Robert Clark (1825–1900), and his colleague Thomas Henry Fitzpatrick,[1] were the first English Church Mission Society (CMS) missionaries in the Punjab.
[2][3][4] As there were no dictionaries and grammars existing in Punjab when Clark arrived, everything had been made from the beginning to assist in missionary and administrative activities.
To achieve this, he crossed the Indus River, explored Kashmir and Ladakh, and penetrated some way into the Himalayas and western Tibet.
At Peshawar, he worked with Karl Gottlieb Pfander, a Basel Mission missionary in Central Asia.
[2][4] While in London, he married Elizabeth Mary Browne, daughter of a Scottish doctor who retired on 14 May 1858 after forty-four years of service in Calcutta.
It was subsequently formed at Lahore on 24 January 1864, to work with the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society,[6] especially in the valley of Kashmir.
Crowds, as many as hundreds of women, who would have died of simple illness, came to consult her, and Clark started his career as a teacher.
Elizabeth's success as a doctor in Kashmir provided a "key" to Clark to unlock the minds of natives; subsequently he initiated the movement that resulted in the wide establishment of "Medical missions" throughout India.
According to Clark:[2][3][8]Medical Missions are amongst the most important means of evangelising India; and the attention of all Societies should be more distinctly drawn that has hitherto been the case to the opportunities which they afford.