page_title: William James Wanless
section_title: Mission in India
hierarchical_section_title: William James Wanless / Mission in India
caption_attribution_description: English: Title: Dr. William Wanless (c.1888) Abstract: Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church supported Dr. Wanless' missionary work and clinic in Miraj, India; 106 years later the church still supports the Miraj Medical Centre Keywords: Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church/Wanless, Dr. William/Miraj Medical Centre Source: Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church Archives; Binder: 4; Collection: W. Robert Swartz. Image was likely taken at the New York University School of Medicine while Wanless was studying there prior to his graduation in 1889.
context_page_description: Sir William James Wanless FACS was a Canadian-born surgeon, humanitarian and Presbyterian missionary who founded a medical mission in Miraj, India in 1894 and led it for nearly 40 years. As part of this mission, Dr. Wanless founded India's first missionary medical school in 1897, and helped to establish a leprosy sanatorium as well as a tuberculosis hospital, now known as the Wanless Chest Hospital.
  His medical mission turned the once-small village of Miraj into a major medical center in India. By the time he retired in 1928, the clinic he started had become a 250-bed hospital with several important adjuncts. He is considered by many to be India's most famous surgeon of the 19th century, and was known throughout Asia, personally treating princes, rajahs and Mahatma Gandhi. In 1928, he was knighted by King George V, who appointed him Knight Bachelor of the British Empire, for treating 1,000,000 patients and restoring sight to 12,000 of them. The Wanless Hospital in Miraj bears his name, and is now a modern 550-bed teaching hospital.
context_section_description: The Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, sent Dr. Wanless to India in 1889. In 1891, he selected the rustic town of Miraj in Maharashtra State for the mission hospital. The Mission was started as a one-room dispensary in a very small rented place at a busy bazaar, and he was assisted by his wife, Mary, a trained nurse. The Rajah of Miraj, Rajah Sir Gangadharrao Ganesh (Bala Saheb) Patwardhan, provided him with land for a hospital which was formally opened in 1894, in a part of the city now known as Wanlesswadi.
  With the establishment of a hospital, the need for higher quality medical care was increasingly felt, and towards that end a School of Nursing was founded in 1897 under the superintendence of Miss Elizabeth Foster.  It has since steadily developed into one of the best nursing schools in Maharashtra.
  The Mary Wanless Hospital was founded in memory of Wanless's first wife Mary after her death in 1906. Now called the Mary Wanless Hospital / Miraj Medical Centre, it still attracts hundreds of poor and needy patients from across India and abroad. He established the Miraj Christian Medical School in 1907, which later graduated its first group of 17 students, with its only qualified teacher being Wanless himself. In 1917 the medical school was recognized for a Diploma of Licentiate by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Mumbai (LCPS), similar to the LRCP of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) of England.
  Wanless established a Tuberculosis Sanatorium in 1920. At the time of his retirement in 1928, money was raised by citizens and his friends to erect a new building called the Wanless Tuberculosis Sanatorium, now known  as  Wanless Chest Hospital. It is one of the premier institutions in the country.
  The Vail Memorial Cancer Institute, named after Dr. Charles E. Vail who joined Wanless three years later, and the Goheen Psychiatric Clinic were started in 1937 and 1955 respectively. The Goheen Clinic was named after Dr. Robert H. H. Goheen, father of Robert Francis Goheen, These facilities have effectively served the purposes for which they were established, that is in providing quality health care to all irrespective of caste, creed, religion or financial means.
  Additionally, Wanless established five outpost stations attached to the hospital, and paid the hospital's staff of 125, living only on his missionary's salary sent by the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, while donating his personal staff salary to the mission.
caption: William Wanless, age 23, at the New York University School of Medicine, ca.1888.
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