St Colm's College was established in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in 1894 as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

training college for women, with Annie Hunter Small as its first principal. In August 2010, the College's property would eventually be sold off after the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

determined it could no longer afford to maintain it.

Various names

The College was first established in October 1894 as the Women's Missionary Training Institute as part of the

Free Church of Scotland Free Church of Scotland may refer to: * Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), seceded in 1843 from the Church of Scotland. The majority merged in 1900 into the United Free Church of Scotland; historical * Free Church of Scotland (since 1900), rema ...

. After the Free Church merged with the United Presbyterian Church to form the new

United Free Church of Scotland The United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; gd, An Eaglais Shaor Aonaichte, sco, The Unitit Free Kirk o Scotland) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and ...

, the College would be renamed as the Women's Missionary College in 1908. Subsequent to this, the United Free Church of Scotland would merge with the

in 1929, and the College would once again be renamed as the Church of Scotland Women's Missionary College. In 1960, the

would rename it St Colm's College. By 1998, it would be renamed St Colm's International House and used as accommodations for students from the majority world.

Training

Much of the vision of training at St Colm's was driven by the work of its first principal, Annie Hunter Small, a Scot and a former Zenana missionary worker in India. Teaching for the College brought together a mixture of theoretical and practical skills, and many of the female students enrolled in classes at New College. Women trained at the College would come from a variety of denominational backgrounds and eventually work in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

and amongst

Jewish communities Jewish ethnic divisions refer to many distinctive communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered a self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic subdivisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the ...

, but also overseas in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

List of teachers at St Colm's

* Mary Lusk (1958–1963) * Kenneth Mackenzie (1957–1968) * Annie H. Small (1894–1913) *

Olive Wyon Dr. Olive Wyon (7 March 1881 - 21 August 1966) was a British author and translator of books of the Christian faith. Life Wyon was born in Hampstead, London, into a cultured Victorian family. The daughter of Allan Wyon, Chief Engraver of Seals ...

(1950s)

List of students at St Colm's

Evangeline Edwards Evangeline Dora Edwards, known as Eve D. Edwards (13 August 1888 – 29 September 1957) taught Chinese language and Chinese literature at SOAS, University of London from 1921 to 1955, and was head of the Department of the Far East from 1937 to 1 ...

(c. 1913) * Mary Lusk (1940s) *

Anne Hepburn Anne Hepburn (20 August 1925 – 29 July 2016) was a Church of Scotland missionary and a teacher, feminist and social justice advocate and wife and mother. She served as National President of the Church of Scotland's Women's Guild in the early 19 ...

(late 1940s) *

Elizabeth Mantell Elizabeth Barbara Mantell (24 June 1941 – 27 January 1998) was a Scottish midwife and nurse who was born in Africa and spent much of her life as a medical missionary in Malawi, Africa. Her story is part of the Scotland-Malawi partnership and ...

(1966) * Stella Jane Reekie (1949–1951) * Marjorie Saunders (1965–1968)

References

{{authority control Protestantism in Scotland Church of Scotland Educational institutions established in 1894 Bible colleges, seminaries and theological colleges in Scotland 1894 establishments in Scotland

Various names

Training

List of teachers at St Colm's

List of students at St Colm's

See also

References