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{{Short description|Educational missionary (1802–1888)}}

[[File:Mrs. Amelia Dorothea Baker.jpg|thumb]]
'''Amelia Dorothea Baker, Sr''' (1802–1888) was a religious educational missionary working in [[Kottayam]], [[Kerala]], India in the 19th century. She grew up in a missionary family and married fellow religious missionary Henry Baker. With the [[Church Mission Society|Church Missionary Society]], Baker worked to for the education of women and girls of the community, founding of the first CMS girls' school in [[Travancore]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Gladston |first=Hepsi |date=January 31, 2006 |title=History of Education of Women in Kerala 1819–1947 |url=https://samyuktajournal.in/history-of-education-of-women-in-kerala-1819-1947/ |journal=Samyutka: A Journal of Gender and Culture |volume=6 |issue=1}}</ref> [[Baker Memorial Girls High School|Baker Memorial Girl's High School]] was the first school to implement uniforms to promote equality amongst students and in 1952 became the home of India's first [[Girl Guide and Girl Scout|Girl Guide]] troops.

==Early life==
Born in 1802 in [[Thanjavur|Thanjavur (Tanjore)]], India, Amelia Dorothea Baker belonged to a missionary family. Staying in South India her whole life, Baker grew up doing missionary work alongside her uncle J.C. Kohlhoffin.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Church Missionary Society Periodicals |url=https://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/ |website=churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Citation |title=Typical Missionary, The Church Missionary Gleaner, Jan 1897, © Church Mission Society |date= |url=https://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/ |work=Who's Who |publisher=Church Missionary Society Periodicals, Adam Matthew Explorer}}</ref> She married Henry Baker in 1818. {{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
== Career==
With her husband away for long stretches of time with CMS, Baker focused her missionary work locally. Locally referred to as ''Walia Madama'' (Great Lady), Baker worked closely with community members who came to her for advice on matters including medical, domestic, and personal. One local said "he [wished] all women were Christians, if they were to be like Mrs. Baker."<ref name=":1" />

===Girls' school===
Alongside a fellow missionary wife, Mrs. Fenn, Baker established a small girls' school out of her bungalow.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} The year that Baker first started the school is given as 1819<ref name=":2" /> or 1820.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" />

Considered the first girls' school in the state it started small with about 12 girls, growing to 18 the following year. Baker ran the school under the motto "Love Never Faileth" with the goal of "educating a future nation" by empowering girls with "the strength of education".<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=ADDRESS AT THE BICENTENARY CELEBBRATIONS OF BAKER MEMORIAL GIRLS' HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL AT KOTTAYAM – – AT 1130 HRS ON 29-01-2019 |url=https://www.rajbhavan.kerala.gov.in/index.php/speeches1/517-address-at-the-bicentenary-celebbrations-of-baker-memorial-girls-higher-secondary-school-at-kottayam-at-1130-hrs-on-29-01-2019 |website=www.rajbhavan.kerala.gov.in}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Abraham |first=George |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RK__DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT289 |title=Lanterns on the Lanes: Lit for Life… |date=2020-12-28 |publisher=Notion Press |isbn=978-1-64899-659-7 |language=en}}</ref> The school began as a day school but became boarding when Baker took in 6 of her students. Students lived as far as 100 miles from the school grounds which were located near the CMS built church. By its tenth year Baker's school boarded 42 young women. Government funding was used to subsidize the cost.<ref name=":3" />

As was common in the pursuits of "[[Female education]]" of the time, Baker's school aimed to educate girls in both academic and lively pursuits. Girls were taught to read, speak English, sew, knit, spin, and mend clothes with the hope of providing them with the tools to successfully [[Women in India|financially support themselves]] and their future families. The school also sought to make its students eligible wives for missionaries, their dowries often covered by the CMS.<ref name=":3" />

Though the school was, and is, religiously affiliated it accepted students of all classes and creeds. Students were not required to distance themselves from any part of their culture and were often seen on campus wearing traditional [[Mekhela chador|Mekha motiram]].{{cn|date=January 2024}}

==Personal life==
Together they had 11 children.{{cn|date=January 2024}} Their son [[Henry Baker Jr]] served the CMS across India for 36 years.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wace |first=Henry |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.167385 |title=Christianity and agnosticism : a controversy consisting of papers by Henry Wace ... [et al.] |date=1889 |publisher=Humboldt Pub. Co. |location=New York|doi=10.5962/bhl.title.167385 }}</ref> Their daughter Amelia Johnson (Baker) also stayed in Kottayam to run [[Baker Memorial Girls High School|Baker Memorial Girl's High School]]. In 1840, she married the first missionary ordained in Kottayam, John Johnson.<ref name=":0" />

==Death and legacy==
Baker stayed in Kottayam till her death in 1888. She is buried there alongside her husband.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

Baker's legacy continued in the Baker Memorial Girl's High School. In 1893 Amelia Johnson alongside her daughters took over the running of the girls' school. In honor of Baker's memory and work, the CMS created the Amelia Baker Memorial Fund whose profits went to the foundation of multiple girls schools.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Church Missionary Society - The Church Missionary Intelliger 1893 |url=https://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/ |access-date= |website=Church Missionary Society Periodicals, Adam Matthew Explorer}}</ref> The first was opened in 1893 between [[Kottayam|Kottoyam]] and [[Palam, Delhi|Pallam]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Church Missionary Society - Church Missionary Gleaner 1893 |url=https://www.churchmissionarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/ |website=Church Missionary Society Periodicals, Adam Matthew Explorer}}</ref> The [[Kerala]] state board of education designated it an upper secondary school in 1894 the same year it was renamed 'Miss Bakers School' in memory of the past Miss Bakers. In 1904 it was upgraded into a high school and became officially state affiliated in 1952.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VWuh1UZzfAsC |title=Journal of Educational Planning and Administration |date=1990 |publisher=National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration |language=en}}</ref>

Baker's school was one of the first girls schools in India to implement uniform, with the goal of creating equity amongst its students. Additionally, the School was the first school in India to found a [[Girl Guides]] troop.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=HISTORY |url=https://bakergirlshss.in/baker-memorial-girls-higher-secondary-school-kottayam-7/ |access-date= |website=Baker Memorial Girls' Higher Secondary School |language=en-US}}</ref>

The school is currently designated a [[Secondary school|Higher Secondary School]] (as of 1998) and enrolls over 1400 young women.<ref name=":2" /> In 2014, a final branch of the school was designated in the Baker College for Women.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Baker College for Women |url=https://bakerwomenscollege.ac.in/Web/fetchHistory |website=bakerwomenscollege.ac.in}}</ref> The school celebrated its bicentennial anniversary in 2019 and is still regarded as "one of the best English schools in [[Travancore]]."<ref name=":4" />കോട്ടയത്തെ ബേക്കർ jn അറിയപ്പെടുന്നത് അവരുടെ പേരിൽ ആണ് henry baker and amelia baker

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Amelia}}
[[Category:1802 births]]
[[Category:1888 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century evangelicals]]
[[Category:Evangelical Anglicans]]
[[Category:Indian evangelicals]]
[[Category:Missionary educators]]

Amelia Baker - Revision history

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