The Jalna Story

The Scottish Church has a long tradition of missionary service in India and many Scots left their home shores during the nineteenth century to work in this fascinating and daunting country.

In 1890 Dr Alec Mowat and Martha Simpson met on the SS Circassia en route to Bombay to begin their brave and innovative mission work. They soon discovered they were both heading for Poona, with Alec's task to be the doctor in the remote settlement of Jalna. They fell in love and married before setting out for Jalna and the primitive conditions, which demanded a degree of dogged determination on the part of new arrivals, until they became used to the way of life in India.

Alec and Martha soon forged close relationships with the local people and gained the valuable support of the local Rajah. Their strength of faith and determination not only enabled them to establish the hospital but also to found a school, a church and a nurses' home.

The author, a grandson of Alec and Martha Mowat, has written the Jalna story in the form of an historical novel, the better to convey the extraordinary lives which his grandparents lived in what was then a primitive country. It is a tribute to their faith and energy that the Jalna Mission Hospital today is an important centre of healing and a model of medical excellence.