Grace Mary Ellison (died 3 October 1935) was a British journalist. She wrote several books about

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. Though not herself a trained nurse, she was founder of the French Flag Nursing Corps during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Early life

Grace Mary Ellison was from Scotland, the daughter of Captain John Ellison. She credited her father's stories of sailing to India as inspiring her travelling career. She was educated in England at Rochester Girls' Grammar School, and in France, and at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

."Miss Grace Ellison"
''The Guardian'' (October 4, 1935): 12. via Newspapers.comReina Lewis
''Rethinking Orientalism: Women, Travel and the Ottoman Harem''
(I. B. Tauris 2004): 42-50.

Career

Ellison was a journalist especially interested in Turkey. She befriended Turkish sisters Hadjidjé Zennour and Nouryé Neyr-el-Nissa, in 1905. Using their pseudonyms, she edited and co-wrote English-language books with them, Zeyneb Hanoum's ''A Turkish Woman’s European Impressions'' (1913, a memoir) and Melek Hanoum's ''Abdul Hamid's Daughter'' (1913, a novel). Whilst travelling in Turkey in 1908-1909 and 1912–1913, Ellison wrote articles for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. She advocated for women students to gain access to college classes in Constantinople. She was awarded the

Order of Charity The Order of Charity ( ota, نشانِ شفقت), sometimes referred to as the Order of the Chefakat, was an order of the Ottoman Empire founded in 1878 by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. It was bestowed on selected women for distinguished humanitarian or ...

(Şefkat Nişanı) for her efforts on behalf of women in Turkey."The French Flag Nursing Corps and its Founder"
''Trained Nurse and Hospital Review'' (September 1919): 140-142. She reported on the

Second Hague Conference The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amon ...

(1907) and was continental reporter for the ''

Bystander Bystander may refer to: In media * ''Bystander'' (novel), a 1930 novel by Maxim Gorki * ''Bystander'' (magazine), was a British weekly tabloid magazine *''Guilty Bystander'', a 1950 independent film production * ''Innocent Bystanders'' (film), ...

.'' In 1914, Grace Ellison worked with nurse Ethel Gordon Fenwick to create the French Flag Nursing Corps, coordinating the work of experienced nurses from the British Empire (including Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) with the French Medical Corps during World War I. The corps eventually became a program of the

French Red Cross The French Red Cross (french: Croix-Rouge française), or the CRF, is the national Red Cross Society in France founded in 1864 and originally known as the ''Société française de secours aux blessés militaires'' (SSBM). Recognized as a public ...

. Ellison fell seriously ill in 1917, and spent months recovering at a hospital in Bordeaux. The French government decorated Ellison for her wartime contributions. After the war, she continued lectures in the United States on behalf of the French Ministry of War, matching French nurses to American nursing schools and expanding their opportunities for training at home. "I am convinced that the most important factor in social reconstruction today is the trained nurse," she explained. "No child welfare work can be done without trained nurses, and the whole future of France depends on what is done for her children." In 1922, she returned to Turkey to cover the

Turkish War of Independence The Turkish War of Independence "War of Liberation", also known figuratively as ''İstiklâl Harbi'' "Independence War" or ''Millî Mücadele'' "National Struggle" (19 May 1919 – 24 July 1923) was a series of military campaigns waged by th ...

; in 1927, she was back in

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...

, reporting on the rapidly changing city.

Monographs by Ellison

* ''An Englishwoman in a Turkish Harem'' (1915) * ''An Englishwoman in the French Firing Line'' (1915) * ''An Englishwoman in Occupied Germany'' (1920) * ''An Englishwoman in Angora'' (1923), * ''The Disadvantages of Being a Woman'' (1924) * ''Turkey To-day'' (1928) * ''Yugoslavia: A New Country and its People'' (1933)Grace Mary Ellison
''Yugoslavia: A New Country and its People''
(John Lane 1933). She also worked on three biographical projects: Prince Nicholas of Greece's memoirs (1923), a biography of

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Rep ...

(1930), and ''The Authorised Life Story of Princess Marina'' (1934).

Personal life

Grace Mary Ellison died in October 1935, in Berlin.

References

External links

* Precious McKenzie-Stearns
"On a Mission: Grace Ellison's 'An English Woman in a Turkish Harem'"
(M. A. thesis, University of North Carolina at Wilmington 2003). * The National Portrait Gallery (UK) holds on
photograph of Grace Ellison, from 1928
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellison, Grace 1935 deaths Year of birth missing British travel writers British journalists British women in World War I British women travel writers