Sara Corning

Sara Corning (March 16, 1872 May 5, 1969) was a Canadian nurse from Nova Scotia and humanitarian in the Mediterranean during the Greco-Turkish War who established orphanages for Greek and Armenian children. She trained as a nurse in New Hampshire. Sara is listed as a graduate of the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1899.

Career After training at Hitchcock Hospital in Hanover, New Hampshire, she likely worked as a nurse in New Hampshire for almost 20 years. She next worked as an aid worker at Anatolia College in Merzifon, Turkey. In 1922, Corning travelled to Constantinople, where Near East Relief was headquartered.

At the end of 1922, Corning was sent to Smyrna. While the Turkish army was capturing the city, Corning gathered orphaned children and led them through the city to safety aboard an American ship, where they were then taken to Constantinople. She is credited with saving over 5,000 Armenian children.

On September 19, 2025, a park was dedicated in her memory in North Chegoggin, close to her birthplace and her grave site.