The Story of Mrs. Oswald Chambers

Gertrude Chambers was the wife of Oswald Chambers, who wrote  "My Utmost for His Highest".  His book has become the world's best-selling devotional book translated into many languages.  There are now fifty books that bear the name Oswald Chambers.  Oswald died in 1917 as a result of complications following an appendectomy in Egypt where he had been ministering to Brtitish troops in conjunction with the YMCA.  He was only 43 years old.  Gertrude was only 34 years old when Oswald died.  She was now a widow and the single parent of a little girl.

The real story of Oswald's fame began at his death.  Gertrude "Biddy" Oswald had become a stenographer before she met Oswald.  She could take shorthand faster than people could talk and from the time she first began listening to her husband's messages, Biddy took shorthand notes--hundreds of them--never thinking that one day they would become the texts of his books and she would become editor-in-chief as well as publisher of many of them.  Just think ... if it had not been for this woman we would never have known of the tremendous writings of Oswald Chambers.  This remarkable woman, who insisted on remaining entirely hidden behind the work of her husband, did tremendous work for the Kingdom of God.  In the foreward to "My Utmost for His Highest"  she told the background of the material, yet she signed it only with the initals  "B.C."