| Administrative History | Captain George Frederick Handel Gracey - (1878-1958) Born Belfast, son of the city organist, became a carpenter in a shipyard, became an industrial missionary at Urfa (Edessa) in Turkey for the American Near East Relief Committee; 'after ten years in this vocation, he was caught in the maelstrom of the First World War, saw service on the terrain and among the people with which his missionary work had made him familiar, was given the rank of captain . . .' (ROTC, p144); prisoner of war in Moscow and British Representative to the Armenian Republic, secretary of the Friends of Armenia, then of the Assyrian Settlement National Appeal, then worked for SCF.
DSO 1919, married a kinswoman of Sir Henry Wood. Overseas delegate 1929 to 1937; general secretary 1937-1948 (see obit in The Times, 18 March 1958) 'During the First World War he organised single-handed the evacuation of 25,000 Armenians from Van in Turkey to Igir in Russia. He was appointed by the American Near East Relief Committee as one of their administrators after the Armenian massacres of 1915 and became a friend of Lawrence of Arabia; In 1917 he was appointed Intelligence Officer captured by the Russians. Twice he was lined up to be shot and twice reported dead, but he was eventually exchanged for Russian prisoners of war. Later he became the first British representative to the Armenian Republic of Erivan, and when that republic was overthrown and he returned to England he took up charitable work on behalf of Armenians and the Assyrians.' (TWC No 1937, p.18) |