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My Days With Dr. Mary Rutnam and Robin Rutnam: by Chandra Arulpragasam Source: Island For the younger generation that may not know of Dr. Mary H. Rutnam; she was a Canadian missionary doctor, who came to Ceylon on her marriage to a Ceylonese missionary educator, Mr. S.C.K. Rutnam. She was born as Mary Irwin, in Ontario, Canada (1873-1962). She had a medical degree from Canada, but opted to work as a medical missionary in Ceylon. Later, after the mission did not approve of her marriage to a native Ceylonese, she ceased to be a missionary worker and settled into a medical practice in Colombo. Her patients were mainly women, mainly Muslim women who preferred to have a female doctor. Although she was white and foreign-born, it was remarkable that she was able to bypass the white-colonial structure in Ceylon and identify directly with its native people. She was a tireless worker ...