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Wellesley C. Bailey (1846-1937) was the founder of the international charity The Leprosy Mission. [1] In India, in the 1860s, he witnessed the severe consequences of the disease and vowed to make caring for those struggling with leprosy his life's work. [2] The Mission is still active today. [3]
Wellesley Bailey was born in Ireland in 1846. [4] He grew up in Abbeyleix, Queens County (now County Laois) where his father was an estate manager for the Cosby family. [4] He and his three brothers attended boarding school at Kilkenny College. [5]
During his childhood, Ireland was in the midst of the Great Famine. [6] Over one million people emigrated from Ireland during the late 1840s. [6] North America and the colonies were the favored destinations of those who could afford to leave. Baily dreamed of finding a new, more promising life, in distant lands [7] and in 1866 he set out to find his fortune in the goldfields of Australia. He was unsuccessful and returned to Dublin three years later. A few months later, he sailed to Faizabad in northern India to join his brother in the Indian police force
Although Bailey had attended a Church of Ireland church as a child, he had not taken the Christian faith seriously. [5] As he left Gravesend to sail to Australia, fog delayed the departure of his ship. A childhood girlfriend had asked him to attend a church whenever he could, and he used the time to visit Gravesend Parish church. There, he says he had a sense of God's presence in a way he'd never known before and he committed his life to Christ. [7]
When Bailey reached Faizabad in 1869, his brother had been moved to the north west of the country and he found himself alone. [8] He put aside his original intention to join the police and began to learn Hindi. He lodged with an old German Lutheran missionary who was able to teach him the local language. At this time he began to feel that God was calling him to missionary work and he applied to work with the American Presbyterian Mission. They accepted him and sent him as a teacher to one of their schools in Ambala in the state of Punjab, north India.
The leader of the American Mission in Ambala was Dr. J.H. Morrison. Bailey began to hear from his colleagues about how Dr. Morrison 'looked after some beggars who were lepers'. At this point, he had no idea what this meant as he had only heard about leprosy and 'lepers' from Bible stories. Dr Morrison invited him to visit the beggars' huts with him and Bailey was quite shocked when he saw the people's clawed hands and disfigured faces. [9]
Afterwards, he wrote:
'I almost shuddered, yet I was at the same time fascinated, and I felt that if there was ever a Christlike work in the world it was to go amongst these poor sufferers and bring them the consolation of the gospel.' [10]
While Bailey had been in India, he had been corresponding with the childhood girlfriend, Alice Grahame, who had encouraged him to go to church. In one letter he proposed marriage and they became engaged. [11] In 1870 Alice sailed to India and they were married later that year in Bombay Cathedral. [12] Unfortunately the dry heat of the Punjab affected Alice's health badly. Two years after she arrived it was clear that she would not be able to maintain a good quality of life in India; Bailey resigned from the American Mission and together they returned to Ireland. [13]
Having to return to Ireland was a deep disappointment for Bailey. He used his time in Ireland to talk to people about the problems faced by those with leprosy in India.
In 1874 friends of the Baileys, the Pim sisters, invited them to stay with them in Dublin. [14] The sisters then invited some of their friends to join them and asked Bailey to describe his work with leprosy-affected people. For many people this was the first time they had heard about modern leprosy.
A larger venue than the Pims' sisters living room was found and Bailey talked about his work to a wider audience. [15] He explained to people about some of the financial needs: 'For as little as £5 an adult leper can be cared for in an asylum, and a child for much less than that.' [14] Bailey's talks were also produced in booklet form, entitled Lepers in India. It soon sold out and had to be reprinted. The Pim sisters hesitantly agreed to try and raise £30 a year for leprosy work in India. [16]
Alice's health had significantly improved and the couple were able to return to India in 1875. Bailey had been appointed a lay-missionary with the Church of Scotland. [17] Initially, he focused on preaching and spent his spare time working for patients with leprosy, using some of the funds sent over to India by the Pim sisters to build shelters. His divided loyalties caused tension between Bailey and the Scottish Mission. [18] In 1878 he was given permission to take a month's leave and he returned to Ireland. [18]
When Bailey was in Ireland, the Mission to Lepers became properly formalised. [19] He reported that the mission was caring for about 100 leprosy-affected people, mostly in north India. [20] Charlotte Pim informed the new committee that they were raising about £900 a year. [20] Bailey was appointed the first secretary and treasurer to work from India. [20]
The Baileys and their three children went back to India in 1879. [21] At this stage, he was still combining his work for the Church of Scotland Mission with his unpaid work as secretary for the Mission to Lepers. [21]
In 1882, Alice's health again became fragile. The Scottish Mission board ordered them home and took Bailey off their missionary lists. [21] Later that year the Baileys moved to Edinburgh where he took up a position as secretary of a charity that worked with women in India. [20] He continued his work with the Mission to Lepers and as the income continued to increase, it became possible to extend the work further.
In 1886, he published A Glimpse at the Indian Mission Field and Leper Asylums. [22]
In 1886, Bailey gave up his post with the Scottish charity and was appointed full-time secretary of The Mission to Lepers in India. [23] That same year, he and Alice set off for a tour of India to see for themselves the vast needs of those with leprosy throughout the whole country. They did not return until the spring of 1887.
Bailey's tour of India had highlighted to him how great the need for The Mission to Lepers work was. [24] He had witnessed other missionaries' attempts to care for those with leprosy, often without the support of their Mission organisation. When he visited projects, Bailey was seen as the expert and also a source of financial support. [24] Steadily, income to the Mission to Lepers grew. Three 'auxiliaries', or fundraising bases, sprung up in England (in Brighton, Cheltenham and Bolton). [25]
Bailey and Alice returned to Scotland in 1887 and he began to concentrate on growing the Mission. Letters were arriving from different centres in India asking for support for leprosy work. [26] Up until this point, Bailey had focused solely on India. Up until this point, he had focused solely on India but a letter arrived from Mandalay in Burma asking for help. The Mission to Lepers responded by providing funds for the building of a home for those with leprosy. By 1891, China was added to the list of countries that The Mission to Lepers was working in. [27]
In 1891, he published The lepers of our Indian empire: a visit to them in 1890-91. [28]
In 1892 he toured the US and Canada speaking about his work with patients with leprosy. [29]
In 1905 he became superintendent of the mission. [30]
In 1913 Bailey embarked on what was to be his last voyage to visit the work that The Mission to Lepers had started. [31] Bailey and Alice journeyed through China, then on to New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, back to China and then on to Malaysia, Singapore and India. [31] During this tour he gave over 150 addresses, met with many government officials and visited leprosy homes everywhere. [31]
When World War I broke out in 1914 Bailey's son, Dermot, was killed in the fighting. [32]
In 1917, at the age of 71, Bailey retired from his work with the Mission. [30] At that time, the Mission to Lepers was working with over 14,000 leprosy-affected people in 12 countries. [33]
In one of his last speeches before his retirement, he said: 'The Mission has been born and cradled in prayer. It has been brought up on prayer; it has been nourished on prayer; and prayer has been at the bottom of its success since the first moments of its life.'
His granddaughter later wrote about him: 'He was not a saint, nor even a clever man... But I do not ever remember hearing from him an ungenerous remark, or seeing him angry apart from minor irritations. His great gift was single-mindedness, and a simplicity that perhaps could not see the difficulties which a more sophisticated mind might see.' [34]
Wellesley Bailey died in 1937, aged 91. [35]
Before the birth of the Mission to Lepers, support for leprosy work was not very high on people's agendas. Bailey saw a huge need when he first visited the leprosy huts in Ambala and set about raising awareness of the plight of those with leprosy, which subsequently raised financial support allowing the work to grow and continue. [36]
In 1965 The Mission changed its name from 'The Mission to Lepers' to 'The Leprosy Mission' to avoid the negative connotations of the word 'leper'. The Leprosy Mission exists to this day. [37]
In 1999, the Leprosy Mission created the Wellesley Bailey Awards. These honour people who have overcome the social stigma and physical challenges of leprosy and made extraordinary contributions to society. [38]
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a long-term infection by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae or Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Infection can lead to damage of the nerves, respiratory tract, skin, and eyes. This nerve damage may result in a lack of ability to feel pain, which can lead to the loss of parts of a person's extremities from repeated injuries or infection through unnoticed wounds. An infected person may also experience muscle weakness and poor eyesight. Leprosy symptoms may begin within one year, but, for some people, symptoms may take 20 years or more to occur.
Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai, SS.CC. or Saint Damien De Veuster, born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious institute. He was recognized for his ministry, which he led from 1873 until his death in 1889, in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to people with leprosy, who lived in government-mandated medical quarantine in a settlement on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokaʻi.
Murlidhar Devidas Amte, popularly known as Baba Amte, was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and empowerment of people suffering from leprosy. He has received numerous awards and prizes including the Padma Vibhushan, the Dr. Ambedkar International Award, the Gandhi Peace Prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Templeton Prize and the Jamnalal Bajaj Award. He is also known as the modern Gandhi of India.
A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. M. leprae, the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East Africa through the Middle East, Europe, and Asia by the 5th century before reaching the rest of the world more recently. Historically, leprosy was believed to be extremely contagious and divinely ordained, leading to enormous stigma against its sufferers. Other severe skin diseases were frequently conflated with leprosy and all such sufferers were kept away from the general public, although some religious orders provided medical care and treatment. Recent research has shown M. leprae has maintained a similarly virulent genome over at least the last thousand years, leaving it unclear which precise factors led to leprosy's near elimination in Europe by 1700. A growing number of cases following the first wave of European colonization, however, led to increased attention towards leprosy during the New Imperialism of the late 19th century. Following G.A. Hansen's discovery of the role of M. leprae in the disease, the First International Leprosy Conference held in Berlin in 1897 renewed interest and investment in the isolation of lepers throughout the European colonial empires. Although Western countries now generally treat cases of leprosy individually on an outpatient basis, traditional isolated colonies continue to exist in India, China, and some other countries.
Graham Stuart Staines was an Australian Christian missionary, who along with his two sons, Philip and Timothy, was burnt to death in India by members of a Hindu Nationalist group named Bajrang Dal. In 2003, Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh was convicted of leading the murderers and was sentenced to life in prison.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park located in Kalaupapa, Hawaiʻi, on the island of Molokaʻi. Coterminous with the boundaries of Kalawao County and primarily on Kalaupapa peninsula, it was established by Congress in 1980 to expand upon the earlier National Historic Landmark site of the Kalaupapa Leper Settlement. It is administered by the National Park Service. Its goal is to preserve the cultural and physical settings of the two leper colonies on the island of Molokaʻi, which operated from 1866 to 1969 and had a total of 8500 residents over the decades.
Batavia on the Coppename River in Suriname is a former cocoa plantation, military post and state leper colony of the Dutch colonists. Batavia functioned as a leper colony from 1824 to 1897, after which the location was completely abandoned. Since 2001 it has been redeveloped as a place of pilgrimage and tourism.
Molokai: The Story of Father Damien is a 1999 biographical film of Father Damien, a Belgian priest working at the Kalaupapa Leprosy Settlement on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. It was directed by Paul Cox.
Leprosy stigma is a type of social stigma, a strong negative feeling towards a person with leprosy relating to their moral status in society. It is also referred to as leprosy-related stigma, leprostigma, and stigma of leprosy. Since ancient times, leprosy instilled the practice of fear and avoidance in many societies because of the associated physical disfigurement and lack of understanding behind its cause. Because of the historical trauma the word "leprosy" invokes, the disease is now referred to as Hansen's disease, named after Gerhard Armauer Hansen who discovered Mycobacterium leprae, the bacterial agent that causes Hansen's disease. Those who have suffered from Hansen's disease describe the impact of social stigma as far worse than the physical manifestations despite it being only mildly contagious and pharmacologically curable. This sentiment is echoed by Weis and Ramakrishna, who noted that "the impact of the meaning of the disease may be a greater source of suffering than symptoms of the disease".
The Leper War on Kauaʻi also known as the Koolau Rebellion, Battle of Kalalau or the short name, the Leper War. Following the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the stricter government enforced the 1865 "Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy" carried out by Attorney General and President of the Board of Health William Owen Smith. A revolt broke out in Kauaʻi, against the forced relocation of all infected by the disease to the Kalaupapa Leprosy Colony of Kalawao on the island of Molokai.
The Leprosy Mission is a Christian international NGO. They are the largest and oldest organisation working in the fight against leprosy and are working towards the goal of zero leprosy transmission by 2035.
Gerhard Fischer was a German diplomat, ambassador and humanitarian who received the 1997 Gandhi Peace Prize in recognition of his work for leprosy and polio-affected patients in India.
William Carleton Irvine was a missionary, writer and the founding editor of the Indian Christian magazine.
The history of leprosy was traced to its origins by an international team of 22 geneticists using comparative genomics of the worldwide distribution of Mycobacterium leprae. Monot et al. (2005) determined that leprosy originated in East Africa or the Near East and traveled with humans along their migration routes, including those of trade in goods and slaves. The four strains of M. leprae are based in specific geographic regions where each predominantly occurs:
P. K. Gopal is an Indian social worker and a co-founder of International Association for Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement (IDEA), an international advocacy group, known for his services towards eradication of leprosy, especially in India. He was honored by the Government of India, in 2012, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri.
Martha Alma Wall was an American Christian medical missionary, philosopher, nurse, and author who is best known for her humanitarian work providing health care to lepers in British Nigeria during the 1930s and 1940s with the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM). She was born in Hillsboro, Kansas to a traditional Christian family and was a devout member of both the non-denominational Salina Bible Church and the Baptist Women's Union. She became a registered nurse and studied theology at Tabor College before leaving for a medical mission in British Nigeria in 1938. After returning to America, Wall worked as a Clinical Supervisor of Vocational Nurses for Kern General Hospital during the 1950s and as an instructor and director of nursing services for Bakersfield College during the 1960s. Throughout her adult life, she was a dedicated member of the California State Licensed Vocational Nurses Association. Wall is noted as the founder of the Children's Welfare Center at the Katsina Leper Settlement. She documented her missionary work in Sub-Saharan Africa in the book she authored Splinters from an African Log, which was published in 1960.
Ruth Sabina Heathcock BEM was an award-winning remote area nurse in the Northern Territory of Australia who specialised in the treatment of leprosy. She received an Order of the British Empire for rowing 145 kilometres to save a man who accidentally shot himself.
Dr Ernest Woodward Price MD, FRCSE, DTM&H, OBE was a missionary doctor, orthopaedic surgeon, leprosy specialist and the discoverer of podoconiosis, one of the neglected tropical diseases. A list of his publications is available online.
Nora Neve (1873-1952) was a British nurse and medical missionary with the Church Missionary Society who pioneered missionary nursing. Her work was instrumental in the development of the Kashmir Mission Hospital in Srinagar. She was the hospital's first Superintendent of Nursing and led education and cleanliness initiatives. Neve also recorded and published records of Kashmiri hospital practices in the American Journal of Nursing, contributing to the tool kits of other missionaries and preserving a part of Kashmir's cultural history.
James Pim was the key person to the establishment and operation of the first passenger railway in Ireland, the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR), and the first commercial atmospheric railway in the world, the Dalkey Atmospheric Railway.
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