Isabel Gunn was born into a farming family living near Banff in northern Aberdeenshire. She went on to graduate in 1903 from the University of Aberdeen with the Degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. After graduation, Isabel married the Rev George Kerr, who had served as a Methodist missionary in Nizamabad. In 1911, Dr Isabel Kerr built the first hut for 'lepers' in the Mission C
ompound, Nizamabad. This soon attracted more patients than it could comfortably house and in 1915 a larger and more permanent colony was established 9 miles away in Dichpalli, Raja Narsa Goud Impressed by the work of Dr. Isabel and he supported the idea of a permanent treatment centre for them and donated 60 acres of land at Dichpally and gave an amount Rs 10,000/- to set it up(http://epaper.vaartha.com/14996/vaartha/24-10-2011-Main /4/1). The Leper Home was started in 1915 (http://www.leprosyhistory.org/cgi-bin/archtimeannbrowse.pl), which was later became Victoria Hospital in 1928
The home served every caste and religion of Indian society, initially offering only palliative care to local people, travellers and refugees. In 1920 Isabel Kerr adopted the treatment using oil of the chaulmoogra tree, which she learnt from Ernest Muir in Calcutta. It is presumably a chaulmoogra injection (excruciating for the patient) that is shown in the photograph. An Indian variation of the treatment used the related hydnocarpus plant, which was cultivated along with cinchona in the Nilgiri hills. The hospital expanded rapidly owing to demand, and by 1921 it consisted of 120 buildings. Further buildings were added in 1923 when the Minister of Finance of Hyderabad, A. Hydari (later Sir Akbar Hydari) opened more new buildings, again paid for by the Nizam. The running costs from 1910 to 1944 were subsidised by the Mission to Lepers, from 7 Bloomsbury Square, London (since 1965 known as The Leprosy Mission). It has been estimated that of the 2,800 patients treated by Isabel Kerr at Dichpally and later at Hyderabad, up to a half saw the progress of the disease arrested as a result. For her services she was awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal. Isabel Kerr died suddenly in India in 1932. The Rev. George McGlashan Kerr continued to run the hospital after her death, until his retirement to Scotland in 1938. Isabel Kerr and her husband George McGlashan devoted their lives in the development of this asylum which flourished into one of the most important leprosy hospitals in South India. Later many doctors, nurses, hospital staff join this Victoria hospital to Tackling a great social problem: the fight with leprosy. Books and Articles about Victoria Hospital Dichpally.
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The lepers of Dichpali by Dermott Moynahan
Rebuilding common: Social creations lepers in India By Fabienne Martin
"A visit to Dichpalli" by Sackett, Frank Colyer
Methodists and their Missionary Societies 1900-1996 By Revd John Pritchard
"The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women From The Earliest Times to 2004", edited by Elizabeth Ewan, Sue Innes, Sian Reynolds and Rose Pipes is an essential work of reference for anone with any interest at all in Scottish history or society
A Memorial to Dr. Isabel Kerr of Dichpali By A. Miller. Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions By Gerald H. Anderson
God’s Patients. Dichpali, India By Mose & Co
Kerr, George McGlashan and Isabel at http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/3/32.htm
