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Louise Paget

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Louise Paget
Dame Louise M. L. Paget
Born(1881-10-09)9 October 1881
Died24 September 1958(1958-09-24) (aged 76)
Spouse
(m. 1907)
FatherArthur Paget

Dame Louise Margaret Leila Wemyss, Lady Paget, GBE (born 9 October 1881 – died 24 September 1958) was a British humanitarian, active in the cause of Serbian relief, beginning in World War I, leading the first Serbian Relief Fund unit to Skoplje in November 1914.[1]

Family

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The daughter of General Sir Arthur Henry Fitzroy Paget (1851–1928) and his wife, Mary Fiske Paget (née Stevens; died 1919), she married her third cousin once removed, Sir Ralph Spencer Paget, son of Sir Augustus Berkeley Paget and Countess Walburga Ehrengarde Helena von Hohenthal, on 28 October 1907; the union was childless. Louise was great-granddaughter of Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge.

Philanthropic work

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Ralph Spencer Paget was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1909 and Louise encouraged him to accept a transfer to the Balkan Kingdom of Serbia in July 1910. Encouraged by Mabel Grujić, the American wife of Slavko Grujić, Serbian Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Lady Paget helped set up a military hospital in Belgrade during the First Balkan War (1912–13). In 1914, Paget became the president of the American Women's War Relief Fund.[2] The group, dedicated to helping those hurt in the war, was conceived of as an idea by Paget only three days after the First World War broke out.[3] In 1915 she set up a hospital in Skopje to treat wounded Serbs, but also to help fight the epidemic spreading through Serbia. Lady Paget contracted typhoid fever, but recovered.[4] Paget also helped raise money to support the needs of wounded servicemembers.[5]

Dame Louise Paget was the first recipient of the Medal of Honor of the Federation of Women's Clubs of New York City in 1917; other recipients included humanitarian Evelyn Smalley (1919), activist Carrie Chapman Catt (1922, decoration without the eagle), physicist Marie Curie (1929), Madame Chiang Kai-shek, First Lady of the Republic of China (1939), and Austrian-born pioneer atomic scientist Lise Meitner (1949).[6][7]

Honours

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Louise, Lady Paget was invested as a Dame Grand Cross, Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1917. She was later decorated with the Grand Cordon, Order of St Sava. [when?]

Death

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She died on 24 September 1958, aged 76, at Kingston-upon-Thames.[8]

Citations

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Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, pp. 73, 77.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Krippner, Monica (1980). The Quality of Mercy: Women at War, Serbia 1914-1918. London, UK: David & Charles. p. 33. ISBN 0715378864.
  2. ^ Storr, Katherine (2009). Excluded from the Record: Women, Refugees, and Relief, 1914-1929. Peter Lang. p. 112. ISBN 9783039118557.
  3. ^ Church, Hayden (6 October 1914). "Every American Woman in England Working to Help Victims of War". The Atlanta Constitution. Retrieved 27 April 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Mitrovic, Andrej, Srbija u Prvom svetskom ratu, Belgrade (2004), pp. 161-162
  5. ^ "Women Found War Hospitals". Harrisburg Telegraph. 21 June 1917. Retrieved 27 April 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Entry for Lady Paget at Awards of Outstanding International Importance to Statesmen and Heroines, collectnobel.com; accessed 27 March 2014.
  7. ^ Profile of Lady Louise Paget, stacksbowers.com; accessed 27 March 2014.
  8. ^ "Deaths". The Times, London. 25 September 1958. p. 1.