Letters of Lawrence and Caroline Hogg

The collection consists of twenty-six microfiche copies of letters. The first three (1910-1920) are letters written by Lawrence Hogg in Scotland before he went to India and the last two (1921-1923) are letters of Caroline M. Dixon before she married. The remaining letters record the Hoggs' many encounters with missionaries and Indian Church leaders, Hogg's views on independence, the contacts the Hoggs had with relatives in India and Upper Egypt, and offer a portrait of Christian work in Calcutta during the 1920s and 1930s.

Lawrence A. Hogg, was born in Edinburgh in 1882 the son of the missionary John Hogg. He worked for Adam and Charles Black, publishers, in Glasgow then went to India to organise the press and book distribution service of the YMCA. He remained in India between 1921 and 1943 and was based chiefly in Calcutta but travelled widely in North India. His work was a great success and he enabled many Indian writers to be published as well as publishing the books of Scottish missionaries such as J.N. Farquhar and Nicol MacNicol. He was particularly close to K.T. Paul and S.K. Datta. Hogg's brother was the famous theologian and missionary A.G. Hogg and his sister, Bessie, was the head of the Church of Scotland girl's high school in Calcutta. Caroline May Dixon came from a family of solicitors in Bristol. She went to university in Bristol where she joined the Student Christian Movement and became a student volunteer. During the First World War she spent four years learning Sanskrit and Bengali in Jersey. She was sent by the Church Missionary Society to its girls' high school in Calcutta where she worked for two years before marrying Lawrence Hogg. She was a great friend of William and Grace Paton and other ecumenical leaders. After her husband's death in 1962 Caroline Hogg lived near her daughter Rena in Sutton Coldfield.

The letters were arranged in date order before being filmed with the letters written by Caroline May Dixon being filed at the end of the collection.

Generally open for consultation to bona fide researchers, but please contact repository for details in advance.

The microfiche collection was presented to New College Library by Alan Partridge, former Church Missionary Society missionary in Nigeria and South India and son-in-law of the Hoggs.

The biographical history was compiled using information from the collection.

Compiled by Caroline Brown, Edinburgh University Library, Special Collections Division. Revised by Graeme D Eddie.

The Index to Manuscripts and the Inventory of Manuscripts at New College Library mention the collection. Correspondence about the collection and an index of the fiches by date are filed with the material itself.

Other microfiche copies were given to Dr Eleanor Jackson and the Church Missionary Society.

Contact the repository for details.

Dr Eleanor Jackson made use of the letters in various writings about India and in her book about William Paton.

At the time of deposit the originals remained with the Hogg family and were to be given to the Hoggs' son, John H. Hogg, of Fort William.