St Colm's College was established in Edinburgh in 1894 as a missionary training college for women, with Annie Hunter Small as its first principal. [1]
In August 2010, the College's property would eventually be sold off after the Church of Scotland determined it could no longer afford to maintain it. [2]
The College was first established in October 1894 as the Women's Missionary Training Institute as part of the Free Church of Scotland. After the Free Church merged with the United Presbyterian Church to form the new United Free Church of Scotland, the College would be renamed as the Women's Missionary College in 1908. Subsequent to this, the United Free Church of Scotland would merge with the Church of Scotland in 1929, and the College would once again be renamed as the Church of Scotland Women's Missionary College. In 1960, the Church of Scotland would rename it St Colm's College. By 1998, it would be renamed St Colm's International House and used as accommodations for students from the majority world. [3] [4]
Much of the vision of training at St Colm's was driven by the work of its first principal, Annie Hunter Small, a Scot and a former Zenana missionary worker in India. [5] Teaching for the College brought together a mixture of theoretical and practical skills, and many of the female students enrolled in classes at New College. [4]
Women trained at the College would come from a variety of denominational backgrounds and eventually work in the Scottish Highlands and amongst Jewish communities, but also overseas in Africa, China, and India. [5]
New College is a historic building at the University of Edinburgh which houses the university's School of Divinity. It is one of the largest and most renowned centres for studies in Theology and Religious Studies in the United Kingdom. Students in M.A., M.Th. and Ph.D. degree programmes come from over 30 countries, and are taught by almost 40 full-time members of the academic staff. New College is situated on The Mound in the north of Edinburgh's Old Town.
John Baillie was a Scottish theologian, a Church of Scotland minister and brother of theologian Donald Macpherson Baillie.
The London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW) established in 1874 was the first medical school in Britain to train women as doctors. The patrons, vice-presidents, and members of the committee that supported and helped found the London School of Medicine for Women wanted to provide educated women with the necessary facilities for learning and practicing midwifery and other branches of medicine while also promoting their future employment in the fields of midwifery and other fields of treatment for women and children.
The Moray House School of Education and Sport is a school within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. It is based in historic buildings on the Holyrood Campus, located between the Canongate and Holyrood Road.
The Reverend Colin Forrester-Paton, born at Alloa, Scotland, was a Church of Scotland missionary in Ghana and later Chaplain to H.M. The Queen in Scotland.
The Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, also known as the Church of England Zenana Mission, was a British Anglican missionary society established to spread Christianity in India. It would later expand its Christian missionary work into Japan and Qing Dynasty China. In 1957 it was absorbed into the Church Missionary Society (CMS).
Stephen Hislop was a Scottish missionary who worked with the Free Church in India, an educationist and a keen geologist. Hislop College, Nagpur is named after him, as is the green mineral Hislopite. Among his geological discoveries is the fossil reptile, Brachyops laticeps which he found in his geological explorations of the Nagpur region.
Thomas Torrance (1871–1959), born in Shotts, Scotland, was a Scottish Protestant missionary to China. He was first sent there by the China Inland Mission (CIM), and later by The American Bible Society. He married Annie Elizabeth Sharp (1883–1980) of the CIM in 1911. He was the father of the 20th century theologian, Thomas F. Torrance.
Morningside Cemetery is a cemetery in south Edinburgh. It was established in 1878 by the Metropolitan Cemetery Company, originally just outwith the then city boundary, the nearest suburb then being Morningside. It extends to just over 13 acres in area. The cemetery contains 81 war graves. Although arguably visually uninspiring the cemetery contains the graves of several important female figures; including a female air commandant, Scotland's first female surgeon, the first female Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, a Nobel Prize winner and many church missionaries.
The zenana missions were outreach programmes established in British India with the aim of converting women to Christianity. From the mid 19th century, they sent female missionaries into the homes of Indian women, including the private areas of houses - known as zenana - that male visitors were not allowed to see. Gradually these missions expanded from purely evangelical work to providing medical and education services. Hospitals and schools established by these missions are still active, making the zenana missions an important part of the history of Christianity in India.
Ann Small or Ann Hunter "Annie" Small was a Scottish missionary to India and a Scottish educationist who trained women to work in Christian missions.
Elizabeth Glendinning Kirkwood Hewat was the first woman to graduate BD and PhD at New College, University of Edinburgh, a missionary, a campaigner for women's equality in the Church of Scotland, and a historian of Scottish missions.
Anne Hepburn was a Church of Scotland missionary and a teacher, feminist and social justice advocate and wife and mother. She served as National President of the Church of Scotland's Women's Guild in the early 1980s, where she led the debate on the issue of the "Motherhood of God".
Mary Irene Levison was the first person to petition the Church of Scotland for the ordination of women to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in 1963. This was achieved five years later and Levison became a minister in 1973. In 1991 she was appointed as Queen's Chaplain, the first woman to hold the position.
Marjorie Prentice "Madge" Saunders was a Jamaican Christian minister and community worker. She was the first woman in the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to serve as a parish minister.
John Fordyce (1819–1902) was a Christian missionary, evangelical minister and administrator who launched the female education initiative in India known as the Zenana Missions. He has been credited with introducing the rickshaw to India.
Thomas Smith was a Scottish missionary and mathematician who was instrumental in establishing India's zenana missions in 1854. He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland 1891/92.
Colin Strachan Valentine FRSE LLD LRCP LRCSE was a Scottish missionary physician who founded the first medical missionary training institution in India and advocated for the inclusion of women in the medical field. Valentine attended the University of Edinburgh and additionally was a student in the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. Valentine served in the Medical Mission House in Cowgate until the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church assigned him as medical missionary to India in 1861. In India, Valentine played an important role in improving the health and society of the regions of Mewar and Jeypore. He founded several educational institutions in Jeypore and instituted significant reforms and policies. After a brief return to Scotland, Valentine established the first medical missionary training institution in India called the Agra Medical Missionary Training Institution in 1881, which educated both male and female students.
The New College Settlement was a student settlement based on the Pleasance in the Southside of Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by students of New College in 1893, its work continued until 1952.
Beatrice Marian Smyth (1894-1965) was an American physician and missionary who was a member of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS). Smyth was in charge of the CEZMS mission in Rainawari, a locality in Srinagar City in Jammu and Kashmir state, India. She led the opening of the Elizabeth Newman Hospital in January 1937, and started a training school for nurses in Kashmir.
