Amalia, Lady Fleming was a Greek physician, bacteriologist, human rights activist and politician.
Occupation
politician, physician, bacteriologist
Position held
member of the Hellenic Parliament, member of the Hellenic Parliament, Representative of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Citizenship
Greece
Born
June 28, 1912
Died
February 26, 1986
Overview
Amalia, Lady Fleming, (née Koutsouri, formerly Vourekas; ; 28 June 1912 – 26 February 1986) was a Greek physician, bacteriologist, human rights activist and politician.
Early life and education
Fleming was born in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey), in 1912. Her father was Harikios Koutsouris, a physician. In 1914, with the outbreak of the First World War and the rise of the "racially intolerant Pan-Turkish state", with the family home lost and her father's laboratory confiscated, she fled to Athens with her family.
She studied medicine, and particularly bacteriology, at the University of Athens. From 1938 to 1944 she worked as a bacteriologist at Athens City Hospital. She married Manoli Vourekas, an architect.
Second World War
In April 1941 Greece was occupied by the Axis German and Italian forces. Amalia and her husband joined the Greek Resistance. She helped many British, New Zealand and Greek soldiers escape occupied Greece, transcribed BBC broadcasts, and produced fake identity cards for Greek Jews and foreign officers.
