1 Reverend Effie Irvine made history when she became the first woman minister appointed to a parish in Scotland. Born Euphemia Brysland in 1924 in Whiteinch, Effie was brought up in Clydebank, evacuated to Balmore during the war, and later moved to Partick where she was educated at Hamilton Crescent School. She left, aged 14, to become an office girl in a plumber business, and joined the Anniesland firm of Barr & Stroud.

Rev Effie Irvine

Rev Effie Irvine

2 In 1951 Effie married Alex Irvine and after 16 years as a housewife, decided to go into religious studies teaching. According to her obituary in our sister newspaper The Herald: “After speaking at a woman’s meeting in her own church, she began to be asked to speak in others. She wrote: ‘I realised that if I were to be doing this kind of speaking which involved a gospel message, I’d need to be educated.’” Effie enrolled for correspondence courses at London University and began a divinity degree at Glasgow University in 1967.

3 A year into her course, the Kirk’s General Assembly decided women could enter its ministry “on the same terms and conditions as men”. On her second attempt, Effie applied to be a candidate for the ministry of the Church of Scotland, having graduated from Glasgow.

4 In 1971, Effie became full-time probationer assistant at Renfield St Stephens Church on Bath Street. On June 1, 1972, she was ordained to Campsie Trinity with Milton of Campsie, despite having initially turning them down as in her own words, she was a ‘townie and didn’t want to go to the country’. She became so well-loved in her parish that Irvine Gardens was named after her.

READ MORE: Tale of love, heartbreak and pioneering women hidden in Glasgow's costume collection

5 Over the years, she led many trips to Jerusalem. Effie retired in 1988 and published her autobiography, A Journey of Faith, in 2003. She died in 2018, aged 93.