Born 1868,
Strathroy, Ontario, Canada
Died February 7, 1908,
Canada

The life of Canadian missionary Susie Carson Rijnhart is remarkable in many ways. She became a physician when it was extremely difficult for a woman to do so, and as a person with a clear sense of purpose, she learned both Chinese and Tibetan in order to carry out her mission. Proving herself to be a survivor, she suffered a harrowing journey that made her the second European woman to enter and return from Tibet.

Susie Carson was born in the small town of Strathroy in Ontario, Canada, where her father was the Methodist minister. Deciding at an early age that she wanted to be a medical missionary, she graduated from the Woman’s Medical College in Toronto in 1888. Six years later she met Petrus Rijnhart, a Dutch missionary who had just returned from China. They...