Amalia Fleming

Amalia Fleming
Personal details
Born 28 June 1912
Constantinople, Ottoman Empire
Died 26 February 1986
Athens, Greece
Nationality Greek

Amalia Fleming, Lady Fleming, née Koutsouri-Vourekas (Greek: Αμαλία Κουτσούρη-Φλέμινγκ; 28 June 1912 – 26 February 1986) was a Greek physician, activist and politician.

Biography

Fleming was born in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in 1912. She moved to Greece and, during the Axis occupation of Greece, took part in the Greek Resistance, for which she was jailed by the Italians. She married Sir Alexander Fleming in 1953, but with his death in March 1955 she was widowed less than two years later.

She returned to Greece in 1963 and was arrested by the Greek military junta (1967-1974) for acts of resistance. She was released from prison due to health problems in 1971 but was stripped of her Greek citizenship and exiled.

While in exile, she wrote a "A Piece of Truth," a personal account of her imprisonment as well as of the trial of Alexandros Panagoulis. While in London she worked with Melina Mercouri and Helen Vlachos of Kathimerini against the junta.[1]

Fleming returned to Greece after the fall of the junta in 1974. She joined PASOK and was elected to the Greek Parliament in 1977, 1981 and 1985. She also was active in several human rights organisations, notably Amnesty International, Democratic Concern, and Human Rights Union.

Fleming initiated and funded the establishment of the Greek Foundation for Basic Biological Research "Alexander Fleming" (1965) which was later transformed to the Biomedical Sciences Research Center "Alexander Fleming", a governmental, non-profit institution which is actively involved in research areas covering immunology, molecular biology, genetics and molecular oncology.

Amalia Fleming died in 1986. The same year a hospital was founded at Athens and named after her (currently known as Sismanogleio-Amalia Fleming General Hospital).[2]

References

  1. ↑ RICHARD CLOGG (17 October 1995). "Obituary: Helen Vlachos". The Independent. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
  2. ↑ "Information-History". Γενικό Νοσοκομείο Αττικης "Σισμανόγλειο- Αμαλία Φλέμινγκ " (in Greek). Retrieved 13 May 2014.
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