Maria de Villegas de Saint-Pierre dating history

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Maria de Villegas de Saint-Pierre, also the Countess Maria Van den Steen de Jehay (1870-1941) was a Belgian writer who won the French literary prize for her 1912 novel, Profils de gosses. She became a nurse and at the outbreak of World War I turned her family estate into a hospital. When the Germans seized her castle, she went to the front to nurse soldiers at the Hospital du Duc de Vendome near Calais and soon was transferred to the Élisabeth Hospital in Poperinge where she served as hospital director for three and a half years. After establishing the Belgian Civil Help Association, the Countess raised funds, organized and directed the association to support three hospitals, build two orphanages, run schools, provide inoculations and many other public health initiatives. She received many awards and honors, including the Order of the Belgian Crown, the Order of Leopold, the Order of the British Empire and the French Croix de Guerre.