She was a trailblazing Church of Scotland official who spent nearly 30 years supporting missionaries in Africa and beyond and championing the value of education for girls.

Betty Walls became General Secretary of the Women’s Foreign Mission in 1955 – the first woman to be put in sole charge of an Assembly committee.

Two years after her death in 2013 at the grand old age of 99 is still making an impact in Malawi thanks to a £20,000 gift she left in her will.

The Church’s World Mission Council decided to use the legacy money and around £6,000 left by another ‘Betty’ - Mrs Betty Bone, to build an accommodation block for student teachers in the community of Embangweni, at Loudon CCAP Mission.

Dubbed the ‘Two Betty’s Hostel’, the facility will provide a safe and comfortable environment for 80 young women while they train to be teachers.

Carol Finlay of the Kirk's World Mission Council who is also acting Africa and Caribbean secretary, said: "It is very important because girls' education is crucial to the development of a nation.

“Woman who can read and write in their own language are much more likely to have healthy children."

Miss Walls, of Morningside, Edinburgh and was an elder at Palmerston Place Church.

Mrs Bone, a member of Dundee West Parish Church who died in 2013 at the age of 94, had strong connections to Malawi.

She and her minister husband, the Rev Bob Bone, lived in - Embangweni in the 1960s. Mrs Bone was a teacher and taught at the night school and with other groups.