E. S. Appasamy

Appasamy was the All-India Woman's Secretary for the National Missionary Society, and vice-president of the Madras YWCA. Her colleagues in Madras included politician Mona Hensman and physician Muthulakshmi Reddy.^[3] She traveled all over India in her work, speaking, organizing, and raising funds.^[2] She traveled to the United States and Great Britain in 1914 with her brother J.J. Cornelius, giving lectures.^[4][5] She founded the Vidyodaya School at Pallavaram, a Christian boarding school for girls, in 1924. Her daughter Vimala was one of the school's first students.^[6]

In 1924 she represented India at the world committee meeting of the YWCA, in Washington, D.C. In 1926, she visited Singapore, to speak on "Ideals of Women's Education."^[7][8] In 1928 she wrote a biography of Pandita Ramabai,^[9] and traveled in the United States^[10][11] as she attended an international meeting in Detroit, Michigan.

Swarnam Cornelius married lawyer and judge Paul Appasamy. They had four children: Mary Vimala, John Bhasker, Esther Jaya, and Shanth Paul.^[2] Swarnam Appasamy died in her eighties in 1963, in Nangamangalam.

Economist J. C. Kumarappa was her younger brother. Bishop A. J. Appasamy, a prominent Indian Christian theologian, was her brother-in-law. Several of her children became educators. Her daughter Vimala Appasamy graduated from Mount Holyoke College,^[12] was headmistress of the Vidyodaya School from 1936 to 1965,^[6] and wrote a songbook for the school.^[13] Daughter Jaya Appasamy became an artist, writer, college professor, and Fulbright Scholar.^[14] Son S. Paul Appasamy was an educator and representative of the YMCA of India and Ceylon in the 1960s.^[15]