Zilla

I've just found my great aunt Zilla's decorations from World War II in Mum's jewellry box.  She was a marvellous lady, who trained as a nurse in 1914 in Liverpool where she was a theatre sister.In 1920 she left England for Athens, where she lived for 20 years.  She worked at the American Women's Hospital, and was involved with caring from the refugees from Izmir in 1921.  When the war broke out, she managed to get the last boat out of Athens, leaving most of her belongings behind - I have some interesting letters she wrote trying to get compensation.  She ended up in Cairo, and tried to join the  Army Medical Corp by taking ten years off her age, only to be told she was 4 months too old!  She was sent to a refugee camp in India, but managed to get out and join the Indian Medical Nursing Service instead.  She served all over India, both as a sister an matron, returning to England in 1947.  An amazing lady.