Grace Vulliamy
Grace Vulliamy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 12 September 1878 |
| Died | April 1957 near Table Mountain, Cape Town, Union of South Africa |
| Occupations | Nurse, refugee and relief worker and charity activist |
| Organization(s) | War Victims Relief Committee of the Society of Friends Women's Emergency Corps Save the Children |
| Children | 1 |
Grace Charlotte Vulliamy CBE (12 September 1878 – April 1957) was an English nurse, refugee and relief worker and charity activist.
Biography
Vulliamy was born on 12 September 1878 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England[1], to Quakers Arthur Frederick Vulliamy and his wife Anna Marie.[2] She was educated at boarding schools and became a nurse.[3]
During World War I, Vulliamy was organiser of the "War Victims Relief Committee" of the Society of Friends.[4][5] She joined the Women's Emergency Corps (WEC, which evolved into the Women's Volunteer Reserve) and served in Holland.[6][5] From Holland, Vulliamy helped to smuggle Belgian war refugees into France,[7] then travelled with them across the English Channel into Britain.[8] She made contact with the refugees through communication with a Dutch woodworker and his English wife.[9]
After the end of the war, Vuliiamy oversaw the nurses and social workers running food distribution centres, schools for disabled children, tuberculosis hospitals and vaccine clinics.[10] She also organised the reception of British civilians who had been held at the Ruhleben internment camp in Germany, meeting them at the Germany-Belgium border, housing them and arranging transport for them back to Britain for their repatriation.[5]
Vulliamy returned home in March 1919.[11] In recognition of her war work, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1919 New Year Honours.[1][2]
After the Russian Revolution, Vuliiamy undertook relief work in Poland.[3][7] During the Spanish Civil War, Vuliiamy supported her nieces Chloe and Poppy[12] in making arrangements for evacuating children from Bilbao to England.[2] She was also vice-president of the international non-governmental organization Save the Children Fund.[1][7]
Vulliamy retired to Cape Town, Union of South Africa, in 1937. However, while in South Africa she started a soup kitchen, a relief centre and a youth club for disadvantaged black youths.[3]
Vulliamy died in April 1957, aged 78, at her home near Table Mountain, Cape Town, Union of South Africa.[2] She was survived by her adopted son, Misha.[3]
References
- ^ a b c Addison, Henry Robert; Oakes, Charles Henry; Lawson, William John; Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton (1957). Who's who. A. & C. Black. p. 3110.
- ^ a b c d Storr, Katherine (2018). Shining While the Lamps Were Out: The Life of Grace Charlotte Vulliamy, CBE 1878-1957. ISBN 978-1-9864-3535-2.
- ^ a b c d Russell, Steve (1 December 2019). "Amazing Grace: Ipswich's 'forgotten' heroine". East Anglian Daily Times. Retrieved 15 March 2026.
- ^ Second Report of the War Victims Relief Committee of the Society of Friends. London: Spottiswoode, for the Friends War Victims Relief Committee. 1915. p. 9.
- ^ a b c Storr, Katherine (2009). Excluded from the Record: Women, Refugees, and Relief, 1914-1929. Peter Lang. pp. 14, 30, 189–191. ISBN 978-3-03911-855-7.
- ^ "Vulliamy, Miss Grace in UK, Nurses Deputed To Duty In Hospitals At Home And Abroad, 1914-1918". Forces War Records. Retrieved 15 March 2026.
- ^ a b c An International Year Book of Child Care and Protection. Save the Children Fund. 1924. p. 437.
- ^ Fry, Anna Ruth (1927). A Quaker Adventure, the Story of Nine Years' Relief and Reconstruction. Frank-Maurice, Incorporated. p. 101.
- ^ Greenwood, Ormerod (1975). Friends and Relief: A Study of Two Centuries of Quaker Activity in the Relief of Suffering Caused by War Or Natural Calamity. William Sessions Limited. p. 198. ISBN 978-0-900657-29-0.
- ^ Oldfield, Sybil (2001). Women Humanitarians: A Biographical Dictionary of British Women Active Between 1900 and 1950 : 'doers of the Word'. Continuum. p. 162. ISBN 978-0-8264-4962-7.
- ^ Ashwell, Lena (1936). Myself a Player. M. Joseph Limited. p. 228.
- ^ Moxon, Daniel (15 June 2020). "How Norfolk gave a home to children fleeing war-torn Spain". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 16 March 2026.