George St. John Williams of Foxburg, Pennsylvania, served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France before he joined Near East Relief. He ran the unit at Marsovan (Merzifon) through the evacuation of the winter of 1922, when the organization moved its orphans out of the Turkish interior toward Samsun and the Black Sea ahead of the closing of the country.
The columns of children came over snow-covered roads and mountain passes. Williams met each one as it reached the city, in rain and snow, and caught a heavy cold. He kept working. It became pneumonia, and he died on 10 December 1922. His body was sent home, and he was buried with full military honors at Arlington. The Greek government awarded him the War Cross posthumously the following year.
See more details