Beckingsale, Emma

- bn Kakanui, Otago, 18 August 1870 d. Dunedin 5 April 1955. Missionary Nurse. Missionary Service: Bengal, India 1895-1935. Dominion President B.W.M.U. 1935. Beckingsale was a notable member of the N.Z.B.M.S. team in India. She maintained a regular journal, written for the information of supporters, for over thirty years. This work, recently collated, provides an unrivalled insight into the missionary experience of a woman in India in the early twentieth century. An acute observer of Indian life, Beckingsale published "Gold of Tipperah" in 1911, which achieved wide circulation and publicised the plight of young women in Indian society. Ref.: Obituary: NZB June 1955, 129, 135.