Isobel Chalmers Giles papers


Order number: MMS/Special Series/Biographical/India/1411
Date(s) of creation: 1910-1944
Level: Sub-series
Format: Archive           
Main author: Giles; Isobel Chalmers (1908-2009); educational missionary

collection SOAS Archive
id MMS.17.02.06.23
recordtype archive
scb_item_location Archive & Special Collections
item_location Archive & Special Collections
scb_loan_type Reference only
scb_order_with MMS/Special Series/Biographical/India/1411
callnumber MMS/17/02/06/23
callnumber_txt MMS/17/02/06/23
callnumber-sort MMS/17/02/06/23
prefix_number 23
title Isobel Chalmers Giles papers
scb_date_creation 1910-1944
scb_level Sub-series
level_sort 7/Collection/Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Sub-Collection/Series/Sub-Series/Sub-Sub-Series/File
scb_extent 1 box
author Giles; Isobel Chalmers (1908-2009); educational missionary
author_facet Giles; Isobel Chalmers (1908-2009); educational missionary
authorStr Giles; Isobel Chalmers (1908-2009); educational missionary
author_letter Giles; Isobel Chalmers (1908-2009); educational missionary
format Archive
scb_admin_history Isobel Giles was born on 28 August 1908. She trained as a teacher and gained the Board of Education Elementary Teachers' certificate at Avery Hill College, London. She was an active Methodist Church member in Brunswick, Leeds, whilst teaching in a 'slum school' there. She was accepted as a missionary candidate for the Women's section of the Methodist Missionary Society in the autumn of 1933 and began her training at Kingsmead College, Birmingham, shortly afterwards. She arrived in India in 1935 and began her career at Karur within the MMS Trichinopoly District. Her work was predominately educational but she was involved in some evangelical work. In 1937 she relocated to Dharapuram working in the industrial school for girls where she taught 'homecraft' and for most of her tenure was also the principal of the school. In 1940 she arrived in England on furlough. She should have returned to India at the end of 1941 but a combination of restrictions (sometimes prohibitions) on women gaining passage on ships to India and her parents’ poor health meant she remained in England. In the autumn of 1942 she took up a temporary teaching post in Derby but still with the intention of continuing her missionary career when possible. In January 1944 she declined an opportunity to return to India and in August she formally left the MMS. She died on 2 January 2009.
scb_acquisition Gift, accepted on behalf of the Methodist Church, from Mrs Brenda Francis, January 2009 and May 2016
scb_arrangement This collection has been arranged into three sections: Papers & manuscripts; visual material; printed material. Items have been catalogued chronologically within each section.
scb_related_name_code GB/SOASNAF/P1863
scb_place_code 1269750
7729895
2635167
6255148
8223996
1272873
7729887
scb_access_status Open
scb_copyright Various copyrights
scb_use_restrictions For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance
language English
Tamil
language_search English
Tamil
scb_scripts_material Latin
scb_related_material Any extant correspondence by Isobel Giles will be in the Women's Work Trichinopoly District correspondence (MMS/Women’s Work/Correspondence/FBN 24 & 25) or general India correspondence (MMS Box 1304)
hierarchy_top_id_raw MMS
hierarchy_sequence MMS.0017.0002.0006.0023