John Anderson Graham

Graham was born in a religious family on 8 September 1861 at De Beauvoir, West Hackney district, London, to the Scottish father from Dunbartonshire David Graham, a customs officer, and the Irish mother Bridget Nolan, a homemaker. He attended local Parish school, and was withdrawn from the school at the age of thirteen to work in order to support the family as his father had died in 1867. With minimum and interrupted schooling, he started working as a clerk in a role of licking stamps and delivering messages. With an appetite to continue further studies, he attended evening classes at The Andersonian where he studied stenography and astronomy. In 1875, he enrolled himself in a school at Glasgow. At the age of sixteen, he worked as a minor civil servant (clerk) to the General Board of Lunacy, Edinburgh. During this period, he became engaged in Church affairs as a member of St. Bernard's Parish Church, and also became the secretary of the ''Young Men's Fellowship Association. From University of Edinburgh, he studied ministry in 1885. While studying at the university, he became the secretary to the committee producing Life and Work, a Church periodical, and also learnt here the importance and power of propaganda and dissemination of information. In 1886, he initiated the Church of Scotland Yearbook'', and went to Dresden, Germany, for a brief period of study. With British Empire colonialism expanding globally and reaping financial benefits many missionary committees and ministers, doctors and nurses received the call to serve in faraway places that also included a duty to free the natives from the superstitions and fears of the religions that they had feared for centuries. Accordingly, he became the national secretary for the "Young Men's Guild," and was ordained as the first missionary supported by the same guild on 13 January 1889. After two days of ordination, he married Katherine McConachie, who later bore him two sons and four daughters, and was sent as a missionary to Kalimpong, part of then-British Sikkim—till the 18th century, it had been part of Sikkim, then became part of Bhutan, and at present part of West Bengal from the 19th century. Graham and his wife arrived Calcutta on 21 March 1889 travelling via Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. From Calcutta, they moved to Darjeeling, and then to Kalimpong—then populated with three main tribes Lepchas, Nepalese, and Bhutias - Graham was more attracted later to work with original inhabitants of the area, Lepcha people. ==Missionary work==

"Kalimpong mission" was founded by prior visits of missionaries like "McLeod" and "Watson", where mission compound had sixteen acres of land, close to the Kalimpong bazaar. It also housed "Guild mission" and a training school for catechists; later, with growing diseases, a hospital with 25 beds was opened in 1893. In 1908, Graham was assisted in his work at Kalimpong by James Purdie, a welfare worker in Glasgow prison, later happened to be an important player in managing the finances efficiently and building up the necessary reserves ensuring constant flow of funds for homes. They together were responsible in constructing Birkmyre hostel at Calcutta for the Kalimpong boys who arrived Calcutta in search of jobs. The hostel was gifted by Archibald Birkmyre for the boys of Kalimpong homes. third from right and Graham is second from left In 1910, the Church of Scotland missionary Aeneas Francon Williams arrived in Kalimpong to assist Graham at St Andrew's Colonial Home, firstly as the assistant schoolmaster and teacher of Geography and Science, and later as the Bursar. In 1914, Aeneas married Clara Anne Rendall, who was also a Church of Scotland missionary and a teacher at St Andrew's Colonial Home. Aeneas Francon Williams wrote the biography of John Anderson Graham that is included in the Dictionary of National Biography 1941-1950 published in 1959 by Oxford University Press. Graham's mission work later spread to Madras(present Chennai). In 1911, he visited Madras and spoke about his work in the Kalimpong home influencing many, including Arthur Lawley, then-Governor of Madras. St. George's Homes in Kodaikanal constructed later had the same purpose as that of Kalimpong home, much influenced and modeled by Graham's work in Kalimpong. This institute was providing education to more than 1200 boys and girls, located at 500-acre estate, on the slopes of Deolo Hills (in 2012?). Its students are Eurasian, Anglo-Indian, ethnic Negalese people, students from neighbouring lands of Tibet and Bhutan. The school compound also houses the Graham's grave. Criticism The rapid expansion of Kalimpong homes had become a matter of concern for the Foreign Missionary committees due to budget constraints. He had to face resentment from Nepali Christians and Lepcha Christians for shifting his focus and attention from them to the Anglo-Indian communities. Graham and his other missionaries were also criticised by Lepcha Christian communities, who felt that they had been educated for only vocational pursuits and not for business, trade or commerce. ==Bibliography==

• Kaisar-i-Hind Medal, public award, awarded to him by government in 1903. • Moderator's chair of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1931. • Silver jubilee medal. ==See also==