OVER the past two weeks I have related the fascinating and inspiring true stories of two Scottish women doctors who were awarded the Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal, the highest form of recognition for public service in India during the latter years of the British Raj.

King George V, in his capacity as Emperor of India, awarded Gold Medals to Dr Isabel Kerr and Dr Margaret Ida Balfour for their immense pioneering contributions to Indian medicine, the former for her work on leprosy and the latter mainly for her sterling and successful efforts to improve medicine for Indian women.

Today I will complete this trilogy with the story of Dr Mary Ronald Bisset who also received the Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal and who, like Kerr and Balfour, is revered more in India than in her native country of Scotland.

In 1931 the New Years Honours List was proclaimed, with the London Gazette carrying the following announcement: “The KING has been graciously pleased to make the following Award of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal of the First Class for Public Services in India: — Miss Mary Ronald Bisset, MB, in charge, Zenana Baptist Mission Hospital, Bhiwani, Punjab.”

These few short lines were the crowning moment for her but were never going to be enough to describe the extraordinary career of Bisset.

She was born on April 11, 1876, the daughter of the Rev Alexander Bisset who was then a minister at Peterhead. He had graduated from Aberdeen University and it was to the Granite City that the family moved in 1886, in time for Mary to complete her schooling in the city and then move on to Aberdeen University.

Bisset was one of that brave first generation of women doctors, and she graduated as a bachelor of medicine (MB) in 1905 before studying both eye surgery and obstetrics and gaining her bachelor of surgery (ChB) at Aberdeen. A genuine intellect, Bisset also took a distance learning degree to qualify as a Lady Literate in Arts at St Andrews University.

In 1907, Bisset went to India to work under the leadership of Dr Ellen Farrer at the Baptist Zenana Mission at Bhiwani in the Punjab. Zenana missions were institutions that aimed to convert local people to Christianity as well as curing them of disease.

A history of the Bhiwani mission tells us: “In 1907-08 several encouragements came together. The first was a further medical recruit, in the person of Dr Mary Bisset ... whose arrival came at an appropriate time, for a new wing which had been under construction for some months became available for occupation in November, 1907, and a service of thanksgiving and dedication took place in March, 1908.”

Bisset was plunged straight into the busy work of the hospital and the mission history tells us how it developed: “Of emergency times Bhiwani had its share, including years when bubonic plague occurred with tragic regularity, but the work developed steadily, with continuous claims upon all kinds of medical and surgical service, with a notable opportunity in maternity work, and greatly valued specialisation by Dr Bisset in eye treatment.”

In 1910-1911 an outbreak of what we now call necrotising fasciitis – the infamous flesh-eating disease – affected 600 people. Bisset and her team risked their own lives to tackle it.

While Bisset travelled to various clinics and hospitals to operate on those at risk of going blind, it was her other speciality, obstetrics and gynaecology, which began to play a greater role in her life, and she left us a description of the problems she faced in a country full of superstition and distrust of western medicine.

She wrote: “In India, Medical Missions for women have been pioneers in training the native midwife, whose meddlesomeness and ignorance and dirt were notorious. Under her regime so great must have been the incidence of puerperal sepsis that the idea is firmly rooted in the minds of the people (I speak for my own particular district) that air, fresh air of any kind, is injurious to the woman during confinement. Hence the custom of keeping the confinement case in a small, confined, unventilated room, in which all possible inlets of air are blocked up by sacking.

“The doors are closed, or purdahs (screens) are hung over the door of the room and are suspended over the verandahs beyond, so that air shall not by any means visit the woman. In addition to these precautions a charcoal fire is kept burning. This custom is carried out in hot weather as well as cold, therefore it is not just cold air that is taboo.

“At night the door of the confinement room is closed, lest cats, who may be the personification of evil spirits, pay an unwelcome visit.

“The puerperal woman may not drink milk because it will occasion a purulent discharge! She also may not drink water for so many days, for if she does so her child’s condition will suffer after birth! As the woman is unclean, the old, dirty, soiled rags of the house are kept for use at such a time, and old soiled bedding is also considered appropriate.”

With Ellen Farrer and other women doctors, Bisset set out to challenge these local customs, and gradually their success in treating their patients won over many of the local people. Doctors and nurses were trained at Bhiwani and their mission work proved vital in improving health throughout India

On reaching the retirement age for medics working in the missions, Bisset came home to Britain to live in London and in her mid-sixties volunteered for nursing duties during the war.

Dr Mary Bisset died in London on January 20, 1953, aged 77. As far as I know there are no great monuments to her or Ida Balfour or Isabel Kerr. That seems a great pity.