Helena Stefanovich Schilizzi (, Elena Skylitsi-Stefanovik; 18 September 1873 – 7 September 1959), was a wealthy Greek-British philanthropist, and second wife of the Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos.
Early life Helena Stefanovich Schilizzi was born in Bayswater, London, the daughter of John Stefanovich Schilizzi and Virginia Schilizzi. Her parents were both Greeks with origins in Chios, but according to the surname Stefanovich her father could have been of Serb origin; born in Constantinople, her father was a wealthy merchant.Helena Schilizzi, Agelastos Family Genealogy Pages."A Greek Merchant's Fortune" The Guardian (3 November 1908): 4. via Newspapers.com
Philanthropy and other contributions In 1917, Helena Schilizzi endowed the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature, a professorship at King's College London, to promote studies in modern Greek literature and history.Richard Clogg, Politics and the Academy: Arnold Toynbee and the Koraes Chair (Routledge 2013): 7–17. The Koraes Chair, King's College London Alumni Greece. The first holder of the Koraes Chair was historian Arnold J. Toynbee, from 1919 to 1924.The Koraes Chair, King's College London.
Schilizzi donated money for hospitals, theatres, schools, and for war relief and other emergencies in Greece. In widowhood, she sold her house in Athens to become the British embassy in Greece."Athens: two mission houses" Room for Diplomacy: Catalogue of British embassy and consulate buildings, 1800 – 2010. One of her London houses in Grosvenor Square was used as a Greek embassy, during the tenure of diplomat and writer Giorgos Seferis.Roderick Beaton, George Seferis: Waiting for the Angel: A Biography (Yale University Press 2003): 343. Helena Schilizzi Venizelos published a short memoir, À l'ombre de Veniselos ("In the shadow of Venizelos"), in 1955.Helena Schilizzi Venizelos, À l'ombre de Veniselos (Librairie de Médicis, 1955).
Personal life and legacy
Helena Schilizzi met Greek statesman Eleftherios Venizelos in 1912, and married him in 1921."Venizelos Will Arrive with his Bride Today" The Washington Post (21 October 1921): 3. She was injured in an assassination attempt against her husband in 1933, and widowed when he died in 1936."Venizelos, of Greece, Dead in Paris at 72" Chicago Daily Tribune (18 March 1936): 1. She died in Paris in 1959, aged 85 years. Today there are Schilizzi Foundation Scholarships named in her memory, awarded to students of Greek nationality studying at King's College London.Postgraduate UK study and funding guide (Hotcourses 2007): 112. In Crete (her husband's homeland) the Elena Venizelou Prize is named in her memory, and awarded to advanced music students.Elena Venizelou Prize, National Research Foundation "Eleftherios K. Venizelos". In Athens, there is a city square and a maternity hospital named for Helena Venizelos.Gregory I. Tsoucalas, et al., "The 1947's Newborns Emergency Transportation in Greece, a Forethought in Baby Caring, Stepping into the Future" International Journal of Caring Sciences 9(3)(September–December 2016): 1117–1123. There was also an oil tanker named the Helena Venizelos, built in Norway in 1958, now decommissioned or lost."Helena Venizelos" vessel, Baltic Shipping Services.
References
External links A 1921 newsreel clip of Schilizzi and Venizelos in London, archived by British Pathé.