Henry Flint of Syracuse, NY, was not a relief worker by trade. He was cashier for the American Board in Constantinople (Istanbul), working in the treasury office under William W. Peet, who handled the money for the whole American operation in Turkey.
Typhus broke out among the Greek refugees crowded into the old Turkish army barracks and the camps around the city, where some nine thousand people were living. Near East Relief called for volunteers and Flint left his desk to take charge of a feeding station. The station was run with every precaution then known, since the danger was well understood. He caught the disease anyway and died at Constantinople of typhus on 20 May 1922.
Two American doctors, an American nurse, and two administrators caught typhus in the same epidemic and recovered after weeks of uncertainty. Ten Greek doctors working alongside them died. The Greek government awarded Flint the War Cross posthumously in 1923.
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