Kathleen Burke Hale

Kathleen Burke was born in London, the daughter of Thomas Francis Burke and Georgina Connolly Burke. Her father was a railway executive.^[1] She qualified to study at Oxford, and also studied at the Sorbonne as a young woman.^[2]

Burke was honorary secretary of the London Office of the Scottish Women's Hospitals during World War I. She raised funds and visited hospital units;^[3] she was the first woman to enter Verdun.^[4] She was decorated by seven European nations for her volunteer activities, including a British Victory Medal and CBE (1918), membership in the French Légion d'honneur, a Serbian Knighthood of Saint Sava, and a Russian Cross of St. George. She was also made an honorary colonel in the United States Army.^[5] She met all three of her future husbands during this period.^[6][7]

Burke wrote about her war experiences in The White Road to Verdun,^[6][8] and gave talks about her war experiences for community groups.^[9][10]

With her first husband Burke worked to rebuild Santa Barbara after its devastating 1925 earthquake; a high school stadium was named in recognition of their work.^[6] She was made an honorary member of the local metal workers' union in gratitude for her efforts.^[11] She was active in supporting many civic organizations in Santa Barbara, including the hospital, the public library, the Lobero Theatre, the Humane Society,^[12] the Junior League and scouting organizations.^[13]

Hale and her third husband worked on refugee resettlement in France until the Nazi occupation; then they focused on British war relief efforts.^[14] "This is a different kind of war," she told The New York Times in 1940, "but the human needs are the same."^[15] After the war, they funded the rebuilding of a French village, Maillé.^[16][17][18] Eleanor Roosevelt mentioned their project in her newspaper column, "My Day."^[19]