Edith Pye

Edith Mary Pye (20 October 1876 – 16 December 1965) was an English midwife and International Relief Organizer. She worked as a nurse and midwife in maternity hospitals for women refugees and was the president of the British Midwives Institute (now Royal College of Midwives) for 20 years. Along with being a member of Friends Germany Emergency Committee, Red Cross, and the International Commission for the Assistance of Child Refugees in 1907, she became Superintendent of District Nurses in London. Following her lengthy career in international relief efforts and as a midwife, she died at her home in Somerset in 1965.

Early life

She was born on 20 October 1876 in London, to William Arthur Pye JP, a wine merchant, and Margaret Thompson Kidston, daughter of James Burns Kidston of Glasgow. Edith was the eldest of eight children including Sybil Pye, the bookbinder, the artist Ethel Pye and David Randall Pye, the scientist and father of the sculptor William Pye. She trained as a nurse at the David Lewis Northern Hospital and by 1907 she became Central Superintendent of the Raynard District Nurses in London. France to help women and children of war victims. a high honor in France, for her efforts rescuing children from the bombings.

In 1923, she traveled alongside Camille Drevet to China, French Indochina, and Japan to continue relief work in association with the Women's International League. This trip was brought about by WILPF's stance against imperialism of any kind and the desire to establish closer contact with women in the East. The members of the Women's International League, the British branch of the WILPF, were devoted towards specific political issues rather than strong partisan devotion.

During the 1930's, she organized the Friends' work from the Spanish Civil War and was involved with the International Commission for the Assistance of Child Refugees and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She was a leading member of the Famine Relief Committee and she lobbied the Ministry of Economic Warfare. Between 1941 and 1955 she worked in both France and Greece while continuing her efforts for peace and war relief. She was buried under the same headstone as Hilda Clark at the Quaker burial ground in Street, Somerset.