military hospital N 2 in Harrogate. Aimed at British and Canadian naval men wounded in the war. She undertook a Red Cross nursing course and already had experience of army medical service as a young princess in Greece, nursing patients herself. This institution was so successful that by 1915 the Grand Duchess eventually created two other hospitals: N 3 and a home for convalescent patients in Harrogate. During the four years of the war, more than 1200 patients were treated there. Impressed by her work, her cousin, King George V, conferred her the Royal Red Cross in July 1915. During the war years, Grand Duchess Maria lived with her daughters in Harrogate until July 1916 when they moved to a large mansion in Grosvenor Square in London. Very close to the British Royal Family, she went to Marlborough House almost every evening to dine and play cards with Queen Alexandra. Grand Duchess Maria also regularly visited her cousin, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom, her close friend since childhood. She continued to go to Harrogate frequently to be in charge of her hospitals. The outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 disrupted the daily life of Grand Duchess Maria and her daughters, who ceased to receive income from St. Petersburg. Unable to subsidize any longer the hospitals she patronized, the Grand Duchess entrusted them to the protection of her aunt Queen Alexandra. At the request of her patients, however, she remained the director until the end of the war. Her reduced financial circumstances forced Grand Duchess Maria to move to a smaller residence next to Regent's Park. It was though the financial support of her future sister-in-law, the wealthy American Nancy Leeds, that the Grand Duchess was able to maintain her finances afloat. In 1918, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich was arrested by the Bolsheviks as he sought to emigrate to Britain. Alarmed with the fate of her husband, Maria Gerogievna made many efforts to obtain her husband's release, along with others of her Russian relatives. Through the Danish Embassy, she tried to obtain their freedom in return for £50,000 without success. After several months of uncertainty, the Grand Duke was finally shot on January 30, 1919, at the Peter and Paul Fortress by the Bolsheviks. Along with her husband, Maria lost her brother-in-law Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich, her former brother-in-law Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich and her younger maternal uncle, Grand