Edith Mary Brown

2021-06-04T08:43:52Z

106.210.72.33:

{{short description|British medical doctor and Christian missionary to India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Dame Edith Brown
| honorific_suffix = [[Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire|DBE]]
| image = Dame Edith Brown.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Edith Mary Brown
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1864|3|24|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Whitehaven]], [[Cumberland]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1956|12|6|1864|3|24|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Srinagar]], [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Jammu and Kashmir]], [[India]]
| alma_mater = [[Girton College, Cambridge]]
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| occupation = Medical doctor and educator
| years_active = [[Christian Medical College Ludhiana]]
}}

'''Dame Edith Mary Brown''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE|LRCP|LRCSE|LRFPS}} (24 March 1864 – 6 December 1956) was an English doctor and medical educator. She founded the [[Christian Medical College Ludhiana]] in 1894, the first medical training facility for women in Asia, and served as principal of the college for half a century. Brown was a pioneer in the instruction of Indian female doctors and midwives with modern western methods.<ref name="times">{{cite news |title=Dame Edith Mary Brown - Training of Indian Doctors |work=[[The Times]] |page=14 |date=10 December 1956 }}</ref>

==Biography==

Brown was born in [[Whitehaven]], [[Cumbria|Cumberland]] in 1864, the fourth of five sisters. Her father died when she was young, and the family moved to London, where her mother was born. She attended [[Croydon High School]].<ref name="times"/> Her older sister was a missionary, which led to Brown developing an interest in medicine and missionary work.<ref name=windsor>{{cite book|last1=Windsor|first1=Laura Lynn|title=Women in Medicine: An Encyclopedia|date=2002|isbn=1-57607-392-0|page=38|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QtZtkf35CF0C&pg=PA38|access-date=5 January 2016}}</ref>

She graduated from [[Girton College, Cambridge]], one of the first women to be admitted to the Honours Degree Examination at the [[University of Cambridge]] in 1882. After graduating she studied medicine at the [[London School of Medicine for Women]] and in [[Edinburgh]], where she qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1891.<ref name=windsor/> The [[Baptist Missionary Society]] sent Brown to [[Mumbai|Bombay]], where she arrived on 9 November 1891.<ref name="times"/>

Brown was shocked by medical conditions in India and felt a need to educate women, particularly midwives.<ref name=windsor/>

{{quote|"At that time by age-long tradition the orthodox Hindu woman would on no account have the services of a medical man, whether trained in modern or in the ancient systems of medicine followed in India; she was dependent for help in her confinement on the services of the superstitious dai or nurse, who was always of low caste and, from a surgical point of view, unbelievably dirty. Trained Indian women doctors or nurses were almost unknown, and throughout the peninsula only one or two women's hospitals existed."|''The Times'', Obituary of Dame Edith Mary Brown, 10 December 1956<ref name="times"/>}}

After two years with various missions, Brown set out on her own. In January 1894, a woman in [[Bristol]] donated £50 (£{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|50|1894}}}} today) to help Brown rent an old schoolhouse in [[Ludhiana]], [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]].<ref name="times"/> She organised a Christian medical training center for women, the North India School of Medicine for Christian Women, starting with four students and four faculty.<ref name="mundus">{{cite web|title=Ludhiana Medical College|url=http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/4/1341.htm|publisher=Mundus Gateway|access-date=5 January 2016}}</ref>

The medical school, the first for women in India, grew into a full college with medical, nursing and pharmacy schools, and a hospital with 200 beds. The college was supported by significant grants from the Punjab governments, as well as women's auxiliaries in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow as well as Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand.<ref name="times"/> The school was renamed Christian Medical College Ludhiana in 1911, though it had opened its doors to non-Christians since 1909.<ref name="aboutus">{{cite news|title=CMC's history|url=http://www.friendsofludhiana.org.uk/about-us/cmcs-history/|access-date=5 January 2016|publisher=[[Christian Medical College, Ludhiana]]}}</ref><ref name="mundus"/>

During the [[Partition of India#Punjab|partition of British India]] in 1947, Punjab was split between India and Pakistan, resulting in massacres of thousands in Ludhiana. Many Muslim employees of the college and hospital fled for Pakistan, while Sikh and Hindu refugees arrived over the border. Despite the violence, the college and hospital remained safe from attack.<ref name="times"/> The hospital became an emergency centre for the seriously injured.<ref name="aboutus"/>

By November 1951, on the 50th anniversary of Brown's arrival in India, the college had graduated 411 doctors, 143 nurses, 168 pharmacy dispensers and more than 1,000 midwives. Brown retired as principal in 1952 and moved to [[Jammu and Kashmir (state)|Kashmir]].<ref name="times"/>

==Damehood==
In the [[1932 New Year Honours]], Brown was made a [[Order of the British Empire|Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33785|supp=y|page=10|date=30 December 1931}}</ref>

==Death==
Brown died 6 December 1956 in [[Srinagar]], [[India]], aged 92.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*[[Francesca French]], ''Miss Brown's hospital: the story of the Ludhiana Medical College and Dame Edith Brown, D.B.E., its founder'', London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1954.
*Pat Barr, ''The Memsahibs; The Women of Victorian India''. New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1976

{{Protestant missions to India}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Edith Mary}}
[[Category:1864 births]]
[[Category:1956 deaths]]
[[Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Scientists from Ludhiana]]
[[Category:Baptist missionaries in India]]
[[Category:20th-century British medical doctors]]
[[Category:Christian medical missionaries]]
[[Category:Female Christian missionaries]]
[[Category:People from Whitehaven]]
[[Category:English Baptist missionaries]]
[[Category:English expatriates in India]]
[[Category:English women medical doctors]]
[[Category:20th-century women physicians]]
[[Category:20th-century English women]]
[[Category:20th-century English people]]

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Edith Mary Brown