Anna Mela-Papadopoulou (September 3, 1871 – March 12, 1938)

Anna Mela-Papadopoulou (September 3, 1871 – March 12, 1938)

Born in the southern French city of Marseille, but with roots from Epirus, she was a Greek war-time volunteer nurse, known for her clinical and charity work over many years.

The younger sister of Greek military hero Pavlos Melas, who’s untimely death and the circumstances under in which it occurred, would deeply affect her and influence her life in the future.

By 1912, at the outbreak of the First Balkan War, she was living in Evia with her husband and 2 teenage children, when she decided to enlist in the Greek Army as a nurse.

Between 1912-1922, she served during the Balkan Wars, the Northern Epirote Struggle, WW1 and during the Asia Minor campaign.

She earned many awards, became head of the Greek Red Cross, ran clinics and charities, raised money for the building of new hospital wings to deal with thoracic diseases.

In the post-war period, she dedicated her life to the struggle against tuberculosis, from which the refugees from the Asia Minor Disaster, who seemed to suffer most from the disease and also the retired Greek Army veterans.

For her services, she was given the eternal title of “The Soldier’s Mother”.