Ruth Holden. 
156 
went ahead with a pioneer party to prepare and equip a new hospital 
for Polish refugee children at Kazan. Here she found herself with 
a little precious spare time on her hands, and as the University 
classes were in full swing she introduced herself to the Botanical 
Staff and set to work on some fossil plants in the Museum in which 
she was especially interested. She wrote at this time that she hoped 
later to return to Kazan to complete her examination of the material. 
The Unit again claimed her whole attention and she worked with 
it for a time at Kazan, travelling later to another Unit stationed in 
Galicia.” She spent much time in travelling between Petrograd, 
Galicia and various parts of Russia, distributing stores among 
different hospitals. In January news was received that she was 
lying ill of typhoid fever at Kazan ; later information led her friends 
to believe that she had completely recovered, but meningitis 
supervened, and she died at Moscow on April 21st. Miss Moberley, 
the Administrator of the Unit, writes: “She journeyed the length 
and breadth of Russia by herself, picking up the language and acting 
as messenger, accountant, storekeeper, V.A.D., or whatever else was 
required of her, with a zest which viewed even acute discomfort and 
hunger as a ‘ lark,’ while she showed a cheery patience and self-efface¬ 
ment under the most trying circumstances which won my heartfelt 
admiration.” To quote again from her close friend, Miss Jordan 
Lloyd : “ Her keen clear mind, her geniality, her never-failing 
courage and good humour made her friends wherever she went. 
To her friends her death is an irreparable loss. Her life, though 
short, was crowded to the full with excitements and adventures 
which she loved, and the crowning adventure of self-sacrifice is 
one from which she herself would not have shrunk. She came to 
the help of the Allies while her country was still a neutral power, 
feeling it incumbent on individual Americans to do all they could 
by private endeavour. The entry of the American nation into the 
war, which she just lived to see, must have filled her cup of happiness 
to the brim.” 
In endeavouring to express a keenly felt sense of loss occasioned 
by the untimely death of a student of Nature, it sometimes happens 
that the human qualities gradually but firmly exercise a preponder¬ 
ating influence upon the mind of the writer: though Miss Holden 
was a student of exceptional originality and promise she was much 
more than that—a chivalrous and noble woman whom it was a 
privilege to count a friend. 
A. C. Seward. 
