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School of Oriental and African Studies

Cousins, (Ethel) Constance


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 MS 380325

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: Cousins, (Ethel) Constance

Date(s): Created 1865-1974

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 4 boxes

Name of creator(s): Cousins | Ethel Constance | 1882-1944 | medical missionary

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Constance (Ethel) Cousins was born on 22 September 1882, in Antananarivo (Tananarive), Madagascar. She was the daughter of the Rev. William Edward Cousins, missionary to Madagascar with the London Missionary Society, 1862-1899. By 1885, Constance and her siblings had returned to England, where they attended the Walthamstow Hall School for the daughters of missionaries. Constance then attended Oxford University, gaining first class honours in Physiology in 1904.

In 1911, Constance Cousins' application to serve with the London Missionary Society was turned down on the grounds that she displayed the symptoms of latent epilepsy (a diagnosis never subsequently confirmed). In November 1911, she went to the Almora Sanatorium for Tuberculosis in North India as an unpaid medical assistant. The Church of Scotland ran the Sanatorium and in November 1913 she transferred to the Church of Scotland's medical mission at Kalimpong (North India). Her appointment to the mission staff was confirmed in January 1914. During her period of service at Kalimpong (1913-1923) she was requested to help combat a cholera epidemic in neighbouring Bhutan. Thus, in August 1918, she and her assistant, Nurse Brodie, became the first European women to be admitted to that country. In 1923 Cousins returned as a permanent member of staff to the Almora Sanatorium. She also obtained a diploma from the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London. She continued to work at Almora until her death in May 1944.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1865-1974, of and relating to (Ethel) Constance Cousins, including correspondence with her family, photographs, press cuttings and the unpublished typescript biography by her niece Janet E. Cousins. Also includes letters dated 1893-1900 from her father, Rev. William Edward Cousins, chiefly from Madagascar.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

The material has been arranged into seven sections: biography; family letters; education and life in England 1890-1911; early years in India: Almora, North India, 1911-1913; years in Kalimpong 1913-1923 (including a journey to Bhutan, August 1918); the second period at Almora 1923-1944; general.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated in 1980.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Date(s) of descriptions: 15 May 2000


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Anglicanism | Protestantism | Christianity | Ancient religions | Religions
Asian cultures | National cultures
Biographies | Prose | Literary forms and genres | Literature
Children of missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Clergy | Religious groups
Lay missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Medical centres | Health services
Medical missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Medical missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Ordained missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Photographs | Visual materials
Press cuttings | Newspaper press | Press
Religious movements | Religious institutions
Travel abroad | Travel
Tuberculosis | Diseases | Pathology
Women missionaries | Missionaries | Religious groups
Women students | Students
Womens education | Educational systems
Womens missionary work | Missionary work | Religious activities
Actinomycetales infections
Catholicism
Social sciences
Social welfare

Personal names
Cousins | Ethel Constance | 1882-1944 | medical missionary x Cousins | Constance
Cousins | family | of England and Madagascar
Cousins | Janet E | fl 1947-1974
Cousins | William Edward | b 1840 | missionary

Corporate names
Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland medical mission | Kalimpong, India
Church of Scotland sanatorium for tuberculosis | Almora, India
Missionary Society x LMS | London Missionary Society x London Missionary Society
University of Oxford x Oxford University

Places
Almora | Uttar Pradesh | India | South Asia
Bhutan | South Asia
Kalimpong | West Bengal | India | South Asia
Madagascar | East Africa
Druk-Yul x Bhutan
Asia