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(In alphabetical order of surname.)

Dr Alice Musgrave, OBE, 13 June 1912 - 27 September 2011

Born in Liverpool on 13 June 1912, Alice was the second child of Caleb Shera Musgrave who was a language teacher, and Lillian Isabel Park who was herself the daughter of Rev John Oliver Park, one-time president of the Irish Methodist Conference.

In 1913 the family went to Germany so that Caleb could study German. They were still there when war broke out in August 1914, their departure being delayed because Alice’s mother had scarlet fever. They travelled down the Rhine, but, when they reached the border, her father was taken off the boat (he was interned at Ruhleben on the outskirts of Berlin for most of the First World War).

Alice’s mother returned to Ireland with the two children, and lived with her parents - her father John Oliver Park was then minister at Waterford. Soon Alice’s sister was born, and named “Hope” for the hope that her father would come home. Subsequently the Parks moved to Cork, and for a time Alice continued to live with them whilst her mother took Alice’s older brother Ivan and Hope with her as she went to keep house for Alice’s other grandpa, Thomas Musgrave, also in Cork.

The family remained in Ireland until the end of the First World War when Alice’s father was finally able to return. He took up a post as a modern languages teacher at the Whitgift School, Croydon, where he spent the rest of his working life. Their home was at 54 Sydenham Road and, for more than 40 years, this was a staging post for friends and relations passing to and from Ireland and through London to places all over the globe.

The family had a strong tradition of Wesleyan Methodism on both sides.  Alice’s grandfather Thomas Musgrave had been married to Sarah Jane Laird, and three of her sisters had married Methodist ministers. Other uncles and aunts were involved in missionary service, for example Alice’s aunt, Helen Park, became a head teacher in what was then Ceylon.

From a young age Alice had missionary work in mind, and decided that she should become a doctor. As soon as she could she went to train at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Meanwhile Ivan became a Methodist minister, and in 1936 set sail for Hong Kong to join the South China Mission. Alice set off for India in 1938, and wrote vivid letters home. Here is her description of her journey through the Suez Canal: “When you were getting thoroughly bored with all the sand, all of a sudden you would come to a perfect picture, a bungalow or two, some palm trees, and camels. It was a queer sensation sitting and watching it. It was almost impossible to believe it was real. It was as if it was slowly being passed across a screen in front of you, for the boat was keeping to the same steady speed and everything was so still. ”

Alice had a week with her Aunt Helen in Ceylon before continuing to Madras for a few months’ medical induction and Tamil language training. She then moved to the hospital at Ikkadu village, not far from Madras, where she worked for several years. In 1943 she came home on furlough, but on VJ Day in 1945 she was in India as a patient at Kalyani hospital. She stayed there for 3 months, initially with suspected diphtheria (a diagnosis she did not believe herself) and then with TB. Afterwards she worked for a time in Mysore District, as the climate there was considered better for her health than Madras.

After a couple of years she was fully recovered and returned to Ikkadu, and later she became superintendent at Nagari village hospital. This second period in the Madras District lasted more than 20 years, with a break of 3 or 4 years in England in the early 1960s to care for her elderly parents in Croydon. From 1970 she was Medical Superintendent at the Christina Rainy Hospital in the city of Madras. Here her role was mainly managerial, but with a particular emphasis, as always, on training Indian doctors and nurses.

In 1975 Alice was awarded an OBE for “medical and welfare services to the community in South India”.  This was a great honour but she seemed dismissive of her achievements:  the driving force for her was to offer health and healing in the name of Jesus. A letter to nurses that she wrote on this subject emphasises the need for faith, humility, patience and prayer.  Her personal spirituality had deepened as a result of her decision to join the Order of Sisters of the Church of South India, in which she committed herself alongside Indian Christians to a disciplined life of prayer and service.

Some notes for a talk give more details of Alice’s work. She took as her theme John 10 v. 10 “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly”. The talk focuses particularly on children, on ante-natal clinics, hospital deliveries, a premature baby nursery. She emphasises “every baby a WANTED baby”. Then her notes move on to community health and the Madras Christian Council of Social Service, with immunisation programmes, slum clearance, sanitation blocks, dispensaries and social workers. The Rainy Hospital had a programme feeding up to 200 pre-school children daily. She lists village dispensaries, including weekly visits to Sholavaram by the hospital doctors and Sunday services there.  The notes conclude with leprosy, covering reconstructive surgery and the adoption of babies. Alice was herself directly involved in raising two children who were abandoned at hospital, and in later years she described one as her “adopted son”. She was delighted to see him again when she made a very happy visit to India in 1988.

As Alice’s nephews and niece were growing up, letters from Alice would arrive regularly, and they remember her coming home on furlough with saris, beautifully worked brass bowls and elephant ornaments with ivory tusks. She would dearly have liked to share more fully in their childhood, and used a cine camera to capture it.

Alice continued to serve as a doctor after the age at which she could have retired, returning home in 1976. Her sister Hope had always treasured her Irish nationality, and Alice moved with her to Dun Laoghaire, where they had many happy years as part of the Methodist community. At the age of 64 she offered her services to the Social Aid Centre at the Dublin Central Mission, soon becoming a valued member of staff and only retiring for a second time 14 years later. She remained extremely active until an advanced age - her niece remembers walking into Dun Laoghaire with her when she was nearing 90, with her commenting that she was starting to slow down and that people were overtaking her! Her activity in the church included local preaching, which she continued until she was 91.

Hope was less fortunate with her health, and Alice was very supportive of her, but eventually Alice’s sight began to fail and she and Hope agreed to move to Mount Tabor Care Centre in Sandymount when Alice was 92. It was a wrench to give up independent living, but Alice coped stoically, and continued to support Hope. Hope’s loss in 2008, following Ivan’s death in 2006, left Alice as the only surviving member of her immediate family, and the last of all her cousins. This was hard for her, but she delighted in visits from a variety of friends and family members, and frequently surprised them with memories, sudden sharp insights, and flashes of humour. In June 2011 she celebrated her 99th birthday, and there is a real sense in which her death marks the end of an era.

Diana Musgrave

October 2011