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People and organizations
Person · 1881-1959

Ethel Susan McEachran was a Presbyterian, and later United Church, missionary and educator. She was born on September 13, 1881 in York County to Colin and Martha (née Proctor) McEachran. She attended the London Normal School and taught for nine years. While the exact dates are unknown, records indicate McEachran also attended the Ontario College of Education and the Presbyterian Missionary and Deaconess Training Home.

In 1913, McEachran was appointed by the Presbyterian Church in Canada's Foreign Mission Committee, Western Section to Korea. From 1913-1915 she was stationed in Sŏngjin (now Kimch'aek) to learn Korean and probably to teach at the local girls' school. In 1915 she founded the Young Saing Girls' School in Hamhŭng, becoming its first principal. She took a leave of absence and returned to Canada in order to attend Queen's University in Kingston, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1922. She remained principal until 1941 when the wartime exodus of missionaries forced McEachran to return to Canada.

She continued her missionary work in a domestic setting, being stationed as superintendent of St. Columba House in Montreal between 1941 and 1943, then at Settlement House, Regina between 1945 and 1947, and finally to carry out community work in Saskatoon. McEachran retired to Toronto in 1951, but continued teaching English classes for immigrant communities.

McEachran died on October 27, 1959 at the age of 78, and is buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.