Marie Pauline Depage (née Picard; 23 September 1872 – 7 May 1915) was a Belgian nurse, and wife of Dr

Antoine Depage Dr. Antoine Depage (Watermael-Boitsfort, 28 November 1862 – The Hague, 10 June 1925), was the Belgium, Belgian royal surgeon, the founder and president of the Belgian Red Cross, and one of the founders of Scouting in Belgium.John S. Wilson ...

, the Belgian royal surgeon and founder of the Belgian

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

. She was killed in the sinking of the RMS ''Lusitania'' by German submarine SM ''U-20'', and she is commemorated in Belgium alongside the British nurse

Edith Cavell Edith Louisa Cavell ( ; 4 December 1865 – 12 October 1915) was a British nurse. She is celebrated for treating wounded soldiers from both sides without discrimination during the First World War and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape ...

Early life

She was born Marie Pauline Picard, in

Ixelles (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Pentagon (Brussels), Brusse ...

near

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

in Belgium, one of two daughters and two sons of the engineer Désiré Émile Picard and Julie Marie Victorine Héger. She was a niece of Professor

Paul Héger Paul Héger (born Paul Marie François Xavier Héger; 13 December 1846 – 8 November 1925) was a Belgian scientist. He was famous for his collaboration with the chemist Ernest Solvay to discover the Solvay Process. Alongside Solvay, he donated ...

and granddaughter of

Constantin Héger Constantin Georges Romain Héger or Heger (10 July 1809 – 6 May 1896) was a Belgian literary figure and professor of the Victorian era. He is best remembered today for his literary correspondence with Charlotte and Emily Brontë during the 184 ...

. She married a Belgian doctor

on 8 August 1893. They had three sons. Her husband was a surgeon to the Belgian King

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert Computers, Inc., a computer manufacturer in the 1980s * Albert Czech Republic, a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street mar ...

, and chairman of the Belgian Red Cross. He was also a founder of the

International Society of Surgery The International Society of Surgery, or the Société Internationale de Chirurgie, is an international society of surgeons founded in 1902.laicised non-denominational medical institute in 1907, the Berkendael Medical Institute (also known as ''L'École Belge d’Infirmières Diplômées''), in

Uccle Uccle (French language, French, ) or Ukkel (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the southern part of the region, it ...

near Brussels, with

as head nurse. Marie Depage took on the administrative work. The couple were also involved in the introduction of

Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder of The Boy Scouts Association and its first Chief Scout, and founder, with ...

scouting movement Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, includin ...

into Belgium in 1909–10, and Marie translated and published several of Baden-Powell's books.

War work

With her husband and eldest son Pierre, also a surgeon, Depage organised sending four Belgian ambulances to the Balkans during the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and involved actions of the Balkan League (the Kingdoms of Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bulgaria, Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, Kingdom of Greece, Greece and Kingdom of Montenegro, Montenegro) agai ...

in 1912–13, accompanying the ambulance sent to a hospital in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Depage volunteered at the Red Cross hospital established at the

Royal Palace This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent. Africa Americas Asia Europe Oceania {, class="wikitable" width="95%" , - bgcolor="white" !align=center, Residence !align=center, Photo !align=center, City !align=cen ...

in Brussels, and then helped her husband to convert the ' at

De Panne De Panne (; ) is a town and a municipality located on the North Sea coast of the Belgian province of West Flanders. There it borders France, making it the westernmost town in Belgium. It is one of the most popular resort town destinations within ...

(also known in French as

La Panne De Panne (; ) is a town and a municipality located on the North Sea coast of the Belgian province of West Flanders. There it borders France, making it the westernmost town in Belgium. It is one of the most popular resort town destinations within ...

) into a Red Cross hospital for military casualties, and organised surgical units to treat wounded soldiers of the Belgian Army near the

Yser Front The Yser Front (, or ), sometimes termed the West Flemish Front in British writing, was a section of the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I held by Belgium, Belgian troops from October 1914 until 1918. The front ran alo ...

. Depage travelled to the US in January 1915 to raise funds for the ''L'Océan'' hospital. After raising $100,000 in a few weeks, she received news that her middle son Lucien would be joining her eldest son Pierre at the front, and decided to return to Belgium. She booked passage on the RMS ''Lusitania'', leaving New York on 1 May 1915 for Liverpool via Queenstown in the south of Ireland. The ship was torpedoed by German submarine ''U-20'' at about 2:10 pm on 7 May 1915, and rapidly sank. Depage assisted other passengers to board lifeboats, and treated some injured on the deck of the sinking vessel. As the ship sank, she became entangled in ropes and drowned, one of nearly 1,200 killed from almost 2,000 aboard. Depage's body was one of 289 recovered, and was buried by her husband in the sand dunes near La Panne. The funeral was attended by the King and Queen of the Belgians,

Albert I Albert I may refer to: People Born before 1300 * Albert I, Count of Vermandois (917–987) * Albert I, Count of Namur () * Albert I of Moha *Albert I of Brandenburg (), first margrave of Brandenburg * Albert I, Margrave of Meissen (1158–1195) *Al ...

and

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

. Depage established the Institute Marie Depage near the Hospital de l'Ocean in her honour. A memorial by Belgian sculptor

Paul Du Bois Paul Du Bois (; 1859–1938) was a Belgian sculptor and medalist, born in Aywaille, and died in Uccle, a municipality of Brussels (Belgium). Du Bois was a student of Eugène Simonis and Charles van der Stappen. He studied from 1877 to 1 ...

was erected at Uccle in 1920, to commemorate the deaths of Depage and Cavell in 1915. Cavell had been convicted of treason and executed by occupying German forces in October 1915. An inscription on the monument reads "Passant, dis-le à tes enfants, ils les ont tuées" (French: "Passer-by, tell your children, they killed them"). The monument stands next to the Edith Cavell Hospital, at the intersection of Rue Edith Cavell and Rue Marie Depage.

References

* ''Based on a translation of the equivalent French and German Wikipedia articles''
Rode Kruis hospitaal l’Océan

Monument: Cavell and Depage
Brussels Remembers
Edith Cavell and Marie Depage monument

Mrs. Antoine Depage (Marie Picard)
The Lusitania Resource
''Des femmes dans l'histoire en Belgique, depuis 1830''
Suzanne van Rokeghem, Jacqueline Aubenas, Jeanne Vercheval-Vervoort; Luc Pire Editions, 2006, , p. 88-89
Dictionnaire historique de la laïcité en Belgique
Pol Defosse, Jean-Michel Dufays, Martine Goldberg; Luc Pire Editions, 2005, p. 49, 92–93,

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Depage, Marie 1872 births 1915 deaths Belgian nurses Belgian women Deaths on the RMS Lusitania People from Ixelles