DUFF, ALEXANDER. – Protestant missionary, b. in Scotland in 1806, d. there in 1878. Sent by the Scottish Church to India, 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 mission’s work, he was back in India in 1839.
When the Church of Scotland split, he joined the Free Church of Scotland and had to start anew, since the mission’s properties belonged to the established Church. To restore his failing health, he made another trip home in 1850 and was elected “moderator” of the Free Church. Recovered, he visited the United States in 1854 and returned to Calcutta in 1856, just before the uprising of 1857, during which he remained at his post. His mission became renowned for its many schools, the conversion of some Brahmins, and the introduction of the women’s society “Zenana Bible and Medical Mission,” designed to enter households and labor for the conversion of Indian women. Exhausted, he revisited his homeland in 1864, where he was still able to found a school of evangelical theology, promote his church’s missions—especially those in Central Africa—and work toward the union of the Scottish Presbyterian Churches.