World Red Cross Day – Remembering U.S. and Estonian Contributions

May 8, 2012

Lt. Blanton and Lt. Winfield's funeral at Tallinn Military Cemetery on April 7, 1920. (Photo: Tallinn Photo Museum)

As the world marks May 8, the birthday of the founder of the International Red Cross, as World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, we recall two American Red Cross workers -- U.S. Army Lieutenants Clifford A. Blanton and George W. Winfield -- who lost their lives fighting for Estonian independence in 1920. When an escalating typhus epidemic threatened to spread across Estonia from the defeated White Russian Army soldiers interned at Narva, the two Americans volunteered for the dangerous mission of setting up a sanitary cordon around this front-line city. This epidemic cost the lives of millions in Russia and thousands more in Estonia, and both men succumbed to the disease after completing their mission. For their bravery, Estonia awarded the men with posthumous medals: the Cross of Liberty 1st Class in 1920 and the Order of the Estonian Red Cross 3rd Class in 1923. They were buried in Tallinn with full military honors (their remains were later reburied in the United States). A local paper wrote of them: “The humanitarian work done by the American Red Cross in our homeland is already so well known that there is no need to discuss it at length any more. Now two Americans have lost that which they held most precious – their lives – in the battle to help us. Forever we will retain the memory of these men who lived among us – be gentle with them, free Estonian soil.”