An Historiography of Twentieth-Century Women’s Missionary Nursing Through the Lives of Two Sisters

This volume draws on a trove of unpublished original material from the pre-1940s to the present to offer a unique historiographic study of twentieth century Methodist missionary work and women’s active expression of faith practised at the critical confluence of historical and global changes.

The study focuses on two English Methodist missionary nursing sisters and siblings, Audrey and Muriel Chalkely, whose words and experiences are captured in detail, foregrounding tumultuous socio-political changes of the end of Empire and post-Independence in twentieth-century Kenya and South India. The work presents a timely revision to prevailing post-colonial critiques in placing the fundamental importance of human relationships centre stage. Offering a detailed (auto)biographical and reflective narrative, this ‘herstory’ pivots on three main thematic strands relating to people, place and passion, where socio-cultural details are vividly explored.

The book will appeal to a wide range of readers, both the interested public and the academic alike, where a lively, entertaining, literary style introduces readers to the politics of women’s lives, and principle and professional service foreground ethno-class-caste oppression, emancipation, conflict, commitments and religious tensions. It reveals the human, vulnerable qualities of these women, illuminating their stories and courageous choices.