Caroline Gardner Bartlett


Caroline Gardner Bartlett was an American soprano, a music educator, and a relief worker during World War I.

Early life

Caroline Gardner was born in Ohio, and raised by adoptive parents named Clark in Rochester, New York. She studied voice in the United States and in Europe, especially at the Boston Conservatory. Her skills as a vocal educator were renowned; opera singer Lillian Nordica sought her advice, and Thomas Edison met with her to discuss technologies involving the voice. In 1904 she began teaching music at her own school, Sunny Hill, in Warner, New Hampshire. She also toured, giving recitals, to some acclaim.

World War I and aftermath

At the outbreak of World War I, Bartlett found herself in England, unable to return to the United States. She threw herself into relief work, and along the way, took the name "Sister Beatrice", complete with a nun's habit. There was nothing particularly religious about this choice of persona; she explained only that it made her service role clearer in the chaos of wartime France.
At Yvetot, working with the French army's sanitary service, Bartlett created a hospital from a deserted building in need of indoor plumbing, electrical wiring, and heat. The hospital treated hundreds of French wounded, many of them African soldiers. As the hospital thrived, Bartlett resigned from her administrative duties for reasons unclear, then embarked on a popular lecture tour to raise further funds for war relief.
Rumors began during Bartlett's lectures in Canada that she was a German spy, and that her frequent crossings of the English Channel were for espionage, not humanitarian relief. Variations on the rumor had her stealing from the donations she raised. As an independent actor in France, unaffiliated with the Red Cross or any other relief organization, she had no institutional credentials, and no one to vouch for her activities. She was never arrested, but the rumors continued to haunt Bartlett for the rest of her life. Several US State Department officials gave statements clearing Bartlett, in the years following the war; but her health and career were damaged by the accusations, and she died at a sanitarium in Warner, New Hampshire, in 1938, aged 70, with less than a hundred dollars in her bank account.

Personal life

Caroline Gardner Bartlett was married once, to a Canadian-born dentist named James Bartlett, in 1898; she was 30 years old, and he was 66. The Bartletts did not have children. James Bartlett died in 1909, and left Caroline with a comfortable inheritance and a British passport. She did not remarry.