Ann Mary Burgess

Under her direction, the Friends’ Mission hospital in Constantinople developed into a ‘multifunction campus’,[1] where educational work was underpinned by funds raised from abroad through the sale of craft goods, produced on a quasi-industrial scale.

Although originally seeking to work with women in the zenanas of India, Burgess, by now secretary to the active philanthropist Priscilla Peckover, was persuaded to consider a position with the Friends’ Mission Hospital in Constantinople, where the clientele came primarily from the Armenian minority community.

In the wake of the earthquake of 1894, more beds were added to cater for an increasing number of widows and orphans, but the hospital had to close in 1896 when its doctor, himself an Armenian, fled to England in fear of his life.

Burgess set about developing a network of contacts with well-disposed groups including in the Quaker and Temperance movements, giving her the business foundations for what she termed ‘industrial’ work for the women and orphans in her charge, who were given meaningful employment which in turn raised the funds needed to keep the mission running.

Having taken advice, in November of that year Burgess oversaw the hasty evacuation of the mission school and factory operations to the Greek island of Corfu, where a temporary base was established in an old British fortress.