Margaret Elizabeth Noble (Sister Nivedita) (original) (raw)

Writer and Indian Nationalist 1867 – 1911

Margaret Noble was born in Dungannon, County Tyrone, and was educated in Halifax. She taught in Keswick, north Wales and in Chester. She studied the teaching methods of Froebel and Pestalozzi and was co-founder of a school in Wimbledon which put these principles into action. In 1893, as a member of the London Sesame Club, she spoke in favour of the Home Rule Bill. She met Swami Vivekandanda in London in 1895 and joined his Ramakrishna Mission. In 1897 she went as a missionary nun, Sister Nivedita, to India, where she founded a school in Calcutta, the Sister Nivedita Girls’ School. Among her publications are Kali the Mother; The Master as I Saw Him and The Web Of Indian Life which is regarded in India as one of the few fair accounts of Hindu society written in English. She was in favour of Indian nationalism and lobbied British members of parliament to this end. When she died her body was cremated in Darjeeling, and a memorial to her is inscribed: ‘Here reposes Sister Nivedita, who gave her all to India’. A commemorative Indian stamp was issued in her honour, and her school has published an official biography, Sister Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivikananda. Among those who paid her tribute was Rabindranath Tagore who said: ‘She was, in fact, a mother of the people’.

Source: Dictionary of Ulster Biography Kate Newmann, The Institute of Irish Studies, Queens University of Belfast, 1991

Date of unveiling: 7 December 2007

**Location of plaque:**16 Scotch street, Dungannon, Co Tyrone

Report of Plaque unveiling available HERE