page_title: Alexandrina Matilda MacPhail
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Alexandrina Matilda MacPhail / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: Christina Rainy Hospital in its prime - built in 1914 in Madras - guess at 1920 for pic but could be older
context_page_description: Alexandrina Matilda MacPhail, OBE was a Scottish doctor who graduated from the London School of Medicine for Women. In 1887, she became a missionary and doctor in India, where she founded what would become a large hospital in Madras. During the First World War, she also worked for the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service as a doctor in Serbia and France.
context_section_description: After graduation, she travelled to Madras in India.
  MacPhail was the first woman physician sent by the Free Church of Scotland as a medical missionary. At the time she was sent to take the post, there were only 60 women registered as physicians in England and only ten were serving abroad. MacPhail founded a permanent dispensary and clinic in her home in Madras during 1888, primarily focussing on health care for women and children. Christina Rainy, a Scottish educationist (and sister of Robert Rainy), arrived in Madras towards the end of the 19th century, and began raising funds to support the clinic back in Scotland. These additional funds allowed for the clinic to be expanded and a fully fledged mission, Rainy Hospital, was opened in 1914 by Lord Pentland.
  During The Great War, MacPhail travelled to Serbia as a doctor and worked for the French under the auspices of the SWH at a sanatorium in Haute Savoie.
  MacPhail returned to the hospital in Madras and was still working there in 1928. The hospital was nearly entirely funded by contributions by some private patients and some charitable grants.
caption: Rainy Hospital in its prime
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