George Carstairs (missionary)

George Carstairs (1880–1948) was a Church of Scotland minister and missionary in India. In later life he was editor of Life and Work.

Life

He was born in Glasgow on 11 February 1880, the son of the Rev. George Lindley Carstairs of the United Presbyterian Church, ordained in 1871; and a younger brother of the accountant Alexander Morrison Carstairs (died 1943).[1][2][3] In 1883, his father with David Corsar travelled to South Africa to report on the Church's missions there.[4] He was educated at Albany Academy, and graduated M.A. from Glasgow University in 1901.[5][6]

Joining the Rajputana Mission established in the 1860s, geographically roughly corresponding to the modern Indian state of Rajasthan, Carstairs came under the Foreign Mission Committee of the Church of Scotland.[7] He was appointed to Alwar in 1907, where he was an educational reformed in the mission school.[8] In 1924, Carstairs addressed Girl Guides from Nasirabad.[9] In 1927, in the Glasgow University records, he was B.D. and resident in Beawar.[10] He took part in the mission for around 30 years, with a break at the end of the 1920s.[7][11]

Back in Scotland, in Edinburgh Carstairs resided at 22 Braid Crescent.[12] He edited Life and Work, the Church of Scotland magazine.[6] He also became a staff correspondent for The Christian Century.[13] He died on 26 April 1948.[14]

Awards and honours

Carstairs was awarded a D.D. by Glasgow University in 1935,[5] and the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal.[6]

Works
  • Shepherd of Udaipur and the Land He Loved (1926), biography of James Shepherd. Shepherd was head of the medical mission in Udaipur State from 1877.[15]
  • The Hindu: A Brief Sketch of the Social & Religious Progress of India (1929)[16]

Family

Carstairs married Elizabeth Huntley Young.[6] Their children included:

Elizabeth was sister to the Rev. R. C. Young of Jamaica.[22] This was the Presbyterian missionary to Jamaica, Robert Comingo Young (1882–1946), a graduate of Glasgow University in 1903 (middle name given as Comings).[23][24] He arrived in the Cayman Islands in 1908 from Scotland, where he married Olga Parsons, a local woman, before moving to Jamaica around 1913; the art historian Andrew McLaren Young was their son.[23][25]

Notes
  1. "Death Notice for A. M. Carstairs". The Scotsman. 16 January 1943. p. 4.
  2. Proceedings of the Synod of the United Presbyterian Church. Dunn & Wright, printers. 1877. p. 77.
  3. Mackelvie, William (1873). Annals and Statistics of the United Presbyterian Church. Oliphant and A. Elliot. p. 317.
  4. Carstairs, G. L.; Corsar, David (1883). Report of the deputies on the Kaffrarian mission of the United Presbyterian Church, 1883. Edinburgh: Morrison and Gibb. p. 50.
  5. "University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of George Carstairs". universitystory.gla.ac.uk.
  6. Who was who Among English and European Authors, 1931-1949: Based on Entries which First Appeared in Writers and Authors Who's Originally Compiled by Edward Martell and L. G. Pine and in Who's who Among Living Authors of Older Nations, Originally Compiled by Albert A. Lawrence. Gale Research Company. 1978. p. 281.
  7. Princeton Theological Seminary Library, Clippings and mimeographed material : Cooperation and union, at home and abroad. 1879-1940. Folder 24. (Scotland, 1930-1932). pp. 410–416.
  8. Verma, G. C. (1984). Modern Education, Its Growth and Development in Rajasthan, 1818-1983. Publication Scheme. p. 86. ISBN 9788185263199.
  9. Alexander, Kristine (2017). Guiding Modern Girls: Girlhood, Empire, and Internationalism in the 1920s and 1930s. UBC Press. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-7748-3590-9.
  10. Glasgow, University of (1927). Register of Members of the General Council of the University of Glasgow: For the Year Commencing 1st January ... University. p. 54.
  11. Kalra, Nikhila. "Negotiating Violence: the construction of identity amongst adivasi Christians in Udaipur district, Rajasthan (2015)". ora.ox.ac.uk. University of Oxford.
  12. Post Office Edinburgh and Leith directory. Edinburgh : Postmaster General. 1940. p. 1161.
  13. The Christian Century. Vol. 60. Christian Century Company. 1943. p. 34.
  14. "Deaths". The Scotsman. 27 April 1948.
  15. The Mewar Residency. 1901. p. 86.
  16. Carstairs, George (1929). The Hindu: A Brief Sketch of the Social & Religious Progress of India. United Free Church of Scotland.
  17. "Carstairs, Charles Young". Who's Who. Vol. 1993. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  18. "Charles Young Carstairs - National Portrait Gallery". www.npg.org.uk.
  19. "Forthcoming Marriages". The Scotsman. 7 August 1948.
  20. "Andrew McLaren Carstairs, Lecturer in Economic History, University of Dundee - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk.
  21. Rollin, Henry R. "Carstairs, George Morrison (1916–1991)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/49602. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  22. "Kingston Gleaner Newspaper Archives, Feb 1, 1936, p. 7670". NewspaperArchive.com. 1 February 1936.: "C. Y. Carstairs, Assistant Secretary to the Royal Commission is a nephew of the Rev. R. C. Young, M.A., of Montego Bay."
  23. Farr, Dennis. "Young, Andrew McLaren (1913–1975)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56383. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  24. "University of Glasgow :: Story :: Biography of Robert Comings Young". universitystory.gla.ac.uk.
  25. Nor'wester. Vol. 8. Northwester Company. p. 44.
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