She was educated at home,[1] so when her mother was too ill to serve as hostess she would step up to the role while he was Lord Provost.
Charteris acknowledged woman were already involved in Christian service but that there "was a need to develop and organize them as an official working unity within the church.
"[3] Another source credits Catherine Charteris's "wise counsel and loving heart" and that the guild "owes its very existence to her efforts".
Through that publication she inspired ambition and challenged complacency among the women readers who she thought suffered from low self esteem.
[5] (Discrimination within the church is illustrated by the milestone in the 1930s when the first woman, Lizzie Meredith, was allowed to chair the Guild's central committee.