George Carstairs (1880–1948) was a
Church of Scotland minister and missionary in India. In later life he was editor of Life and Work.
Life
He was born in
Glasgow on 11 February 1880, the son of the Rev. George Lindley Carstairs of the
United Presbyterian Church, ordained in 1871; and a younger brother of the accountant Alexander Morrison Carstairs (died 1943).[1][2][3] In 1883, his father with David Corsar travelled to South Africa to report on the Church's missions there.[4] He was educated at Albany Academy, and graduated M.A. from
Glasgow University in 1901.[5][6]
Joining the Rajputana Mission established in the 1860s, geographically roughly corresponding to the modern Indian state of
Rajasthan, Carstairs came under the Foreign Mission Committee of the Church of Scotland.[7] He was appointed to
Alwar in 1907, where he was an educational reformed in the mission school.[8] In 1924, Carstairs addressed
Girl Guides from
Nasirabad.[9] In 1927, in the Glasgow University records, he was B.D. and resident in
Beawar.[10] He took part in the mission for around 30 years, with a break at the end of the 1920s.[7][11]
Back in Scotland, in Edinburgh Carstairs resided at 22 Braid Crescent.[12] He edited Life and Work, the Church of Scotland magazine.[6] He also became a staff correspondent for The Christian Century.[13] He died on 26 April 1948.[14]
Shepherd of Udaipur and the Land He Loved (1926), biography of
James Shepherd. Shepherd was head of the medical mission in
Udaipur State from 1877.[15]
The Hindu: A Brief Sketch of the Social & Religious Progress of India (1929)[16]
Family
Carstairs married Elizabeth Huntley Young.[6] Their children included:
Charles Young Carstairs (1910–1993), civil servant in the Colonial Office.[17][18]
Andrew McLaren Carstairs (1914–1990), historian.[19][20]
Elizabeth was sister to the Rev. R. C. Young of Jamaica.[22] This was the Presbyterian missionary to Jamaica, Robert Comingo Young (1882–1946), a graduate of Glasgow University in 1903 (middle name given as Comings).[23][24] He arrived in the
Cayman Islands in 1908 from Scotland, where he married Olga Parsons, a local woman, before moving to Jamaica around 1913; the art historian
Andrew McLaren Young was their son.[23][25]
Notes
^"Death Notice for A. M. Carstairs". The Scotsman. 16 January 1943. p. 4.
^
abcdWho was who Among English and European Authors, 1931-1949: Based on Entries which First Appeared in Writers and Authors Who's Originally Compiled by Edward Martell and L. G. Pine and in Who's who Among Living Authors of Older Nations, Originally Compiled by Albert A. Lawrence. Gale Research Company. 1978. p. 281.
^Glasgow, University of (1927). Register of Members of the General Council of the University of Glasgow: For the Year Commencing 1st January ... University. p. 54.