Amelia Peabody Tileston

Amelia Peabody Tileston (1872–1920) was an American Red Cross worker in Serbia during World War I. She organized and conducted free canteens in the Serbian Army from her own personal funds. She was the first woman, not a Serbian, to whom the Order of St. Sava (third degree) was awarded.

Early life and education Amelia Peabody Tileston was born on October 30, 1872, in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She was the third daughter, fourth of the seven children, of John Boies Tileston and Mary Wilder (Foote) Tileston. When she was two years old, her father bought a farm in Concord, Massachusetts, where the family lived for eight years. It was a milk farm of , on the slope of Punkatasset Hill, running down to the Concord River, and it gave the children the freedom and varied interests of country life. and in Harvard Square, for the four weeks before Christmas. She got the men from the Wayfarers' Lodge, and this helped, also, the needy men, more or less handicapped, to whom she gave employment. She studied the Serbian grammar assiduously, through the long evenings, to prepare herself for usefulness, when the opportunity should arrive.

Death

Amelia Peabody Tileston died of pneumonia in Belgrade, Serbia at the Scottish Women's Hospital, on February 22, 1920.

Awards Tileston was awarded the Order of St. Sava, Third Degree by the Serbian government in recognition of the service rendered the Serbian Army. She was the first woman, not a Serbian, to whom the third degree of the order was awarded.

Just before her death, Tileston was presented the Serbian Gold War Medal and the Order of St Sava, Fifth Degree, for her work at the front.