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- We have found another English lady via some documents found in Rome. She was Mary Elizabeth Chambers
married to col. John Hunchinbotton Chambers who fought with Garibald's troops. By all accounts she was with the group of English ladies helping out as nurses at the battles-Bezzecca in particular. It seems later their mission was to promote education for Italian children and it seems they started a school in Sardinia. This has not been confirmed yet but we are doing some research.
My imagination is running a little wild thinking we could maybe get together an article in Italian and English to the
effect:- The Red Cross and the Gosport link / Italy as we know it today and why it must be grateful to some English Ladies ............................. I've got a lot of titles in my head. Do you
think anyone in Gosport knows anything about these ladies or their influence on the Red Cross etc? I don't know if you know this area of Italy - until the 1st world war it was part of Austria. At
Solferino ( just south of Lake Garda) there is a monument to the Red Cross with plaques from around the world i.e. countries where the Red Cross is present. I live in a small town called Rovereto, just
south of Trento and about 70km north of Verona. Rovereto was on the front line during the first world war and there are many trenches and forts still cut into the mountains. At the end of the war they
collected all the arms from both sides and 'melted' them to produce the largest bell in the world. It tolls every evening to remember all the people who have lost their lives in wars. ( there is
a larger one in China but it doesn't toll). Rovereto is working to become a town - symbol of peace (translating ) hence the reason we would like to link together with these amazing English ladies (
It can't have been that easy moving around 150 years ago ). Their effort from a humanitarian point of view mustn't be forgotten-especially by the younger generation. Hope all is well and we
manage to get something together. Do you think a History teacher in a local school would be interested in doing a special project with a class? Richard (added 2nd March 2008)
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