Violetta Thurstan

Thurstan was born on 4 February 1879 in Ore, East Sussex, the eldest child and only daughter of Dr Edward Paget Thurstan, MD, MRCS (1851-1941) and his wife Anna née Reid (1851- ?). Her father was the eldest son of the Anglican Canon of Colombo, Ceylon, and a Cambridge graduate trained at St Thomas’ Hospital, London. His medical practice moved the family from Hastings to Croydon where her brother, Edward William Paget (1880-1947, later CMG) was born.  In Tonbridge Wells, Kent, two further brothers arrived, Norman Malet Colquoun, RN, DSO (1882-1959) and Denzil Robert (1888-1919). Moving on to Tenerife, Canary Islands (1888-94) before a brief return to Herne Hill, London, instilled a love of travelling to them all.  Leaving the children in various boarding schools, and returning thereafter solely for holidays, her parents emigrated to Western Australia where her father became Medical Officer of Health in Perth and Busselton, not returning to England until after WWI. 

From the age of twelve, ‘Vi’ as she was familiarly known, was considered ‘wild and wilful’ and in need of strict education.  Later she recalled this as being ‘dumped in Germany’ in a Catholic school, a faith that she subsequently adopted. Her family’s nomadic moves engendered a life-long wanderlust in Violetta, which she recorded assiduously in pocket diaries as she travelled, and reflected later in her writings. 

Little about her formative years is straightforward, and unravelling the facts from the embroidery has confounded many, including her biographers (Somerfield and Bellingham, 1993). The person who emerges was intelligent, quiet and unassuming, small of stature, but a bundle of contradictions and eccentricities: restless, and opinionated, always ready and virtually always chosen to lead. Common verbal descriptions of her by associates in later life include ‘brilliant’, ‘definite’ and ‘indomitable’, whereas in her youth, the words used were ‘untidy’, ‘feeble’ and ‘silly’. Left out of this brief review is her close interest in young people and good relationships with her brothers and their families, all of whom had military and foreign careers.

Her skill with languages was nurtured in Germany where she remained from 1891 until taking up nursing in 1897, first through short-term apprenticeships on Guernsey and in Somerset. Her assumed name of ‘Violetta’ was only the beginning of a number of persistent changes upon which she constructed her distinguished international career. Mysteriously she kept her age to herself, probably due to her determination not to be excluded from anything.

Nurse training at the London Hospital, Whitechapel, under the guidance of the exceptional matron, Eva Luckes, prepared her for a string of hospital appointments from 1905 until the outbreak of war in 1914. Parallel studies in modern languages, fine art, and geography by correspondence and external examination showed her grit and determination to learn (LLA, St Andrews). Having joined the British Red Cross Society in 1913, her call-up sent her to Brussels the following year as Matron at Marcelline. Already established in the city for some years was the outstanding nurse, also working with the Red Cross and a London Hospital trained nurse, Edith Cavell. When two months after her arrival, Violetta was expelled to Denmark, Edith remained to her ultimate end. 

From Denmark, Violetta offered herself to the Russian Red Cross, joining Prince and Princess Volkonsky at the front in the Flying Field Ambulance Surgery Service, working as both a nurse and an ambulance driver. Operating contemporaneously was another famed nurse, Florence Farmborough, whose diary Nurse at the Russian Front offers graphic descriptions of their work.  Both were awarded the Russian Cross of St George and The Military Medal. Based on her own experiences in war, Violetta wrote three memoirs, Field Hospital & Flying Column (1915) and The People who Run (1916) and much later about Russia in particular, The Hounds of War Unleashed (1978).  Ill-health pursued her throughout her long life, including fevers, pleurisy, TB shoulder, and eye troubles, requiring furloughs for recuperation, but always she rapidly returned to work, almost fanatically volunteering at every opportunity.

Post-war she embarked on learning handcrafts and especially weaving, acquiring diplomas in Sweden (near Goteborg), then Italy, Paris and Berlin. Simultaneously she built up a bag of diplomas and her facility with languages. These were to be her sustaining skills, and the genesis of future achievements at home and abroad. Her first major appointment was as Director of the Bedouin Industries for the Egyptian Government, located in the Libyan Desert west of Cairo. Her work was to supply and select textiles, oversee Bedouin workshops, and this was where all she ‘had learned previously about weaving was superseded’ and enhanced along with a knowledge of Arabic. Her diaries describe a life full of travels to Cairo and Alexandra, and periodically back through continental Europe to Britain, stopping off to advise on crafts in Albania, all within a seven year period. In her own estimation, these were her most fulfilling years. In 1924, her ‘Articles on Dyeing’ were published by the Egyptian Horticultural Review, and by 1930 her best-selling book, Use of Vegetable Dyes for Beginners, was published by Dryad, remaining a standard text today. In following years she lectured, tutored in languages and weaving, and in 1934 published A Short History of Decorative Textiles and Tapestries.

In Spain under unknown auspices in 1937, Violetta worked for prisoner release in Almería until expelled after the end of the Civil War as persona non grata. As war loomed again in Europe, the now 60 year old joined the WRNS, declaring herself eleven years younger, and working in Naval Intelligence, where her knowledge of languages could be employed. Dame Vera Laughton Mathews, Director of WRNS (1939-1946) commented that ‘She spoke every known tongue’, and another friend reported ‘When in Rumania she was able to translate an ancient Slavonic manuscript, to the delight of the custodian…’ In 1945 the tireless and devoted Catholic joined in the Catholic Relief Programme, evacuating and re-settling children, working with POWs and displaced persons in Italy, Egypt and Austria, and being made a Companion of the Vatican by Pope Pius XII. This award brought to nine the medals she received from war-work. She was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Geological Society, the occasion for her sculpture to be commissioned. 

From 1950 until her death, Violetta lived in Cornwall, near Falmouth (Flushing and Penryn) and continued her teaching, weaving, writing, and frequent travelling, leading the Catholic Women’s League on pilgrimage to Rome (1958), advising on crafts in Greece (1966) and the Dye Garden at Probus (1976). Attending the World Crafts Council inaugural meeting at the V&A in London in 1967, she initiated the first steps through the Cornwall Guild of Weavers and Dyers and others, toward the formation (1973) of the Cornwall Crafts Association, which remains of great importance to craftsmen and artists today.

by Melissa Hardie

Publications:

Field Hospital and Flying Column (1915); The People who Run (1916); The Use of Vegetable dyes for Beginners (1930); A Short History of Decorative Textiles & Tapestries (1934, 1954, 1972); Weaving Patterns of Yesterday & Today (3 editions, nd), Weaving without Tears (nd), Stormy Petrel (biographical novel, 1964); The Foolish Virgin (novel, 1966); The Hounds of War Unleashed (1978); numerous articles and unpublished diaries.

Sources: 

Bellingham, A. and Somerfield, M. (1993) Violetta Thurstan – A Celebration. Newmill: Patten Press

Family records

Violetta Thurstan Archive, Hypatia Trust, Penzance, Cornwall

Royal London Hospital Archives

Personal diaries: Magdalene College, Cambridge.