Vulliamy was born on 12 September 1878 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England[1], to Quakers Arthur Frederick Vulliamy and his wife Anna Marie.[2] She was educated at boarding schools and became a nurse.[3]
During World War I, Vulliamy was organiser of the "War Victims Relief Committee" of the Society of Friends.[4][5] She joined the Women's Emergency Corps (WEC, which evolved into the Women's Volunteer Reserve) and served in Holland.[6][5] From Holland, Vulliamy helped to smuggle Belgian war refugees into France,[7] then travelled with them across the English Channel into Britain.[8] She made contact with the refugees through communication with a Dutch woodworker and his English wife.[9]
After the end of the war, Vuliiamy oversaw the nurses and social workers running food distribution centres, schools for disabled children, tuberculosis hospitals and vaccine clinics.[10] She also organised the reception of British civilians who had been held at the Ruhleben internment camp in Germany, meeting them at the Germany-Belgium border, housing them and arranging transport for them back to Britain for their repatriation.[5]
Vulliamy returned home in March 1919.[11] In recognition of her war work, she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1919 New Year Honours.[1][2]
After the Russian Revolution, Vuliiamy undertook relief work in Poland.[3][7] During the Spanish Civil War, Vuliiamy supported her nieces Chloe and Poppy[12] in making arrangements for evacuating children from Bilbao to England.[2] She was also vice-president of the international non-governmental organization Save the Children Fund.[1][7]
Vulliamy retired to Cape Town, Union of South Africa, in 1937. However, while in South Africa she started a soup kitchen, a relief centre and a youth club for disadvantaged black youths.[3]
Vulliamy died in April 1957, aged 78, at her home near Table Mountain, Cape Town, Union of South Africa.[2] She was survived by her adopted son, Misha.[3]