Helen ROBERTSON

ROBERTSON, HELEN ('NELLIE') (b. Scotland, 1906; d. Khanapur, India, 1985). Open Brethren missionary to India.

Nellie Robertson emigrated from Scotland to Sydney in her youth. Her Open Brethren assembly commended her to our Lord for His work in the Belgaum District of India's Mysore State in 1928. Having gained language proficiency, she assisted the Maurice Warks in their newly established work with national orphan children at Daddi. Despite offers of marriage, Nellie Robertson chose to give her whole time to service, and remained in India after her second furlough in 1948. In 1951 she with the Warks, moved to Khanapur, where normal schools existed. The change was marred by the sad loss of one of her girls in an accident, but she took comfort in the fact that the young one had become a Christian in a spiritual awakening four years earlier. The move freed her to teach her 65 girls godly life skills rather than a more secular curriculum, while continuing to care for the younger children.

A precise Marathi linguist, Nellie Robertson translated Daily Light on the Daily Path, and prepared a calendar with a verse for each day. The Bombay Tract and Book Society published them. She also translated Scripture Union notes, and Francis Dixon's Bible Study Notes. These helped national Christians with their studies and preachers with their sermon preparation. She used such money as she had to provide Marathi Bible study material and hymn books for the use of Indian believers, and to provide assistance and hospitality to anyone in need.

Nellie Robertson learned the skills of hand loom weaving in order to train her girls and leprosy hospital patients in appropriate technology. She wrote comparatively few letters for publication in Australia, but what she did write was picturesque. In 1954 she described how the girls in her care accepted an abandoned infant: 'She is thriving on love and regular feeding. The bigger girls think nothing a trouble to do for her and she has brought a lot of joy into the home'. In 1973 she adopted Neela and Neesha, who, with many other of Nellie Robertson's girls, live on in her old house. Her letters showed her delight in their development. Small wonder that she remained in selfless service to them and others until a heart attack took her life.

M H Saxby, Sounding Out (Sydney, 1973); Australian Missionary Tidings Jan-Feb 1986, March 1986

IAN MCDOWELL