The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
First women honoured with Hall of Heroes place
Busts of Mary Slessor and Maggie Keswick Jencks to be sited in National Wallace Monument
Victorian missionary Mary Slessor and the co-founder of Scotland’s network of Maggie’s Centres, Maggie Keswick Jencks, were last night revealed as the first women whose marble busts will stand in the Hall of Heroes at the National Wallace Monument in Stirling.
The most significant development in the Hall of Heroes since the first busts of Robert Burns and King Robert the Bruce were installed in 1886, it is the culmination of a four-month project to choose the women to be inaugurated.
Dona Robertson, a member of the Steeple Church in Dundee, which bears a bronze plaque to commemorate Mary Slessor’s work, said: “After her death, it was said of Mary Slessor by a colleague that in her lifetime ‘she was a whirlwind and an earthquake and a fire and a still, small voice all in one’.
“For me, that sums up Mary. Mary Slessor did not conform to the colonial attitudes of the day and became one of the people in the way she lived her life. This was brought home to me when I visited Calabar in 2015, by just how much she is still loved, respected and honoured there.”
Mary Slessor (1848-1915) has been described as the most celebrated Scottish missionary since David Livingstone, who inspired her to a life of service. Determined to overcome the challenges of her early years, and largely selftaught, she combined her missionary zeal with a practical approach to helping those in need and worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life for the people of Calabar, Nigeria, against a background of prejudice and opposition.
The Rev Ian Alexander, secretary of the World Mission Council of the Church of Scotland, said: “She is an iconic figure in Scotland and her pioneering work in Calabar, Nigeria, remains an inspiration to this day.”
A writer, gardener and designer from Dumfries, Maggie Keswick Jencks (1941-1995), with her husband Charles, founded the Maggie’s Centres, which offer practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer, their family and friends. She designed the blueprint for the centres, the first of which opened in Edinburgh in 1996, while she herself was facing cancer.
Voters in their hundreds chose to show their support for the “amazing” Maggie Keswick Jencks, with many highlighting how the Maggie’s Centres positively impacted their lives.
Maggie’s chief executive Laura Lee said: “All the women on the shortlisted would have been worthy of a place amongst the likes of Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott, but perhaps the result reflects how many people are affected by cancer.
“Maggie deserves to be honoured for her vision of a different type of cancer care but I think she would be surprised to find herself in such illustrious company.”