MACPHAIL, James Merry. Shaflesbury, Dorset 1863 — Tisri, Bihar 15.6.1929. British (Scottish) Missionary Physician. Son of Dugald Macphail and Janet Merry. Studies at Glasgow. M.A. 1885, M.D. 1895. A physician of the Santal Mission of the Free Church of Scotland.He was a specialist of eye surgeryand in 1890 founded Bamdah Medical Mission in Chakai region. Married 1898 Janet Russell Wells (1868–1958), also a physician, six children (i.al. —> R. M. Macphail).

Publications: Publ. med. diss. Five years’ practice among the village population in India; with an analysis of 10,865 cases. 60 p. Pokhuria 1895.

– “The Santals of Bengal”, Proc. of Royal Philos. Soc. of Glasgow 38, 1907, 70 p.; The Story of the Santal, with an account of the Santal Rebellion. 87 p. L. 1922.

– Asoka. 2+88 p. The Heritage of India Series. L. 1918, 2nd ed. 97 p. 1926.

– Missionary biographies, etc.

Sources: S.P. Sinha, Conflict and Tension in Tribal Society. Delhi 1993, 122f.; ; parents and family in myheritage.com; archive.org/stream/clippingsmimeogr00unse_62/clippingsmimeogr00unse_62_djvu.txt contains an obituary confirming the death date (elsewhere claimed as 1918) and adds a few details.