Grace Dyer Taylor

Grace Dyer Taylor was the eldest surviving daughter of James Hudson Taylor and Maria Jane Dyer, Christian missionaries to China. The event of her death of meningitis at the age of eight near Hangzhou has been cited by mission historians such as Ruth Tucker, Roger Steer, and John Pollock among others as being a turning point in the history of the China Inland Mission.

Grace was born in Ningbo during the Second Opium War, the day after rioting broke out in parts of the city. The Taylors had only one means of escape if the church building where they lived ever came under attack a rope hanging from a second story window down to the narrow canal behind their home. The last instance that they came close to needing it was the day before Grace was born.

Source: Wikipedia