Elizabeth Hewat was born in Prestwick, western Scotland, the youngest of four daughters of Kirkwood and Elizabeth Hewat. Kirkwood was a dedicated Presbyterian minister, a fine historian and an ebullient personality, and Elizabeth, his wife, had an infectious interest in home and overseas mission. Three of the daughters, including Elizabeth, became missionaries overseas. The fourth married a minister.
In her schooling, Elizabeth was indebted to Wellington School, Ayr, which had an academic reputation and was led by two women. Elizabeth was later named as one of two ‘notable pupils’ of her era. She spoke of the two Principals as ‘alive to new ideas in education’ and recalled a conversation when one of them spoke about ‘a wealthy cultured woman’ locally, ‘who went to prison rather than pay taxes when she had no vote’.
It was evident that University was the next step for Elizabeth. She matriculated in Edinburgh in 1915-1916, entering the Faculty of Arts. Fellow-students who had come from overseas included one from China and one from India, both countries where Elizabeth would live and work. In 1919, she was awarded the Kirkpatrick History Scholarship – £96, a significant sum at the time (probably about £5,000 now) – which recognised distinction in an area of history.
In the University Women’s Debating Society, Elizabeth was Secretary. She enjoyed discussion and was known for her sense of fun, friendliness, and outgoing delight in living. Another University Society in which Elizabeth was an office-bearer was the Women’s Christian Union. Its aim was ‘to unite women students in Christian fellowship’. Meetings were held ‘for Bible, Social, and Missionary study, and assistance given in Social Service Work’. Elizabeth’s later involvements in spirituality, teaching, missionary service and ecumenical work were foreshadowed here.
Having completed her MA, with first class honours in History, Elizabeth was recruited by the University of St Andrews as an Assistant Lecturer. Through connections in Edinburgh with international mission, the way subsequently opened for her to spend two years on the staff of the International Review of Missions, the first ecumenical mission journal of its kind in English. Elizabeth learned from the co-editor, Georgina Gollock, for example through assisting with her remarkable global surveys. Georgina was a role model for younger women leaders. Elizabeth’s own writing began to be published. She was involved in assisting Georgina in writing and editing An Introduction to Missionary Service, (OUP).
In 1922 Elizabeth was recruited as a lecturer at the Women’s Missionary College, Edinburgh, a community of about 50 women from parts of Africa, Asia and Europe. The building had a croquet lawn, tennis court, library/lecture room, dining room, common room, and bedrooms. The chapel was a vital space for prayer. Annie Small, the founding director, believed ‘unless prayer is at the heart of the life, nothing goes right’. Elizabeth followed this priority in her life as a lecturer. She would develop her thinking about spiritual experience in a book, Thine own Secret Stair.
During this time Elizabeth was a student at New College, Edinburgh, for a degree in theology, a Bachelor of Divinity. At the time of her graduation, in 1926, she was the first women to obtain a BD at New College. The United Free Church of Scotland, of which she was a member, debated women in ministry that year. The final main speech referred to ‘a young woman in the College who had beaten all the men in her class’. This was Elizabeth, although she was not mentioned. There was not sufficient call for change.
Elizabeth was soon on her way, as a missionary, to Manchuria, China. With the cold of Manchuria in mind, she was advised to line her coat with fur, but not to do so until she reached Manchuria, as the heavy lining would be cheaper to buy there. There was an arrangement with a boot-maker in Edinburgh, who gave discounts to missionaries, and he kept the shape of someone’s foot so that new boots – and shoes, although boots were more needed in Manchuria – could be made and sent overseas when required!
In July 1927 Elizabeth wrote that she was ‘enjoying every moment’, with the study of Chinese ‘giving great delight’. Through this, she quickly gained the ability to communicate, and began to travel round the district. She was particularly interested in work among women and was increasingly successful in organising local Bible Schools for them. Elizabeth warmly welcomed the fact that in the 1920s the Manchurian churches had ‘opened their doors’ (as she put it) to the leadership of women.
On her return from China, Elizabeth completed a PhD, in which she looked at the writings of Confucius and how they compared with Old Testament wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. She had been stimulated in varied ways by life in China, and through being the first women to gain a PhD at New College she was, again, a mould-breaker.
Congregational ministry opened up, but sadly, and painfully for Elizabeth, her work was brought into question in the press by those opposed to women in ministry. A continued sense of call to international ministry led in 1935 to a post as Professor of History in Bombay (Mumbai) at Wilson College, founded by a Presbyterian, John Wilson. She paid special attention to the women students: about 30% of the students out of the total of about 800 at this point. Her theology degrees also meant that she was given biblical and ethical subjects as well as history to teach.
Female students looked to Elizabeth and found their time full of ‘rich experiences in intellectual pursuit’, marked by ‘the delight, the excitement, the thrill, the exhilaration’ of learning. Elizabeth saw, as India moved to Independence, how the College won and retained ‘the loyalty and respect’ of students. She had specific pastoral responsibility as Warden of the College’s Pandita Ramabai Hostel, for female students, and she encouraged activities and a range of studies. She also involved herself in the life of the Ambroli Church, founded, like the College, by Wilson, where she became an elder.
As well as her local ministry in Bombay, Elizabeth was in demand as a leader at student conferences and retreats. Some authors from whom she drew were Brother Lawrence, Teresa of Avila, John Bunyan, Daniel Considine, a Jesuit author of Delight in the Lord: Notes of Spiritual Direction and Exhortation, and Evelyn Underhill, an Anglo-Catholic writer whose best-known work was Mysticism. Much as Elizabeth valued varied authors on spirituality, she immersed herself in scripture, and that deep engagement meant she could lead others to this source of life.
It was a great wrench for Elizabeth to leave India. On returning to Scotland, she would ‘tell the people that there were many things they had to learn from the people in India’. Elizabeth was approached to ask if she would speak and write. Her historical magnum opus was Vision and Achievement, charting missionary endeavour on the part of churches that formed the Church of Scotland. She became involved in mission in Scotland, in campaigning for nuclear disarmament, and in a vigorous way in the ongoing campaign for the ordination of women in the Church of Scotland. For young women she mentored, there was the achievement of this step. She herself was the first women to be awarded an honorary Doctorate in Divinity from Edinburgh University. Her life was filled with the outworking of her beliefs, and her commitment to mould-breaking mission was unwavering.
