KellyeZimmermann at 17:32, 22 March 2026

2026-03-22T17:32:44Z

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{{Short description|English missionary (c.1878–1966)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Marcella Sherwood
| image = 
| alt = 
| caption =
| birth_name = Frances Marcella Sherwood
| birth_date = {{circa}} 1878
| birth_place = [[Kimberworth]], [[Rotherham]], [[South Yorkshire]], England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1966|5|14|1878}}
| death_place =
| other_names =
| occupation = Missionary
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
'''Frances Marcella Sherwood''', commonly known as '''Marcella Sherwood''' (c.1878 – 14 May 1966), was an English missionary with the [[Church of England Zenana Missionary Society]], remembered for her connection to [[Reginald Dyer]]’s [[Crawling Order]] following her assault in [[Amritsar]] on 10 April 1919 during the Punjab disturbances.

==Early life==
Frances Marcella Sherwood, commonly known as Marcella,<ref name=Wagner.95>Wagner, pp. 95-97</ref> was born in early 1878 in [[Kimberworth]], [[Rotherham]], [[South Yorkshire]].<ref>Sheffield Archives; Sheffield, England; Parish Registers; Reference: PR116/1/3</ref> She was one of four daughters and two sons of Edward Purvis Sherwood, sometime rector of [[Baginton]], [[Warwick District|Warwick]].<ref name=Stafford1948>{{cite news |title=Lady doctor for Pakistan |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000525/19480109/010/0001 |access-date=11 September 2025 |work=Staffordshire Sentinel |date=9 January 1948 |page=1|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name=Rugely1966>{{cite news |title=Deaths |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003294/19660115/104/0007 |access-date=11 September 2025 |work=Rugeley Times |date=15 January 1966 |page=7|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Sherwood joined the [[Church of England Zenana Missionary Society]] in 1904, and was first posted to work at [[Batala]], Punjab, where she remained until being furloughed back to England in 1915.<ref name=Kenilworth1920>{{cite news |title=Baginton lady in an Indian riot |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003066/19200313/046/0003 |access-date=11 September 2025 |work=Kenilworth Advertiser |date=13 March 1920 |page=3|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref> When she returned to India, she joined the mission at Amritsar.<ref name=Kenilworth1920/> For a short while she taught at a school for girls in Singapore.<ref name=RugelyMay1966>{{cite news |title=Funeral of missionary worker |work=Rugely Times |date=28 May 1966 |page=9}}</ref>

==Amritsar 1919==
On 10 April 1919, Sherwood, then aged about 40 years, and superintendent of the city mission schools, cycled alone into the Ahluwia neighbourhood of Amritsar to close Bagian di Katra School, one of five schools she was responsible for.<ref name=Wagner.95/> Although warned by locals not to go further, she continued until she had to abandon her bike and run, until she was caught and beaten by kicks, sticks and shoes by a group of Indian men who left her once they believed her to be dead.<ref name=Wagner.95/><ref name=Wagner.249>Wagner, p. 249.</ref>

On 18 April, Deputy Superintendent of police, [[Reginald C. A. Plomer]], was sent with military troops to the street where Sherwood was attacked, with the task to identify the attackers, by interrogating its residents .<ref name=Wagner.192>Wagner, pp. 192-199</ref> Dyer visited Sherwood at Ram Bagh on 19 April, and in response, created the [[Crawling Order]].<ref name=Wagner.192/><ref name=CovHer1921>{{cite news |title=Warwickshire villages: no.16 Baginton |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000384/19210715/073/0009 |access-date=11 September 2025 |work=Coventry Herald |date=15 July 1921 |page=9|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Sherwood declined the full compensation offered from the British Government in India.<ref name=RugelyMay1966/><ref name=LDC1920>{{cite news |title=English woman assaulted by natives wants no compensation |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0005049/19200226/104/0006 |access-date=11 September 2025 |work=London Daily Chronicle |date=26 February 1920 |page=6|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref> When asked by the ''Coventry Standard'' as to why she declined it she replied "I hear not the cries of 'kill kill' in that street but the shouts of leave her alone, she is a woman, raised in another street. It was Indians who rescued me, an Indian house that gave me shelter, Indian hands that first dressed my wounds, that is full compensation. I would not have it otherwise".<ref name=Kenilworth1920/> She accepted ₹1,500 in compensation for medical expenses and for her damaged bicycle and watch.<ref name=Dhillon2024>{{cite journal |last1=Dhillon |first1=Hardeep |title=Imperial Violence, Law, and Compensation in the Age of Empire, 1919–1922 |journal=The Historical Journal |date=June 2024 |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=512–537 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X23000560 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/imperial-violence-law-and-compensation-in-the-age-of-empire-19191922/87CA76CCDC42510B5D5497BE6469141D#fn17 |language=en |issn=0018-246X|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==Later life==
Once recovered, Sherwood returned to India to work in Lahore, and retired from her missionary to assist refugees of [[Partition of India|partition]].<ref name=RugelyMay1966/> In her later years she lived in England with her sisters [[Edith Grace Sherwood|Grace]] and Amy.<ref>{{cite news |title=Lifetime devotion to the healing sick |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003679/19611202/213/0014 |access-date=14 September 2025 |work=Staffordshire Newsletter |date=2 December 1961|page=14|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

==Popular culture==
Sherwood is mentioned in a ''A Passage to India''.<ref name=Beer1985>{{cite book |last1=Das |first1=G. K. |editor1-last=Beer |editor1-first=J. |title=A Passage to India: Essays in Interpretation |date=1985 |publisher=Palgeave MacMillan |location=Basingstoke |isbn=978-0-333-40457-7 |pages=1-15 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=THyxCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA1|language=en |chapter=1. A Passage to India: A socio-historical study}}</ref><ref name="Rawa2013">{{cite book |last1=Rawa |first1=Julia |title=The Imperial Quest and Modern Memory from Conrad to Greene |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1-135-49432-2 |pages=61-84 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nab7AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 |language=en |chapter=4. A Passage to India: Double turnes in Mosque, Cave, and Temple}}</ref>

==Death==
Sherwood outlived her sisters and died on 14 May 1966.<ref name=Rugely.Aug1966>{{cite news |title=Deaths|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003294/19660827/094/0005 |access-date=11 September 2025 |work=Rugeley Times |date=27 August 1966 |page=5|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Her funeral took place at [[Church of St Nicholas, Mavesyn Ridware|Church of St Nicholas]], Staffordshire.<ref name=RugelyMay1966/>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book |last1=Wagner |first1=Kim A. |title=Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear & the Making of a Massacre |date=2019 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-24546-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bziIDwAAQBAJ|language=en}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherwood, Marcella}}
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:1878 births]]
[[Category:British missionaries in India]]
[[Category:People from Rotherham]]

Marcella Sherwood - Revision history

KellyeZimmermann at 17:32, 22 March 2026