Wood, Kitty
| Birth Name |
Wood, Kitty |
| Gender |
female |
Events
| Type |
Date |
Place |
Description |
Notes |
| Birth |
|
Ohio, US |
|
|
Attributes
| _UID |
7EFA86CC5601D511ABDE0080AD013CF8F245 |
Gallery
Kitty Woods B-K
Narrative
Kitty was born and educated in Lockport, New York. Her father, the
Rev. Levi Wood, was one of the pioneers of the Free Methodist church.
Kitty sailed to the East with a group of 30 missionaries in 1867. On
her arrival in Ceylon, in order to communicate better with the
people, she decided to study Tamil, and her tutor was Gate Mudaliar
K.C. Barr Kumarakulasinghe, who held a high position in the office of
the governor, Sir West Ridgeway. They fell in love and married and
had three children. Unfortunately K.C.B. died at the early age of 46,
when he contracted a severe illness in the Maldive Islands on an
administrative trip with the governor.
Wishing to educate the children in the United States, Kitty decided
to return home to New York, but tragedy overtook her. Two of her
children died of diphtheria on the long voyage back and were buried
at sea. The youngest died on arrival in New York. To add to her
sorrows, Kitty's father, too, had died before she got home. The grief-
stricken Kitty returned to Ceylon and started an orphanage and school
in partnership with the Rev. Arthur Paynter.Kitty died in Ceylon in
1926, and is buried there. I had the good fortune to visit her grave
and the orphanage last year.
Narrative
Publications
Kumarakulasinghe, K. W. "Islam in the Maldive Islands", Moslem World, Vol 13, No. 1 Jan 1923, pp.67-69
K. Wood Kumarakulasinghe, "The tongues Earthquake Scare in Ceylon", Free Methodist, December 17, 1907
