Anglicans in Palestine?

by jimros

According to the 1922 census of Palestine, there were several thousand members of the "Church of England" living in Palestine:

https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n60/mode/1up

Surely British soldiers were not counted in the census.

How did there come to be that many Anglicans in Palestine? How did this come to be? Was there an active Anglican missionary presence in Mandatory Palestine? Were they converting native Christians, or Muslims and Jews, or everyone?

dagaboy

Follow up question: It is worth noting that the landmark Palestinian intellectual and activist Edward Said was from an Anglican family and educated in an Anglican school. He was not, however, religious. Was the Palestinian Anglican community culturally or economically distinct from the community at large, the way Ashkenazim were in western Europe?