The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
The Revolution
Irene Purry
published 2005
Irene Purry, Anglo-Ethiopian Society member and its President from 1990 - 1993, wrote and privately published her life story in 2000. We are privileged to have been given permission by Mrs. Purry to reprint, as an Occasional Paper, a chapter from the book covering her personal experience of life in Ethiopia during the period leading up to the revolution in 1974 and of life under the Dergue.
A widow, she left the UK in December 1963 with her young son Jeremy and the family cat in a basket, travelling via Frankfurt, Athens and Asmara to reach Addis Ababa. There she was to work as Sister Tutor at the Princess Tsehai Hospital, then situated across the road from the old airport. Irene Purry later met and married John Purry, the Senior Partner of Price Waterhouse in Addis Ababa, and they remained living in Ethiopia until 1978.
Copies of the paper are still available - price £2 post free worldwide. For more details please use the Contact Us button at the bottom of the main website pages.