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Mabel Evelyn Elliott

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This article is about the British-born American physician born in 1881; for the British censor of similar name, born in 1885, see Mabel Elliott.
Mabel Evelyn Elliott
A white woman with white hair and dark eyebrows, wearing eyeglasses, a high-collared white blouse with many fabric-covered buttons down the front, and a dark jacket
Dr. Mabel E. Elliott, 1922
Born8 February 1881
London, UK
Died13 June 1968 (aged 87)
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.
Other namesMabel E. Elliot
CitizenshipUnited States
Occupation(s)Physician, Humanitarian
Years active1906-1958
Known forHumanitarian medical work
Notable workBeginning Again At Ararat, Book, 1924. Siege Diary from the Battle of Marash, Manuscript, 1920

Mabel Evelyn Elliott (8 February 1881 – 13 June 1968), sometimes written as Mabel Evelyn Elliot, was a British-born American physician who did post-war medical relief work in Turkey, Armenia, and Greece from 1919 to 1923. She continued her overseas medical service for the National Episcopal Mission Board in Japan from 1925 to 1941.

Early life and education

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Mabel Evelyn Elliott was born in London, England, the daughter of Joseph H. Elliott and Elizabeth Belle Ryan, one of fourteen Elliott children.[1] Her father was a career British army officer stationed in India, born in Glasgow, Scotland.[2][3] She moved to the United States with her family in 1883, and grew up in St. Augustine and West Palm Beach, Florida.[4] She attended high school in St. Augustine, Florida and at the St. Agnes School in Albany, New York.[5]

She and her sister, Dr. Grace Elliott Papot, were among the first women to earn medical doctor degrees from the University of Chicago affiliated Rush Medical College, where the sisters graduated in the class of 1904.[6] Elliott did a two-year internship at Cook County Hospital.[7]

Early medical career

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Macronissi Quarantine camp, 1924

In 1906, Elliott opened her first medical practice in Coloma, Michigan.[8] She moved her practice to nearby Benton Harbor, Michigan in 1909.[9] In 1915, Elliott was named president of the Berrien County Medical Association, the first woman physician to hold this position. [10]

Relief work in the Near East

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Elliott had volunteered for service with the Red Cross in France during World War I, but the war ended before she was called up for duty.[11] She volunteered for service with the newly-formed American Women's Hospitals Service in 1918. The American Women's Hospital Service coordinated with Near East Relief to aide Armenian and Greek refugees following World War I. Elliott was called to duty January 1919 and directed to report to New York.[12] She sailed on the USS Leviathan with 250 other Near East Relief personnel and physicians and nurses from the American Women's Hospital Service.[13]

Marash, Turkey

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Elliott's first duty station was in Marash, Turkey. In May 1919, she set up and directed a three-story hospital that was built by German missionaries.[14] The hospital treated Armenian refugees, providing medical care with a staff of Elliott, one American nurse, and Armenian nurses and doctors.[15] The control of Marash was transferred from British to French forces in December 1919.[16] In January 1920, Turkish forces in Marash loyal to Mustafa Kemal began their fight for Turkish independence.[17] Elliott's hospital came under fire, forcing her staff to move the patients to the first floor to avoid gunfire. The hospital was under siege in the Battle of Marash, where thousands of Armenian refugees were massacred. Elliott kept a detailed diary of the siege, wanting to leave a written account in the event she did not survive the ordeal.[18] Her siege diary served as the beginning of a memoir she would write in 1924.[14]

The French forces announced they were evacuating from Marash and ordered all foreign relief workers to retreat.[14] On 10 February 1920, Elliott left with her American nurse and the Armenian medical staff, knowing the Armenian staff would likely be killed by the Turks if left behind. She led her staff and joined thousands of refugees on foot.[14] They trekked 75 miles (120 kilometers) across the Taurus Mountains for three days, braving freezing temperatures and a blizzard that killed half of the Armenian refugees. The group found Islahiye, Turkey in the blizzard by hearing the train whistle from the town.[14] Elliott and her staff reached safety via a train from Islahiye to Adana, Turkey.[19]

Return to the United States

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Elliott sailed back to the United States in May 1920 via France to recuperate from the ordeal with her parents in West Palm Beach, Florida.[20] She decided to return to the Near East for another year of duty with the American Women's Hospital. She was named Interim Executive Chairman of the American Women's Hospital Service in New York City in August 1920, replacing Dr. Esther Pohl Lovejoy, who ran for Congress from Oregon, but was defeated.[21]

Ismid, Turkey

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Title page of Mabel Evelyn Elliott, Beginning Again at Ararat (1924)
Title page of Mabel Evelyn Elliott, Beginning Again at Ararat (1924)

In October 1920 Elliott sailed back to the Near East, arriving in Constantinople (today's Istanbul).[22] Nearby, on the Sea of Mamara, Elliott set up a hospital in Ismid, Turkey in an old Turkish Hospital that had been used as army barracks. Tensions again began to rise with Mustafa Kemal's revolutionary forces attacking Ismid and Bardizag, a nearby village. Again, Elliott was holed up in a hospital, being fired upon and threatened.[23] Thousands of Armenian refugees descended upon the city, leaving Elliott as the only physician in the city.[24] The American Women's Hospital Service decided to close the hospital in Ismid shortly thereafter.[14]

Soviet Armenia

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The American Women's Hospital Service transferred Elliott to Soviet Armenia in 1921. As Medical Director for Soviet Armenia, she served in hospitals and orphanages in Erivan and Alexandropole.[25] In Alexandropole Elliott set up three "towns" as orphanages, each town housing six to seven thousand Armenian orphans. Children were fed, schooled, and taught vocational skills. Several infectious diseases were rampant in the children, including trachoma, typhus, tuberculosis, favus, and scabies.[26]

Athens, Greece

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Elliott's next duty station was at Athens, Greece as General Medical Director for American Women's Hospitals for all medical work in Greece in 1922.[27] After a few weeks leave in Europe and making a speech at an international conference in Geneva, Switzerland[28] Elliott hastily returned to Greece in the wake of the burning of Smyrna in September 1922. Elliott set up hospital facilities for 40,000 Greek and Armenian refugees.[29] Elliott assisted refugees on the island city of Mytilene, where refugees were pouring in from the mainland, trying to escape Smyrna.[30] She worked closely with fellow American physicians including Esther Pohl Lovejoy and Ruth Parmelee, and set up a quarantine station on the island of Macronissi.[31]

The Greek monarchy decorated Elliot with several medals, including the Greek War Cross, and Gold and Silver St. George medals in February 1923.[32][33]

In July 1923 Elliott resigned her position as General Medical Director for American Women's Hospitals, citing interference from certain members the American Women's Hospital governing board.[34] She returned to the United States in October 1923.[35]

Memoir

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Elliott's siege diary, kept during the Battle of Marash in 1920, became the basis of her memoir of the Near East. Elliott finished work on her memoir, Beginning Again at Ararat in 1923.[36] Fleming H. Revell published the book 5 January 1924.[14] She went on a book tour of the United States, speaking at churches, colleges, women's clubs, and state legislatures.[37][38][39] The book was well received in several reviews for its depiction of the plight of Armenian and Greek refugees in the Near East.[40][41][42] Near East Relief awarded Elliott the DIstinguished Service Medal in recognition of her meritorious service in the Near East.[43]

Excerpts from the memoir were used in the 2016 documentary film "They Shall Not Perish." Elliott's voice was dramatized by actress Kathleen Chalfant.[44]

Women's Medical College in Philadelphia

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In 1924, Elliott joined the staff of the Woman's Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia (today's Drexel University).[45] She had been offered the medical chair of the Constantinople Women's College in Turkey, but declined.[46]

Medical missionary work in Japan

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Foreign service once again called Elliott, this time in the Far East. in 1925 she was selected from fifty candidates to lead the public health department of St. Luke's International Medical Center in Tokyo, Japan.[47] She was sent as a physician and medical missionary on behalf of the National Episcopal Mission Board, which operated the hospital.[48] Elliott was the first American woman doctor to be licensed in Japan.[49]

In 1929, Elliott went on a speaking and fund-raising tour of the United States with St. Luke's International Medical Center founder Rudolf Teusler, who founded the hospital in 1901.[50] She took leave from the hospital from 1934 to 1935 to travel and do additional study at Johns Hopkins.[51][52]

Elliott was promoted to become chief of pediatrics at St. Luke's International Medical Center.[53] Elliott, along with all U.S. foreign nationals, was forced to leave Japan in 1941, shortly before the United States entered World War II.[54]

Later work and retirement

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Upon her return to the United States in 1941, Elliott settled in West Palm Beach, Florida. She worked in New York City from 1944-45, examining church workers and missionaries returning from World War II.[55] She lived in semi-retirement, occasionally serving as the physician-in-residence at Penney Farms, near Jacksonville, Florida.[56]

Personal life

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Elliott lived with older sister Beatrice Elliott for many years in Michigan, Japan, New York, and later in retirement in Florida. They traveled extensively in the United States as well as in Europe. Elliott died in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1968, at the age of 87.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Dr. Mabel Evelyn Elliott". The Palm Beach Post. June 14, 1968. p. 41. Retrieved April 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Her birthplace, and her father's, are from her application for a United States passport, dated March 1920; via Ancestry
  3. ^ "Florida Pioneer Dead". Covington Virginian. April 12, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved April 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Personal Pickings". Tropical Sun. June 1, 1893. p. 1.
  5. ^ Burr, C.B. (1930). Medical History of Michigan. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bruce Publishing Company. pp. 380–381.
  6. ^ "Graduates 107 as Physicians". The Chicago Tribune. June 16, 1904. p. 5.
  7. ^ "Dr. Mabel E. Elliott to Speak on Work in Japan Tonight at the First Presbyterian Church". Palm Beach Post. January 13, 1935. p. 7.
  8. ^ "County Seat News". St. Joseph Saturday Herald. November 17, 1906. p. 8. Retrieved April 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Will Marry Christmas Week". St. Joseph Daily Press. December 16, 1910. p. 4.
  10. ^ "Lady Heads County M.D.'s". Niles Daily Sun. December 15, 1915. p. 1.
  11. ^ "Dr. Elliott Goes Abroad". News-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. November 25, 1918. p. 1.
  12. ^ "Dr. Elliott Called Into War Service in the Orient". St. Joseph Herald Press. St. Joseph, Michigan. January 24, 1919. p. 1.
  13. ^ "Near East Expedition Leaves". The New York Times. February 17, 1919. p. 6.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Elliott, Mabel Evelyn (1924). Beginning Again at Ararat. Fleming H. Revell Company. ISBN 978-0-598-52106-4.
  15. ^ Rorabaugh, Selva (July 31, 1966). "Octogenarian has memories well-filled with adventure". Palm Beach Post. p. 28.
  16. ^ "Armenian Ambitions Definitely Dashed". The Oregonian. Portland, Oregon. January 23, 1920. p. 2.
  17. ^ "French Fight Turks". The Birmingham News. Birmingham, Alabama. February 4, 1920. p. 1.
  18. ^ "Local Woman Writes Siege Story". The News-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. May 11, 1920. p. 1.
  19. ^ "Doctor Elliott in Turk Raid, Safe in Adana". The News Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. March 12, 1920. p. 1.
  20. ^ "Dr. Elliott Home from War Service in Turkey". The Palm Beach Post. May 17, 1920. p. 1.
  21. ^ "Dr. Elliott takes Important Chairmanship in New York City". The Niles Daily Star. Niles, Michigan. August 10, 1920. p. 7.
  22. ^ "Dr. Elliott Returning to Near East". The Palm Beach Post. October 22, 1920. p. 4.
  23. ^ "Bullets Whiz as U.S. Women Nurse the Ill". The New York Tribune. May 15, 1921. p. 17.
  24. ^ "Clevelander to Stay". Plain Dealer. Cleveland, Ohio. July 4, 1921. p. 2.
  25. ^ "Hundreds of Children, Shriveled and Hungry, Crawl in Alleys, Die". Evening Capital. Annapolis, Maryland. February 17, 1922. p. 2.
  26. ^ "Dr. Elliott Tells of Work Among Children in Orphanages In the Near East". The News-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. April 25, 1922. p. 7.
  27. ^ "Athens is work centre for Dr. Mabel Elliott". The Evening World. New York, New York. December 8, 1922. p. 25.
  28. ^ Metaxas, Virginia (2014-10-03). "Working with the Sources: The American Women's Hospitals in the Near East". drexel.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  29. ^ "Chicago Woman M.D. in Thrace to Aid Refugees". Chicago Tribune. October 4, 1922. p. 3.
  30. ^ "Refugees at Mitylene Tell of Atrocities". The New York Times. October 15, 1922. p. 3.
  31. ^ Rodogno, Davide, ed. (2021), "The American Women's Hospitals from Macronissi Quarantine Island to Public Health Work", Night on Earth: A History of International Humanitarianism in the Near East, 1918–1930, Human Rights in History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 273–288, doi:10.1017/9781108689892.012, ISBN 978-1-108-49891-3, retrieved 2023-04-05
  32. ^ "Greeks Decorate 2 American Women". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. February 13, 1923. p. 19.
  33. ^ "Greece Honors Mabel Elliott". St. Joseph Herald Press. St. Joseph, Michigan. February 12, 1923. p. 1.
  34. ^ "Resignation of Dr. Elliott Creates Stir". The News-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. July 24, 1923. p. 1.
  35. ^ "Dr. Elliott, noted for Near East Relief work, is back home for rest". News-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. October 12, 1923. p. 1.
  36. ^ "Near East Relief Worker on visit to West Palm Beach". The Palm Beach Post. October 21, 1923. p. 3.
  37. ^ "Dr. Elliott to address members of legislature on Wednesday evening". The State Journal. Frankfort, Kentucky. March 4, 1924. p. 3.
  38. ^ "Packed Church Hears Woman". The Miami News. Miami, Florida. November 13, 1923. p. 4.
  39. ^ "News Notes of Wilson College". Public Opinion. Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. January 21, 1924. p. 6.
  40. ^ "Illuminating Narrative of Near East Relief Work". Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. February 10, 1924. p. 57.
  41. ^ "Chat of Books - Beginning Again at Ararat". Evening Express. Portland, Maine. March 18, 1924. p. 9.
  42. ^ "Beginning Again at Ararat". News-Democrat. Paducah, Kentucky. May 14, 1924. p. 16.
  43. ^ "Near East Relief Aided by Tourists - List of Medal Winners". Evening Star. Washington, D.C. February 17, 1925. p. 7.
  44. ^ "IMDB". October 1, 2024.
  45. ^ "Dr. Mabel E. Elliott Joins Hospital Staff". Philadelphia Inquirer. September 7, 1924. p. 2. Retrieved April 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  46. ^ "Relief work heroine to teach American women need of help to world's suffering children". The Daily Sentinel-Tribune. Bowling Green, Ohio. January 6, 1925. p. 6.
  47. ^ "Woman Doctor is Honored". The Plain Speaker. Hazelton, Pennsylvania. May 15, 1925. p. 23.
  48. ^ "Dr. Elliott to do missionary work in Japan". News-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. July 21, 1925. p. 1.
  49. ^ "First in Japan". The News-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. January 4, 1927. p. 4.
  50. ^ "Tells of work done in Tokyo". The Morning Press. Santa Barbara, California. March 10, 1929. p. 7.
  51. ^ "Dr. Mabel E. Elliott to Visit in County after 4 Yrs. Abroad". The Herald-Press. September 19, 1934. p. 2. Retrieved April 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  52. ^ "Personal Mention". The Palm Beach Post. March 5, 1935. p. 14.
  53. ^ Harper, Mary McKibbin (1941). The Doctor takes a holiday: An Autobiographical Fragment. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Torch Press. p. 333.
  54. ^ "Episcopal Workers in Japan Ordered to Take Furlough". Bangor Daily News. July 30, 1941. p. 11. Retrieved April 4, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  55. ^ Beckman, R.O. (June 27, 1962). "At 82 Woman Doctor Thinks of Others". Fort Lauderdale News. p. 10.
  56. ^ "Personal Mention". The Palm Beach Post. September 9, 1956. p. 16.
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