Hope Butler
Elsie Hopestill "Hope" Butler Wilson (August 18, 1893 – January 26, 1984) was an American ambulance driver, canteen operator, and relief worker in France and Serbia during World War I and in occupied Germany in the postwar period. She organized a unit of women volunteer ambulance drivers with Marguerite Standish Cockett.
Early life
[edit]Elsie Hopestill Butler was the daughter of Robert Gordon Butler and Mary Leland Thorp Butler of New York City.[1] She grew up in Orange and South Orange, NJ.[2][3] Her sister Marjorie Butler Harrison was active as a clubwoman in Philadelphia.[4][5] Her other sister was Eleanor Butler Marindin.[6] Their great-grandfather was Benjamin Franklin Butler, attorney general in the Andrew Jackson administration.,[7] and their uncle was N. Howard Thorp, who was instrumental in preserving cowboy songs and verse.
In World War I
[edit]Hope Butler and Marguerite Standish Cockett, an American doctor, "organized the first American ambulance unit driven by women in the French army."[8] They wore uniforms as French soldiers, and were housed with them. Later they joined the Red Cross in Serbia, and built a canteen[9] as part of the Women's Division of the YMCA.[10] After two years in Europe, Butler returned to the United States to give lectures and raise funds for war work,[11][12] then was back in Europe for post-war efforts, including a turn on the YMCA's women's baseball team, touring to entertain American troops.[13]
Butler, like some other women volunteers, wore her hair short while working in Europe, a fact that was considered newsworthy at the time.[14] "One couldn't keep one's hair clean, getting under cars to mend them, sleeping in garages, on planks anywhere," she explained, "so I cut mine off."[8] In 1918, Butler served as a courier for the British delegation at the Allied Congress of Women in Paris.[8] She was honored with a decoration by the French Government after the war.[15]
Personal life
[edit]In 1925, Hope Butler became the third wife of Francis Mairs Huntington Wilson, a writer and former diplomat, when they wed in Zurich.[16] She was widowed when he died in 1946.[17] She was still alive in December 1951 when her mother's will was probated.[18]
References
[edit]- ^ William Allen Butler and Willard Parker Butler, Book of the family and lineal descendants of Medad Butler, late of Stuyvesant, Columbia County, N.Y (New York Public Library 1919).
- ^ "1900 US Census". Family Search. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "1905 NJ State Census". Family Search. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
- ^ "In a Social Way" Philadelphia Inquirer (February 21, 1912): 8. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Asks Child Foster-Homes" New York Times (April 25, 1929): 32.
- ^ "Miss Butler Weds Henri L. Marindin" New York Times (February 15, 1925): 26.
- ^ "Robert Gordon Butler" Records of the Class, 1883–1908 (Harvard University 1908): 16–17
- ^ a b c "About Hope Butler" The Woman Citizen (November 2, 1918): 4.
- ^ Kristine Carlson Asselin, Women in World War I (ABDO 2016): 43–44. ISBN 9781680771022
- ^ "My Canteen and the Marines" The Marines' Bulletin (Christmas 1918): 55, 58.
- ^ "Soldiers Reverence Y. M. C. A. Women" Philadelphia Inquirer (November 5, 1918): 14. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Returned Y. M. Girl Talks of Work Abroad" New Castle Herald (October 22, 1918): 5. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Woman's Nine Plays Baseball at Coblenz" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (June 25, 1919): 12. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Women War Workers Sacrifice Hair Because Long Hair and War Work Don't Mix at All" Oxnard Daily Courier (November 20, 1918): 2. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Honors Won by Miss Butler" Baltimore Sun (September 25, 1919): 9. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Huntington Wilson Married in Zurich" New York Times (September 29, 1925): 27.
- ^ "F. M. H. Wilson Dies; Former Diplomat" New York Times (January 1, 1947): 34.
- ^ "Media Woman Wills Estate of $30,000" Delaware County Daily Times (December 19, 1951): 3. via Newspapers.com
