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Although Mary Slessor was born in Aberdeen, she has been proudly claimed by the City of Dundee as a 'Dundee lass'.
Mary Slessor's father was a shoemaker who moved his family to Dundee in search of work and a new life. However, Mr Slessor liked to have a drink or two and, when he sunk into alcoholism, the only job he could find was as a labourer in one of Dundee's many jute mills.
Life must have been hard for the Slessor family and, although tenements very similar to the ones where they lived still provide homes to the people of Dundee, it's now one family per flat, rather than one family per room.
Mary was one of seven children but only four of them survived childhood, which came to an abrupt end in the mid-nineteenth century. At the age of 11, Mary joined the jute workforce although, thanks to her mother's determination that her children should have some kind of education, she was able to spend half the day at school and half the day at work.
Despite the long hours and harsh working conditions endured by even the 'half-timers', Mary managed to keep up with her school work and to attend the local church with her mother, who was deeply religious. They were both regulars at the church, which was beside the Wishart Arch, one of the few remaining arches still standing in the city.
By the age of 14, Mary's education was complete and she became a full-time mill worker, working from 6am until 6pm. Any free time was precious but Mary had inherited her mother's enthusiasm for religion and she happily devoted her day off to being a Sunday School teacher.
Mary worked in the jute mill until she was in her mid-twenties, when, inspired by David Livingstone, she applied to become a missionary in Africa.
At the age of 28, Mary was sent to the Calabar region of Nigeria, a place where no European had ever set foot. However, this tiny, red-haired Dundee girl, who described herself as 'wee and thin and not very strong', was determined to make a success of her mission.
Mary soon realised that the way to be accepted by the tribes of the Calabar was by living alongside them, learning their language and understanding their culture. However, although Mary was happy to observe most of the traditions the tribes followed, there were some that shocked her, including the ritual sacrifice of twins, and she fought hard - and successfully - to bring these barbaric customs to an end.
Mary also helped to improve the lives of the tribeswomen she lived with and became friends with, as well as establishing hospitals for the ill and the injured and setting up vaccination programmes to protect against smallpox.
When word spread to the UK about what Mary was doing in Nigeria, other people started to arrive to help her. However, when they arrived in Calabar, Mary would simply move even deeper into the unknown centre of Africa, where she continued to help everyone she met, often adopting children who had been left to die.
Mary dedicated her life to the people of Calabar, who called her 'The Mother Of All the Peoples' and, when she died on January 13, 1915, at the age of 67, they were devastated. The Dundee mill girl was given a full state funeral, with her grave marked by a simple cross carved from Scottish granite.