Jean Begg, C.B.E: Her story Good hardback, first edition, previous owner's name on ffep. Jacket scuffed and chipped with a couple of repaired tears Photos

ISBN 0473000237 Publisher: Selwyn Press, 1979

Jean Begg was born of Scottish parents in Dunedin, New Zealand. She possessed exceptional qualities of leadership and her list of achievements is impressive. Her work as a missionary teacher in American Samoa, with delinquent girls in New York, service as General Secretary of the YWCA in Auckland and later India, Burma and Ceylon, was followed by her outstanding record during the war years in the Middle East and North Africa. Her life is an outstanding one. Wherever she went during the war, there ‘the Y’ grew, flourished and served. Many servicemen and women and others will remember with gratitude the meals and companionship they obtained through her energetic ability to organise. ‘The Y’ was often the only place to obtain, good clean cup of tea in pleasant surroundings, or where it was possible to entertain a girl or boyfriend. Lady Ballantrae, in a tribute said: ‘Jean Begg became a legend in her own lifetime, a legend admired and loved far beyond New Zealand, to which she proudly belonged, beyond the international circles of the YWCA to whose work she gave of her energy, her confidence and her caring; and even beyond the world of war-time Armed Services. Within which she brought her full powers of organization, of cutting through or disregarding “red tape” and personal danger alike. ‘It is widely believed during the war years that there were gallant generals who never blenched at an impending attack from an enemy but who took cover if they heard that Jean Begg was on the warpath… she overcame monumental obstacles by her good-hearted, power-driven common sense. What she achieved was for the greatest good of the servicewomen, the nurses: but beyond them for morale generally on a much wider scale.’