Catherine Ironside

Catherine Mary Ironside (1870–1921) was a medical missionary whose primary work was focused in Iran. Originally trained as a nurse and later on as a midwife, she eventually became a physician after graduating from the London School of Medicine. After graduation, she went to Persia and worked in a variety of hospitals run by the Church Missionary Society.

Early life Ironside was born in 1870 in North Finchley, Middlesex, England to Mary Cane and Edmund Ironside. Growing up, she lived in a house with her sister Grace Eulie Ironside who later became a local school teacher. Ironside originally trained as a nurse in the Burslem Cottage Hospital which she entered in 1892. In 1895, she went to Clapham Maternity Hospital where she became certified as a midwife. There were no corridors between the two sections which presented a hostile work environment during the harsher seasons. She worked in Persia for a total of 11 years, although she was driven out with the rest of the European residents in 1915, as a result of the violence emerging from the Persian campaign of World War I.

While on hiatus from her work in Persia, she worked as a medical officer at the London Temperance Hospital and for her work she was awarded the O.B.E or Officer of the Order of the British Empire. On February 21, 1920, Ironside boarded the Morea and headed off to Bombay, from where she made her way back to Persia to continue her missionary work with the Kerman Medical Mission returning again to Isfahan.

Ironside published works about her experiences, including Open Doors in Persia (1916) and Persian Patients (1921), both of which provide first hand accounts of the medical and missionary work during her life. The CMS strong evangelist mission meant many of the CMS doctors did not work exclusively within the hospitals and would often make home visits to higher ranking individuals in the local tribes, especially the Bakhtiaris, a tent-dwelling tribe who lived in the highlands outside of Ispahan, who not only developed an important relationship with CMS but also with the British.

The baptismal font cover in the Christ Church North Finchley is carved in her memory and represents both Christian and Persian cultures.