SAVE THE DATE: DGHUK 125th Birthday Celebration - 21 Oct 2025Come and join us to celebrate the birth of Dr Graham's HomesEarlier this year, we wrote about Mary Hepburne Scott – a remarkable Scottish missionary who had a huge impact on Dr Graham’s Homes and the eastern Himalayas.
Mary, who was born in 1877, devoted nearly 50 years of her life to serving, nursing and teaching in Kalimpong and the surrounding area.
Travelling to the Himalayas in 1905 (despite the misgivings of her aristocratic parents), she variously helped in the local hospital, nursed the sick through epidemics, taught in Dr Graham’s then–new school, ran the hostel, led a craft industry and started a Christian bookshop. She became a celebrated figure in the region and a friend of the Sikkimese royal family.
Mary also pioneered women’s education in Sikkim, founding both a school for girls (Paljor Namgyal Girls’ School) and a school for blind children (the Mary Scott Home for the Blind), both of which still exist today.
But what exactly prompted her to travel halfway across the world to join Dr Graham’s orphanage for vulnerable children (apparently to work there for free, at least in the earliest days)? How did she hear about him and what captured her imagination about his project?
These were some of the questions that one of her modern-day relatives, Walter Scott – who has been researching Mary’s life and work to make it better known – wanted to answer. So, this summer, he flew out to the Indian Eastern Himalayas, including Dr Graham’s Homes in Kalimpong, to find out more. We asked him to tell us more about his quest...
Walter, what’s your connection to Mary Scott?
Mary is my great–great–great aunt. I’d known about her as a child, through family stories. In fact she was the reason I developed a lifelong fascination with the Himalayas. Eventually, while I was still a teenager, I travelled out to explore the area for myself. On my second trip, aged 18, I taught at the blind school she had founded. Having spent 10 fairly narrow years in British boarding schools, it was an extremely exciting time for me!
When did you first become aware of Mary?
One of my earliest memories is a little pamphlet about her life and work. It was written in 1984 by Dr Albert Craig, who had been a doctor with the mission in Kalimpong. It’s called A Scot in Sikkim, and on the front cover was an illustration (by another family member) of Aunt Mary with her pony on a small, stony track somewhere up in the Himalayan foothills. That image really stuck with me. I think it was initially how the Himalayas came to have such a grip on my imagination.
Why is Mary such an important figure?
One reason is that she provides a window into a very important part of local Himalayan history. From the late 19th century, the Eastern Himalayan Mission led by Dr Graham transformed Kalimpong and the surrounding area, including the then-independent kingdom of Sikkim – particularly in terms of education, health services and gender equality, and Aunt Mary played an important part in that. Also, her story is so utterly unlikely! She was born into an aristocratic Scottish family. She was educated at home while her brothers were sent to Rugby and Eton. The fact that she then decided to opt out of a conventional, upper-class life in Scotland to do something so big with her life – that appeals to me greatly.
What was her role at the Homes?
My understanding is that Dr Graham first assigned her as an assistant matron or ‘auntie’ in one of the new cottages, but that fairly soon she was moved onto teaching at the Industrial School and the Girls School, despite having no formal training. Then she also moved into helping with nursing (again, no formal training) at the Charteris Hospital that Katherine Graham, Dr Graham’s wife, had established. Later, when the Spanish Flu hit Kalimpong, Mary set up a medical camp to treat local people. She was awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal for that – one of the first women ever to receive it. She became famous for travelling from village to village on a pony to visit with the local women. Besides all that, she played the harmonium in church, ran a bookshop in the bazaar, and supervised a hostel so the girls could attend Katherine’s industrial training school. Albert Craig writes that was always willing to fill in for those who went off on leave. And that was all before she founded Sikkim’s first girls’ school and a school for the blind...
Did any of your immediate relatives meet her?
Yes, all the older members of the family could remember Mary in her old age, when she had to return to Scotland due to ill health. I believe she wore Sikkimese dress pretty much every day throughout later years in Scotland! She died in 1964, but my father can vividly remember “Aunt Mary coming for lunch.” Everyone was slightly on edge because, though she was a fascinating and compelling character, she was maybe a little frightening for a small child!
Are people in the Himalayas aware of Mary too?
Absolutely. When I was there the first time, I frequently spoke to people who were only too happy to share their memories of her. This was over 30 years ago, so there were still plenty of people there who could remember her. So, when I left, it was with a sense of wanting to come back again one day, to take up her story again.
Tell us about your recent trip to Kalimpong...
In 2023, out of the blue, I got an email from the school Aunt Mary had founded in 1924 – Paljor Namgyal Girls High School. They wanted to know if a member of the Scott family would like to visit during the school’s upcoming centenary year. So I ended up travelling out there last May. I spent some time meeting people and reconnecting with old friends. By good fortune, I was also introduced to an academic at Sikkim University, Dr Anira Phipon Lepcha (pictured), who has long championed the work of the Eastern Himalayan missionaries, including Aunt Mary, and we decided to embark on some collaborative research between our respective countries. And then I agreed to come back again in 2025 to teach at the Blind School. The idea was to tell the children about the work of the East Himalayan Mission that Mary served, and to continue her story for their sakes.
Walter Scott with Dr Anira Phipon Lepcha of Sikkim University
You were also on a Mary–related mission of your own too – is that right?
Yes. One of the main things I wanted to understand was how Mary came to be appointed by Dr Graham in the first place. We know he and Katherine had to persuade Mary’s parents, Lord and Lady Polwarth, that it would be OK for her to join the Homes. We also know she wasn’t paid for a good few years, and survived on a small private income and her talents as a watercolourist. But otherwise that early period of her DGH life remains a mystery. What did she get up to in her first two years? When did Dr Graham allow her to go out on her pony to meet the locals in the villages? We don’t know. So I arranged to visit the school archives to see if I could find out.
What did you discover in the school archives?
Unfortunately, not as much as I had hoped! There was a very helpful archivist there. He went into the deepest, darkest corners of the archives for me. But, sadly, the staff appointment records don’t go back far enough. But it did feel good to be on the campus where Aunt Mary would have spent so much time. On my walk back down to the town, I caught sight of some of the oldest cottages. On a future trip, I’d love to see inside those. The holy grail would be to know if Mary might have lived in one of them, on arriving in early 1905.
So where will your quest take you next?
The next chapter will probably involve Scotland. Dr Graham’s journals are held by the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, so I plan to go there to look through them. But of course if anyone else knows anything about Mary Scott – or that era of the school around 1905 – I would be very, very interested to hear more.
By the way, we hear you made that first Himalayan trip with someone rather famous?
I did! When I was 18, I had an opportunity to go trekking in the Himalayas with a friend from school. His name was Edward Grylls – now better known as Bear Grylls. We spent a lot of our time trekking through the villages around Kalimpong, imagining what life must have been like for Mary all those years ago.
What do you remember from that trip?
Two things stick out. One was when we wandered into a leech infestation. We emerged with blood streaming down our legs... The other was when we took the little narrow-gauge train that runs up from Siliguri to Darjeeling. As the train moved off, we climbed out of our carriage and – I still don’t know how we managed to do this – got onto the roof and rode along. They told us to get down when they saw us... It was also on that trip that Bear decided he was going to climb Everest. We had gone to an exhibition at the Institute of Himalayan Mountaineering in Darjeeling. I remember him turning to me and saying, “I’m going to climb that mountain before I’m 25.” And he did – in 1998, aged 23.
What do you think Bear would make of Aunt Mary?
As an 18-year-old, I don’t think he was particularly interested in her! But now I think her story would definitely appeal to him. Bear and Aunt Mary are both strong and intrepid characters, so I think they would have got on very well! They also share a devout Christian faith, and have both put their respective lives in God’s hands on many occasions.
SAVE THE DATE: DGHUK 125th Birthday Celebration - 21 Oct 2025Come and join us to celebrate the birth of Dr Graham's Homes
