DUFF, ALEXANDER

DUFF, ALEXANDER. — Protestant missionary, born in Scotland in 1806, died there in 1878. Sent to India by the Church of Scotland, he arrived there in 1830 after a shipwreck, learned the language, and began establishing schools. After a brief return to his homeland to promote the work of the mission, he was back in India by 1839.

When the Church of Scotland split, he joined the Free Church of Scotland (Free Church) and had to begin again from the ground up, since the mission’s properties belonged to the established Church. To regain his failing health, he made another journey to his homeland in 1850, and was elected “moderator” of the Free Church. Once recovered, he visited the United States in 1854 and returned to Calcutta in 1856, shortly before the uprising of 1857, during which he remained at his post. His mission became famous for its many schools, for the conversion of several Brahmins, and for introducing the women’s organization “Zenana Bible and Medical Mission,” with the aim of gaining entry into families and working for the conversion of Indian women. Weakened by exhaustion, he revisited his homeland in 1864, where he was still able to establish a school of evangelical theology, take an interest in the missions of his Church, especially those in Central Africa, and work for the union of the Scottish Presbyterian Churches.

(photograph: Associated Screen News Ltd)
DU FROST DE LAJEMMERAIS — Orphanage of Notre-Dame de Liesse (1914) and Crèche d'Youville (1924), works for children initiated by D. F. and now continued by her Daughters, the Grey Nuns — Côte de Liesse, Montréal.