Ruth Stanley Farnam

Ruth Stanley Farnam (September 11, 1873 – December 7, 1956) was an American nurse, soldier and writer. She is the only American woman known to have served as a soldier in the Serbian army during World War I.[1]

Ruth Stanley Farnam
Ruth Farnam, from a 1919 publication.
Born1873 
Patchogue 
Died1956  (aged 82–83)
OccupationSoldier, nurse, writer 
Spouse(s)Charles Henry Farnam, Raymond de Luze 
Awards

Family

Ruth Stanley Farnam was born at Patchogue, New York, the daughter of William Henry Stanley and Ida Jay Overton Stanley. She married Charles Henry Farnam (Q57088934) and later, Baron Raymond de Luze (Q57089397). She went by the name of Baroness de Luze until her death in 1956.[2]

War work

She originally served as a volunteer nurse in a medical unit attached to the Serbian army. She was present during the Battle of Brod on October 11, 1916[3] and, when a soldier asked if she was afraid, answered: "Do you think I am scared? I have never lived before".[4] After this, she was allowed to enlist in the Serbian army as a volunteer soldier. She was decorated three times by the King of Serbia.[5]

In 1918, she published her autobiography, A Nation at Bay: What an American Woman Saw and Did in Suffering Serbia.[6] She died in 1956, aged 83 years.

See also

References
  1. "To Serbia for the Y.W.C.A." War Work Bulletin (April 18, 1919): 4.
  2. "BARONESS DE LUZE DIES; Honored by Serbia for Relief Work During World War I". The New York Times. December 9, 1956. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  3. "Sergeant Ruth Farnam is Bride in Paris". newspapers.com. Indiana Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania). February 27, 1928. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  4. Larsdotter, Anna, Kvinnor i strid, Historiska media, Lund, 2016
  5. Parlette, Ralph Albert (ed.). The Lyceum Magazine, Volume 28. p. 35.
  6. Ruth Stanley Farnam, A Nation at Bay: What an American Woman Saw and Did in Suffering Serbia (Bobbs-Merrill 1918).
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