Annie H. Small

Born near Falkirk in 1857, Annie Hunter Small spent part of her childhood in Poona, India, where her family were missionaries. She later returned to India for missionary work from 1876 to 1892, and those years gave her a lasting respect for Indian people, languages, and culture.

After ill health brought her back to Scotland, she settled in Edinburgh and turned to reading, writing, teaching Indian languages, and wider church work. In 1894 she became the first principal of the Women’s Missionary Training Institute of the Free Church of Scotland, later known as St Colm’s Women’s Missionary College, where she encouraged both serious training and a strong sense of community.

Small was remembered as a committed Presbyterian with progressive views, especially on the place of women in church life and on the need for more open, democratic forms of Christian community. She also took part in the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference and remained interested in subjects ranging from the Arts and Crafts movement to Celtic spirituality. She died in 1945.