Mary Mathilda Pereira was raised in Mazagon,
Bombay, one of fourteen children of Peter Paul Pereira. She graduated from
Grant Medical College in 1914 as a
Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery. She worked as a medical officer in the
Bhavnagar district and
Chhota Udaipur district before returning to Bombay to work at the Kerrawala Maternity Hospital. In 1919 attended the Lahore session of the
Indian National Congress. She and her husband refused a place on the board of governors, since the hospital's constitution did not provide for balanced representation of Indians and Europeans on the committee. She was also involved in the Indian Education Board, and in the
Girl Guides and
Boy Scouts. Mary de Sousa hosted important Indian visitors in her house, such as
Sarojini Naidu, who led the
East African Indian National Congress twice. In the mid-1940s she became ill, and was mostly confined to her house for the last decade of her life. == Personal life ==