Elmslie (1832-1872) was a Scottish Presbyterian doctor working in Kashmir and the
Punjab for the Church Missionary Society. He opened Kashmir’s first dispensary, in Srinigar in 1865,
later expanding it into a small hospital. He also published the first ever Kashmiri-English dictionary (A
Vocabulary of the Kashmiri Language, 1872). In 1872 he married Margaret Duncan, but died not long
afterwards when on his way from Srinagar to Amritsar after becoming trapped in snow. His wife
continued work in Amritsar, and assisted by their friend William Thomson wrote the present life of her
husband.