Mabel Maclean, from Orillia Ontario, entered the Presbyterian Missionary and Deaconess Training Home in Toronto in 1911. She graduated in 1913 from the full two year program making her eligible to be designated as a Deaconess by the Presbytery of Toronto before taking an appointment with the Women’s Missionary Society to serve in Kharua, Central India.  Mabel was in India until at least 1916, perhaps longer.  The records are not clear.  The book cited below gives a picture of the Presbyterian Mission in India, portraying the motivations and  expectations of the missionary project at the time.

In the Heart of India, The Work of the Canadian Presbyterian Mission  by J. T. Taylor,  Board of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Full Text Available at: http://www27.us.archive.org/stream/inheartofindiawo00tayluoft/inheartofindiawo00tayluoft_djvu.txt

The Deaconess appointment records do not include the names of the women serving overseas.  It is possible that a search of the WMS records could reveal more about Mabel’s story.  What is known is that in 1924 the Historic register of Presbyterian Deaconesses describes her as “Retired through Marriage, Mrs. Hale”.

Biography written by Caryn Douglas, October 2012