John Anderson Graham

John Anderson Graham (8 September 1861 – 15 May 1942) was a Scottish minister and the first missionary from Young Men's Guild sent to North Eastern Himalayan region Kalimpong—then in British Sikkim (Colonial British name), currently in West Bengal.

He was the founder of the Dr. Graham's Homes, Orphanage-cum-School for destitute Anglo-Indian children at Kalimpong, in the Eastern Himalayas on the borders of Tibet, Sikkim, Bhutan, and India. He was the recipient of several British and Bhutanese honorary degrees.

He served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1931.

Biography Graham was born in a religious family on 8 September 1861 at De Beauvoir, West Hackney district, London, to the Scottish father from Dunbartonshire David Graham, a customs officer, and the Irish mother Bridget Nolan, a homemaker. He attended local Parish school, and was withdrawn from the school at the age of thirteen to work in order to support the family as his father had died in 1867.

With minimum and interrupted schooling, he started working as a clerk in a role of licking stamps and delivering messages. With an appetite to continue further studies, he attended evening classes at The Andersonian where he studied stenography and astronomy. In 1875, he enrolled himself in a school at Glasgow.

In 1908, Graham was assisted in his work at Kalimpong by James Purdie, a welfare worker in Glasgow prison, later happened to be an important player in managing the finances efficiently and building up the necessary reserves ensuring constant flow of funds for homes. They together were responsible in constructing Birkmyre hostel at Calcutta for the Kalimpong boys who arrived Calcutta in search of jobs. The hostel was gifted by Archibald Birkmyre for the boys of Kalimpong homes.

In 1910, the Church of Scotland missionary Aeneas Francon Williams arrived in Kalimpong to assist Graham at St Andrew's Colonial Home, firstly as the assistant schoolmaster and teacher of Geography and Science, and later as the Bursar. In 1914, Aeneas married Clara Anne Rendall, who was also a Church of Scotland missionary and a teacher at St Andrew's Colonial Home. Aeneas Francon Williams wrote the biography of John Anderson Graham that is included in the Dictionary of National Biography 1941-1950 published in 1959 by Oxford University Press.

Graham's mission work later spread to Madras(present Chennai). In 1911, he visited Madras and spoke about his work in the Kalimpong home influencing many, including Arthur Lawley, then-Governor of Madras. St. George's Homes in Kodaikanal constructed later had the same purpose as that of Kalimpong home, much influenced and modeled by Graham's work in Kalimpong.

This institute was providing education to more than 1200 boys and girls, located at 500-acre estate, on the slopes of Deolo Hills (in 2012?). Its students are Eurasian, Anglo-Indian, ethnic Negalese people, students from neighbouring lands of Tibet and Bhutan. The school compound also houses the Graham's grave.

Criticism The rapid expansion of Kalimpong homes had become a matter of concern for the Foreign Missionary committees due to budget constraints. He had to face resentment from Nepali Christians and Lepcha Christians for shifting his focus and attention from them to the Anglo-Indian communities.

Graham and his other missionaries were also criticised by Lepcha Christian communities, who felt that they had been educated for only vocational pursuits and not for business, trade or commerce.