his mother and three brothers in England. Years in boarding school aggravated the separation. He studied theology at Cambridge, attended the China Inland Mission (CIM) training school in London for a year, and sailed for China in 1934. There he was involved in church planting in central China until Pearl Harbor (1941). This was followed by joint service with the CIM and Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) in the United States and England until the end of World War II made return to China possible. He led student work with the China IVCF until the Maoist triumph, then worked again with the U.S. IVCF.

David Adeney came from a family with a rich Christian ministry and missionary heritage. His ancestors included the Puritan leader William Baxter. His great grandfather was a tailor whose real passion was for open-air preaching. His parents worked among Jews in Romania; his uncle and aunt served as missionaries in Egypt.