Following on from my previous blog introducing the incredible Lamb family (parents Canon Benjamin and Louisa Lamb) , I now turn to the three missionary sisters - Florence, Jessie and Maud. After studying and obtaining qualification in the medical profession, these remarkable women left their comfortable family home in Yorkshire to dedicate their lives in the service of others in India and South China.
FLORENCE'S STORY
Florence, whose memorial piqued my interest in the family, was born in 1874 in Thirsk. Her brass memorial is in St James Church Clapham, Yorkshire where her father had been the Vicar for many years. It is a "facsimile" of the headstone of her grave in Fuzhou, South China.
I was intrigued to see the inscription stating that she was "A CEZMS missionary and trained nurse, at the hospital in Atlo Nguong, South China"..... On researching her sisters, I discovered that they too carried out missionary work for this organisation. Time to find out more!
The Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS) also known as the Church of England Zenana Mission, was a British Anglican missionary society established to spread Christianity in India via women. It would later expand its Christian missionary work into Japan and Qing Dynasty China.There is a lot of information about the society online and I have posted links below. Women in India at this time were segregated under the purdah system, being confined to a women's quarters known as a zenana
into which it was forbidden for unrelated men to enter. The zenana
missions were made up of female missionaries who could visit Indian
women in their own homes with the aim of providing them with medical
help and education. The first mission station was established outside the provincial capital of Fuzhou in 1884.
I have been unable to ascertain exactly when Florence made the long and surely arduous, trip to China. I do know that she qualified to be a member of the Incorporated Society of Physiotherapists and Masseuses at Guys Hospital in London in 1900. Sadly, Florence died such a long way from home in China in 1903. According to a newspaper report, she had been a missionary for 18 months so it is likely she headed overseas not long after qualifying.
Royal College of Nursing Obituary
The notice of Florence's death in 1903
Photograph by John Thomson dated 1871
Wellcome Collection: Public Domain
MAUD'S STORY
While Florence had served as a missionary in China her sisters Maud and Jessie travelled to India where they both remained for many years.
Maud was born in 1882 in Wheldrake, Yorkshire. According to the Nursing Register, she trained from 1906-1909 in Brighton, where she qualified. In 1911 she is living with her parents at the Clapham Vicarage, Yorkshire. Her occupation is listed as "trained nurse: Hospital". It is touching that her entry in the 1939 register also states that she is a "trained nurse SR" as does her sister Florence's memorial. I suspect that around this time, nursing was becoming a more regulated and perhaps more appreciated, profession and the sisters and her parents were very proud of their profession.
Fundraising Advert for the Missionary Society
I do not know when Maud travelled to India but I cannot find her on the 1921 Census and I suspect she had been in India for some time after qualifying in 1909. I know from various newspaper reports that she nursed at the St Catherine's Hospital in Amritsar together with her sister. Indeed, the nursing register shows that she is still working there in 1931.
(Photo supplied by the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society.)
STAFF AND PATIENTS OF ST. CATHERINE'S HOSPITAL, AMRITSAR.
I know that she returned several times to the UK as I have found her representing various aspects of the nursing profession on several nursing committees, including those who worked overseas. She was a very active member of the profession both as a nurse but also has an administrator and lecturer.
RCN report on Nurses' Missionary meeting
Magazine of the CEZMS
I haven't included a lot of information about the Zenana Missionary Society here: there is an awful lot of information available online! For further information, see links below - although a quick Google (other search engines are available!!) will bring up many more links!
At some time between 1931 and 1939 Maud returned to England and to the South Coast where the remaining members of her family are living. She died in 1966 and is buried in Bath Abbey Cemetery, where four of her siblings and her parents are also buried. Her headstone states that she served overseas for 25 years.
Maud's headstone
Florence's interesting memorial has started me on quite a family story, of which Florence and Maud are just a part. They must have been wonderfully intrepid and driven: not content with being "just" missionaries spreading the Christian religion - they clearly wanted to help in a practical and indeed possibly life saving way and Maud in particular must have had a big impact over the 25 years she served.
My next blog will be about an even more intrepid sister - Jessie who, not content with qualifying as a doctor in the early years of the 20th century, decided to take her skills to the distant land of India.
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/222982502/maud-lamb: accessed
July 4, 2026), memorial page for Maud Lamb (1882–27 Jun 1966), Find a Grave Memorial ID 222982502, citing Bath Abbey Cemetery, Widcombe,
Bath and North East Somerset Unitary Authority,
Somerset,
England;
Maintained by woowoo (contributor 49949980).
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/43738/43738-h/43738-h.htm
https://missiology.org.uk/blog/zenana-missions-work-fuh-kien-province-china/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0961202920010204
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_England_Zenana_Missionary_Society
British Newspaper Archive
Ancestry.co.uk
https://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/volumes/31/Volume%2031%20Page%20354
https://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/volumes/70/Volume%2070%20Page%20263
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