The Rev. Evelyn May Ashcroft, retired deaconess in missionary service for 39 years, died May 19 in a hospital in Monterey, CA, at the age of 93.

Deaconess Ashcroft was born in Liverpool, England. She was educated in England and the United States, and received the M.A. degree in history from the University of California at Berkeley in 1926. She served as an appointed missionary of the Episcopal Church, or as a volunteer, in China, the Philippines, and Burundi until 1980. She passed canonical examinations in a Japanese internment camp near Baguio, Philippines, and was liberated at Old Bililid prison during the battle of Manila. After repatriation in 1945, she was ordained to the diaconate in 1946. She returned to Shanghai where she remained until 1951. She then became directress of St. Hilda's Training Center for Women Church Workers, Tadian, Mountain Province, the Philippines. The Episcopal Church Women of Tadian have requested that Deaconess Evelyn's ashes be sent there for burial. Survivors include cousins in Manchester, England.