Princess Tsehai Haile Selassie (1919-1942)
Princess Tsehai, the daughter of the Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia, later Ethiopia, was born in 1919.
Following the invasion of Abyssinia by Italian troops Princess Tsehai sponsored welfare work and when the Red Cross was introduced to Ethiopia in 1935, she worked as a volunteer with them.
In 1936 the royal family fled to Britain. While in exile in London the Princess trained as a nurse in Great Ormond Street and Guy's Hospitals. She returned to the renamed Ethiopia with her family in 1941.
In Ethiopia Princess Tsehai worked to introduce child health services in her homeland. Sadly she died during childbirth in 1942 aged 24. Her father established a memorial hospital and school of nursing in her name in Addis Ababa.
The stamp seen here were issued in 1959 by Ethiopia to commemorate the centenary of the origin of the Red Cross movement. This design had previously featured on a 1955 issue to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Ethiopian Red Cross. Princess Tsehai is featured in uniform tending a patient on a hospital ward.
References
‘About Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH)’, from the University College London website, April 2007.
Princess Tsehai Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Wikipedia entry, 2007.