Mary Trevelyan (1897–1983)

Mary Trevelyan was the eldest of six children in the upper-middle-class family of the Rev. George Philip Trevelyan and his wife Monica Phillips. She was a cousin of the historian G.M. (George Macaulay) Trevelyan. She had a privileged childhood and grew into an idealistic young woman.
She played the piano and organ, and won a scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music. She began a career as a music teacher, then switched to became Warden of the Student Christian Movement’s Student Movement House (SMH) in London in 1932. In 1937, she took a sabbatical to travel through Asia, the USA, and Canada, studying the home countries of the international students served by her organization. She returned to London more fully committed than ever to promoting international peace and co-operation among young people and helping foreign students complete their education.

During World War II, she went to Brussels to run a YMCA hostel for Allied soldiers on leave. She left the SMH in 1946, after a disagreement with her employers. From 1946 to 1948 she worked for the UNESCO Department of Reconstruction in Paris. She spent part of this time visiting and making surveys on priority needs in education after the war in Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, North Borneo and the Philippines.
She also served as the first adviser to overseas students at the University of London until 1965. A longtime friend and companion of T.S. Eliot, she wrote a memoir about him. She received the OBE in 1956 and was later promoted to CBE. The current International Students House in London is her legacy.