Gabrielle was born on 5th October 1891 in
Tremont, Bronx when it was still countryside and where her paternal
grandparents, Alexander Raszewski and Emilie, nee Allard de la Presle, had an
estate. Gabrielle’s father was Gustave
Raszewski and her mother was Ellen Raszewsa, nee Gale. Gustave was the French-born son of a Polish
artist and war hero and Ellen was the first daughter of an
English-Irish-Scottish family to be born in America. Gabrielle’s names reflected her French,
English and Polish backgrounds.
In her own words, Gabrielle had ‘a comfortable, harmonious
home’ and family life. Following a
downturn in the family’s fortune, Gustave worked as an interpreter at Ellis
Island, New York, where immigrants to the U.S.A. arrived by boat.
After primary school, Gabrielle attended Mt. Saint Ursula
Academy in Bedford Park and Hunter College High School, from which she
graduated in 1912 with a BA.
After the sudden and unexpected death of Gustave in 1909,
Gabrielle and her mother moved to an apartment in Washington Heights, New
York. And in 1912 she began teaching at
a primary school as a substitute teacher.
In 1913, Gabrielle was appointed full-time teacher at a primary school
and began studying for a Masters degree at Columba University School of
Philosophy.
In 1916, when the war in Europe did not show signs of
ending, Gabrielle volunteered during the summer vacation from her teaching job
to go to France for two months to work with the Winifred Holt charity set up to
help blind people ‘Lighthouse’. The
French counterpart of ‘Lighthouse’ was called ‘Le Phare’. Gabrielle explained how she managed to obtain
a passport:
“I got a passport without any trouble. Of course that wouldn’t be possible in time
of war now, but then it was the United States’ first experience with a European
war and the State Department just wasn’t prepared for preventing its nationals
from going into a war zone. I was simply asked, ‘Do you have to go?’ I said ‘Yes,’
got my passport, and soon was headed for France.”
Gabrielle travelled to France on board the French Line ship
S.S. ‘Chicago’ which also carried mail to Europe. During the First World War, the liners of
the French Line were adapted as Troop ships and Hospital Ships.
Gabrielle travelled with members of the American Ambulance
Corps who went to help wounded soldiers in the various theatres of the First
World War. The ship zig-zagged across
the dangerous waters of the Atlantic Ocean, trying to avoid the German
submarines, torpedoes and mines. They
must surely have been thinking about the loss of The ‘Lusitania’ which had been
torpedoed while crossing the Atlantic with huge loss of life the previous year.
The ship reached Bordeaux on 14th July 1916 – Bastille
Day and a holiday in France. The ‘Phare’ volunteers travelled to Paris where
Gabrielle stayed at the Pension Vendôme in Avenue Victor Hugo. Their work consisted of counselling and
helping French soldiers who had been blinded during the fighting.
Gabrielle wrote: “Some
of them reacted bravely to their new and terrible handicap; others found it
impossible to accept and were really despondent. For recreation we took them
out to drive around Paris. Automobiles were still a relatively new recreation,
and a drive in an automobile was a first experience for some of them.
“I had a
special protégé named Balustair, who wanted to learn to play the mandolin. I
gave him lessons, and he seemed to derive a good deal of comfort from the
music, though he was bitter about his blindness . . .
“Our work
at the Phare was really a feeble attempt to be helpful, but to me personally it
made my first trip to France worthwhile as well as memorable. I wanted to stay—but I couldn’t. I had a
teaching job waiting for me back in the U.S., and I had to be there by early
September.”
That September, Gabrielle returned to America aboard the
‘Rochambeau’. She was appointed a member of the English Department at Bryant
High School, Long Island City. But,
understandably, she was restless and letters from people she had met in Paris
and on board ‘Chicago’ on her way to France, reminded Gabrielle that there was
still a war on and work to be done in France.
To be continued…
Source: Information and photographs
supplied by Gabrielle’s daughter, Gabrielle Griswold from her Mother’s memoirs.
Gabrielle Griswold, daughter of Gabrielle Raszewska went to
work in Paris for American Aid for France after the Second World War in
1947. She then worked for Averell
Harriman helping to set up The Marshall Plan Headquarters, then for U.S.
Ambassadors at the American Mission to NATO.
Returning to America, after marriage and raising two children, Gabrielle
worked as a journalist until her retirement.
