FRIEND OF BRITAIN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20064, 22 March 1935, Page 2

FRIEND OF BRITAIN

RICH AMERICAN’S DEATH The death is announced at the age of 71 of Mrs Jennie Blow, an American woman who presented a hospital ship to the British Government at the time of the South African War. She was then living in London with her husband, a mining engineer. Mrs Blow formed the American Ladies’ Hospital Ship Fund, by means of which a cattle boat was converted into a floating hospital to carry wounded back from South Africa. The vessel was staffed by American doctors and nurses, but the crew was British. Throughout the war the committee provided all the necessary funds for the upkeep of the vessel, which accommodated about 500 patients and plied between Cape Town and Liverpool. The British Government continued to use the ship after the South African War. It was eventually sunk in the Mediterranean during the Great War. In recognition of her services Mrs Blow was summoned to a private audience of Queen Victoria and later received the decoration of a Lady of Grace of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.