Mirka Grujić

Mirka Grujić (Belgrade, 1869 to 1940) was a Serbian volunteer nurse of the Balkan Wars and the First World War, and afterwards the leader of a women's charitable society. One of ten children of the statesman and diplomat Jevrem Grujić and his wife Jelena, she was highly educated, spoke five languages, painted and played the harpsichord. During the First and Second Balkan Wars and World War I she served in the volunteer medical corps, took part in the retreat across Albania and stayed with the army until Serbia was liberated, and she was awarded the Medal for Bravery for her work as a nurse. After the war she became president of the Circle of Serbian Sisters, which looked after the poor and the ill, cared for orphans and helped educate young girls. She was also honorary first lady-in-waiting to Queen Maria of Yugoslavia.