Grace Paul
A young, dark-skinned South Asian woman, wearing a white dress. Her dark hair is parted and dressed back and low at the nape. She is looking directly at the camera and not smiling.
Grace Paul, from the 1924 Mount Holyoke College yearbook
Born1901
Jaffna
NationalitySri Lankan
OccupationEducator

Grace Jecks Paul (born 1901 – died after 1972) was a Tamil Christian educator from Sri Lanka. She was principal at three girls' schools in Sri Lanka, and a founding member of the Ceylon Federation of University Women in 1941.

Early life

Paul was born in Jaffna, to Tamil Christian parents, Rev. Isaac Paul and Elizabeth Holsington Paul.[1] Her grandfather, father, and uncles were pastors, connected with the American Ceylon Mission.[2] She graduated from Uduvil Seminary and Madras Christian College before attending Mount Holyoke College in 1920.[3][2] At Mount Holyoke, she was president of the Cosmopolitan Club.[4] She graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1924,[5] and pursued further studies at Teachers College, Columbia University.[6]

While a student in the United States, she attended the 19th Conference of Women's Foreign Missionary Societies in 1922, in Massachusetts.[7] In 1924, she spoke at the Fourth Congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in Washington.[8]

Career

Paul taught science at Uduvil Girls' School, and was eventually principal of the school's bilingual program. From 1947 to 1955, she was principal at Girls' High School, Kandy,[9] the school's first Sri Lankan head.[10] From 1958 to 1964, she was principal of St. Paul's Girls School, Milagiriya. She was known for requiring laboratory work in her classes.[6]

In 1941 she was a founding member of the Ceylon Federation of University Women, along with Doreen Young Wickremasinghe, Hilda Kularatne, Susan George Pulimood, Marjorie Westrop, and Clara Motwani. She was the only native-born founder of the organization, and its first Sri Lankan president, leading the federation from 1944 to 1946 and from 1958 to 1959.[11]

Personal life

In 1932, she visited one of her brothers, clergyman and educator Charles Blackshear Paul, in Singapore[12] and spoke on her experiences in the United States.[13] She survived her brother Charles when he died in 1973.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Foreign Women Welcomed as Students Here". The Baltimore Sun. October 29, 1922. p. 105. Retrieved November 30, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Our Own Girls at Madras College". Life and Light for Woman. 49: 467–468. November 1919.
  3. ↑ "To Proclaim Release to the Captives" Life and Light 51(December 1921): 436. via Internet Archive
  4. ↑ "Cosmopolitan Club Formed by Girls at Mt. Holyoke". The Tampa Tribune. January 7, 1923. p. 10. Retrieved November 30, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Mount Holyoke College, The Llamarada (1924 yearbook): 127.
  6. 1 2 "Grace Paul '24". Mount Holyoke College. 2013-06-14. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  7. ↑ Butler, Clementina (October 1922). "The Nineteenth Conference of Women's Foreign Missionary Societies". Record of Christian Work. 41: 672–673.
  8. ↑ Report of the fourth congress of the Women's international league for peace and freedom, Washington, May 1 to 7, 1924. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Washington, U.S.A. : Women's international league, U.S. section; [etc., etc. 1924. pp. 15–16.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ↑ Paul, Grace J. (June 1958). "Christian Education in Ceylon". Journal of Christian Education. os-1 (1): 45–48. doi:10.1177/002196575800100106. ISSN 0021-9657. S2CID 149126443.
  10. ↑ "Past Principals". Girls’ High School Kandy. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
  11. ↑ "75 years of Sri Lanka Federation of University Women". The Island. 10 September 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Missionary Teacher in Singapore". Malaya Tribune. May 10, 1932. p. 3. Retrieved November 30, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Experiences in America; Miss Paul Addresses Local Audience". Malaya Tribune. May 12, 1932. p. 10. Retrieved November 30, 2019 – via NewspaperSG.
  14. ↑ "Rev. 'Julius Caesar' Dies, aged 77". The Straits Times. January 4, 1973. p. 20. Retrieved November 30, 2019 – via NewspaperSG.
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