Hannah Dudley
Encyclopedia
Hannah Dudley was a Methodist mission sister who worked amongst Indo-Fijians in the Suva
area of Fiji
for 13 years. She had few educational qualifications but was revered for her kind-heartedness and self-sacrifice. Indo-Fijians in Suva called her Hamari Mataji (Our Honoured Mother). She did her work with dedication but was sometimes eccentric and independent minded.
, Australia
. She served as a teacher in New South Wales before joining the British Methodist Missionary Society as a mission sister in India
. She worked hard, without regard to her health and after six years her health broke down. She returned to Australia for medical treatment and was refused permission to serve in India again on medical grounds.
was happily accepted. Women's organisations linked to the Methodist Church in Australia raised funds for her trip and she arrived in Fiji on 24 August 1897. There were no facilities to accommodate her in Suva, and being determined to live close to the Indians, she found a room with a verandah in the Indian quarter of Suva.
instruction and on Sundays she held services on her verandah. On Sundays she also walked three miles to the local gaol to speak to 400 prisoners and pray with condemned prisoners about to be hanged. Initially, she was paid only £50 p.a. and this was raised to £75 p.a. in 1899. With this meagre sum she supported herself and later five children as well. In 1900, her mother, Lily Dudley, came to live with her and assist her in her work. This was an unofficial arrangement and Lily taught music to earn money for herself and the mission.
and Davuilevu
were authorised and she was allowed to use the Jublee Church for her day classes and for her Indian services on Sundays. She wanted a wooden church and collected money to have one built and it dedicated on 19 December 1901 at the site of the present Dudley High School, called the Indian Mission Hall.
Methodist Conference in 1956. As her adopted family grew, the Church decided to build an orphanage for her at Davuilevu but she refused to move there. In 1904 an orphanage was built at Davuilevu, called The Dudley Orphanage for Indian Children.
On 26 July 1905, she suddenly left for Bengal to join the Faith Mission, taking the children with her under her own name. Weeping Indians on the Suva Wharf showed the general feeling of the Indian community but the Mission Board in Sydney
was annoyed with her for relinquishing her work. Indian mission work in Suva suffered in her absence. She returned to Suva in July 1908. Two of the children that she had taken with her had died in India.
. In 1924, she again offered to return to Fiji but her offer was declined because of her age and her independent habits. She died in Auckland on 3 May 1931 at the age of sixty-eight. She has left behind her legacy in Suva - the Dudley High School
and the Dudley Memorial Church.
Suva
Suva features a tropical rainforest climate under the Koppen climate classification. The city sees a copious amount of precipitation during the course of the year. Suva averages 3,000 mm of precipitation annually with its driest month, July averaging 125 mm of rain per year. In fact,...
area of Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
for 13 years. She had few educational qualifications but was revered for her kind-heartedness and self-sacrifice. Indo-Fijians in Suva called her Hamari Mataji (Our Honoured Mother). She did her work with dedication but was sometimes eccentric and independent minded.
Mission sister in India
Hannah Dudley was born in 1864 in Morpeth, New South WalesMorpeth, New South Wales
Morpeth is a suburb of the City of Maitland Local Government Area in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the southern banks of the Hunter River at the border between the City of Maitland and Port Stephens Council LGAs...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. She served as a teacher in New South Wales before joining the British Methodist Missionary Society as a mission sister in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. She worked hard, without regard to her health and after six years her health broke down. She returned to Australia for medical treatment and was refused permission to serve in India again on medical grounds.
Arrival in Fiji
In February, at the Conference for Overseas Missions, she heard of the need for a mission sister for Indian work in Fiji. She offered her services and with her knowledge of UrduUrdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
was happily accepted. Women's organisations linked to the Methodist Church in Australia raised funds for her trip and she arrived in Fiji on 24 August 1897. There were no facilities to accommodate her in Suva, and being determined to live close to the Indians, she found a room with a verandah in the Indian quarter of Suva.
Early years in Fiji
She established the first school for Indian children in Suva, on her verandah, where she taught Urdu and English to 40 children. Her time-table was: School from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., visiting homes from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and three nights a week of night school for young men until 9:30 p.m. On Wednesday nights she held a class for ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
instruction and on Sundays she held services on her verandah. On Sundays she also walked three miles to the local gaol to speak to 400 prisoners and pray with condemned prisoners about to be hanged. Initially, she was paid only £50 p.a. and this was raised to £75 p.a. in 1899. With this meagre sum she supported herself and later five children as well. In 1900, her mother, Lily Dudley, came to live with her and assist her in her work. This was an unofficial arrangement and Lily taught music to earn money for herself and the mission.
Indian Mission Hall
As the Church realised the extent of her work, erection of two native school buildings at NausoriNausori
Nausori is a town in Fiji. It had a population of 47,604 at the 2007 census, the most recent to date. This makes it the fourth most populous municipality in the country. Situated 19 kilometers out of Suva, it forms one pole of the burgeoning Suva-Nausori corridor.Nausori grew up around Fiji's...
and Davuilevu
Davuilevu
Davuilevu, the name of the site upon which three Methodist Church of Fiji institutions are located, can be translated as "the large conch shell"....
were authorised and she was allowed to use the Jublee Church for her day classes and for her Indian services on Sundays. She wanted a wooden church and collected money to have one built and it dedicated on 19 December 1901 at the site of the present Dudley High School, called the Indian Mission Hall.
Adopted children
During her first year of arrival in Fiji, she began adopting orphans. She started with two girls and a boy but soon the number of adopted children had grown to eleven. The most famous of these was a boy given to Hannah Dudley by his father when the mother deserted him. He took his foster-mother's name and became Raymond Dudley. He went on to became the President of the New ZealandNew Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
Methodist Conference in 1956. As her adopted family grew, the Church decided to build an orphanage for her at Davuilevu but she refused to move there. In 1904 an orphanage was built at Davuilevu, called The Dudley Orphanage for Indian Children.
On 26 July 1905, she suddenly left for Bengal to join the Faith Mission, taking the children with her under her own name. Weeping Indians on the Suva Wharf showed the general feeling of the Indian community but the Mission Board in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
was annoyed with her for relinquishing her work. Indian mission work in Suva suffered in her absence. She returned to Suva in July 1908. Two of the children that she had taken with her had died in India.
Later years
She again devoted herself to her work but her influence had waned. She had seen the effect that the indenture system had had on Indians in Fiji, particularly on women, and did her best to have the system abolished. She left Fiji in August 1913 because of illness, taking five girls and young Raymond with her. Australian immigration laws forced her to move with her children to AucklandAuckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
. In 1924, she again offered to return to Fiji but her offer was declined because of her age and her independent habits. She died in Auckland on 3 May 1931 at the age of sixty-eight. She has left behind her legacy in Suva - the Dudley High School
Dudley High School
A prominent co-ed high school on Toorak Hill, Suva, Fiji that is run by the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma. It is named after a missionary sister, Hannah Dudley who dedicated her life to taking care of Indian women and orphans that were victims of the vicious indentured system that brought...
and the Dudley Memorial Church.