Colin Strachan Valentine

Colin Strachan Valentine FRSE LLD LRCP LRCSE (7 January 1834 - 2 May 1905) was a Scottish missionary physician who founded the first medical missionary training institution in India and advocated for the inclusion of women in the medical field.

Education After his early schooling, Valentine was apprenticed to Mr. Blackhall, a chemist and druggist in Brechin. He then went to Falkirk to earn and save money for his college education. Due to illness, however, he was forced to spend his savings on his treatment. Valentine returned to Brechin, and began preaching and holding prayer meetings in a small vacant school under the Free Church. He also took photographs of people in the town. With preaching and photograph fees, he saved money to continue his education.

Personal life At Edinburgh University, Valentine met Dr. Somerville, who paid him to assist his son John Somerville in reading. He then married Dr. Somerville's daughter, Mary Somerville, on 8 October 1861. She caught "the cold" on their journey to Bombay, the first missionary station. She died on 23 February 1863 in a medical missionary's house in Bombay.

Valentine met Isabel Fraser in Dehradun in August 1868 while he was visiting mission schools in the area. She invited him to visit them in Mussourie. They began what was called a deep friendship and attended several parties together. They were engaged in November 1868 The couple had four daughters.

Isabel Fraser died on 15 July 1879. Valentine married his third wife, Janet Christie, on 7 July 1886.

Missionary Service

Work in Mewar

The United Presbyterian Church resolved to establish a mission in India in 1858, and chose Rajputana as its location. Dr. William Shoolbred was sent first, and other missionaries including Dr. John Robson were sent afterward. Valentine was appointed in 1861, and was first stationed in Beawar, Mewar. Upon his arrival and beginning his missionary medical work, the community received him and his fellow missionaries with suspicion. As he and Dr. Shoolbred visited the surrounding villages and prescribed medications, they were able to gain the trust of these communities through their success in treating patients.

Valentine continued to do work in various cities of Mewar. He also became involved in services other than his medical missionary work. In 1864, he became the civil surgeon to the station of Benares and medical officer to the Ajmere and the Mewar police corps. In 1866, he traveled through Mewar with the Deputy Commissioner and vaccinated children, prescribed medications, and performed surgeries. He also preached sermons and provided education services. He wrote a tract on smallpox in Marwari and on cholera in Marwari and Persian Urdu. Valentine also prompted the government to appoint two native vaccinators, and he and the vaccinators vaccinated more than seven thousand children. The Maharaja requested Valentine to examine and treat his wife who was not cured by local traditional doctors. Valentine agreed and successfully treated the Maharani. In gratitude, the Maharaja asked Valentine to remain in Jeypore as his physician. In addition, the Maharaja gave him the colleges and educational institution, and offered a grant of 10,000 rupees for a library in the college and philosophical instruments. Valentine told him that he was a missionary, and that he would accept only if the Maharaja allowed him to carry on his missionary work and teach the doctrines of the Christian religion. Prior to this, the Jeypore state had not allowed any missionary to settle there. The Maharaja agreed and granted Valentine land to build a mission house. When it was erected, the Europeans were formed into a church in Jeypore. Valentine thus successfully brought the mission of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland to the city.

In May 1875, Valentine's work in Jeypore was recognized by the Foreign Mission Board of the United Presbyterian Church. Rev. Professor John Cairns motioned to ordain Valentine, and his ordination was unanimously carried out. While in Jeypore on 29 December 1869, Valentine wrote to the directors of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society to appeal to them about his plans for the Agra Medical Missionary Training Institution. He mentioned that they had collected a good sum of money and that the trustees of the Presbyterian Church in Agra had given them the church and other buildings, along with some money. He planned for the church to become a residence hall for the students and a dispensary. Valentine asked the directors to send and support a medical missionary to manage the Institution, and argued that the community would be in favor of his plans, citing the support of the lieutenant governor Sir William Muir. He placed great emphasis on affording both men and women the opportunity for medical missionary training. The Missionary Conference approved of his plan and appointed several members to communicate with their respective societies about supporting Valentine's plan.

A Calcutta newspaper called the Indian Witness reported on 27 October 1883 that women were currently attending the Agra Medical Missionary Training Institution through scholarships from the government. The institution itself proposed to provide scholarships for male and female students who wished to pursue medical training in Agra.

Valentine's emphasis on giving both men and women in India access to medical missionary education resulted in increases in female medical missionaries in India. One such example is that of a Hindu widow who was accepted into the Institution, graduated at the top of her class, and received a Lady Ripon Scholarship.

Two female English medical missionaries, Dr. Edith Brown and Miss Greenfield, were influenced by Valentine's Agra Institution and founded the North India School of Medicine for Christian Women at Ludhiana in the Punjab in the autumn of 1894. Miss Greenfield had founded the first training school at Ludhiana, called Charlotte Hospital, in 1889 and the Memorial Hospital in 1898. In the North India School of Medicine for Christian Women, the teaching faculty was composed solely of four women medical missionaries and one nurse. The School was eventually affiliated with the Punjab University and was thus recognized by the state.