Changemakers Issue 1

The Adventures
of Angy
Peter Everington reviews ‘A Red Cross
nurse at Mons’ by Michael Henderson.
The challenge of The Great War produced some
adventurous British women, whose stories are
being unearthed in these centenary years. This
one is about the Honourable Angela Manners Sixty
years before, the Crimean War had made the nursing
pioneer Florence Nightingale a national heroine. In 1863
the newly founded Red Cross had introduced an element
of humanity to European battlefields.
At one level it was extraordinary that a 25-year-old
society girl, daughter of Lord Manners, should succeed
in establishing a Red Cross hospital unit to care for the
British wounded in Belgium. At another, it was natural
that she thought ‘Thank God I am a nurse’ on the day war
broke out, and took a patriotic initiative.
Michael Henderson has done a brilliant job trawling
the records and presents a stirring narrative. It includes
the pathos of the thousands of wounded, the news of
her brother’s death on a separate battlefield and her
imprisonment by the Germans. Yet the story is suffused
with the joy of teamwork found by a band of women, with
one male surgeon, in an outpouring of voluntary service
under fire.
The challenge of Moral Re-Armament, like its
successor Initiatives of Change, has also enlisted many
adventurous women. Angy encountered it after World
War II with her husband, Colonel Malise Hore-Ruthven.
Angela Manners.
The two of them and their three children gave the rest
of their lives to the faith-based struggle for peaceful
change and reconciliation, still so sorely needed in the
world. The postscript of the booklet is written by their
surviving daughter, Sally Baynard-Smith. She writes of
her family’s transition from privilege to purpose: ‘The
vision of a different kind of world from that in which we
grew up has been the driving force of our lives.’
The Adventures of Angy is available for £3 at
www.uk.iofc.org/books
@UKChangemakers
Calling writers and photographers
Are you interested in storytelling? Do you have a strong background in feature writing or
photography? We are recruiting volunteers to help us share unheard stories of change.
Changemakers hopes to inspire, equip and connect people with ideas on how to change
their own lives and play their part in building a sustainable and peaceful society. To apply
please submit a CV and examples of your work to comms@uk.iofc.org.
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