Eleanor Jane Taylor Calverley facts for kids

Eleanor Calverley (1887–1968) was the first medical missionary in Kuwait to gain the trust of Arab women who were forbidden to see male physicians.

Early life

Born in Woodstock, New Jersey, on March 24, 1887 to William Lewis and Jane Long Hillman Taylor, Calverley was educated in public schools of New Haven, Connecticut. She later graduated in 1908 after pursuing a medical education at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. On September 6, 1909, Eleanor married Edwin E. Calverley, a missionary and preacher, with whom she trained for work in the Arabian Peninsula. They traveled together to Kuwait in 1911, and worked there for many years. In time, their family grew to include three daughters: Grace, Elisabeth and Eleanor.

Work

To provide medical care to the general population and the Kuwaiti women in particular, she opened a small dispensary connected to her home. In 1919, under Elanor's leadership, a women's hospital was opened.

We saw both wealth and poverty among the Arab and Persian populations of Kuwait. Some Persian families were rich; but there were others, recently immigrated from Persia, who had no homes except the sand beside a boat drawn up on the shore. Their only protection was a curtain of sacking, fastened above them to the side of the boat and pegged down into the sand. Freed African slaves, deprived of their former master's support, were also often destitute. Of such we could not require any fee for medical service.