Dr. Florence Haslam, an Anglican and daughter of medical missionaries who was awarded the Order of Canada in 1974 for her healthcare work in India, died in May at the age of 93 in Toronto.
She was also honoured by the Indian government for her dedication. She treated the family of the Dalai Lama and other Tibetans after their escape from the Chinese forces in 1959.
Her parents, Rev. R.H.A. Haslam and Dr. Jean Hoyles Haslam, established the Maple Leaf Hospital in the Kangra region of northern India in 1907. The had gone to India as medical missionaries with the Anglican church. The need of veiled Muslim and Hindu women for a doctor prompted the elder Dr. Haslam to start the hospital, which was funded by the Anglican Church of Canada.
Her daughter later turned it into an 82-bed earthquake-proof modern facility. Dr. Florence Haslam stayed in India 40 years, returning to Canada in 1974. In 1975, she was awarded an honorary doctorate in canon law by Emmanuel College of the University of Saskatchewan, her undergraduate alma mater.
