Despina Achladiotou ( el, Δέσποινα Αχλαδιώτου), more commonly known as the Lady of Ro (), was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

patriot who lived on the island of Ro; part of the small archipelago of

Kastellórizo Kastellorizo or Castellorizo (; el, Καστελλόριζο, Kastellórizo), officially Megisti ( ''Megísti''), is a Greek island and municipality of the Dodecanese in the Eastern Mediterranean.Bertarelli, 131 It lies roughly off the south ...

. She was notable for being the sole resident of the island, and for daily raising the

Greek flag The national flag of Greece, popularly referred to as the "blue and white one" ( el, Γαλανόλευκη, ) or the "sky blue and white" (, ), is officially recognised by Greece as one of its national symbols and has nine equal horizontal strip ...

, from the time she arrived there until her death.

Biography

Despina Achladiotou was born on the island of Kastellorizo, in 1890. In 1927, she sailed with her husband, Kostas Achladiotis ( el, Κώστας Αχλαδιώτης), to the nearby deserted island of Ro where they lived off of a few goats, chickens, and a vegetable garden. In 1940, her husband got sick, Achladiotou started three fires in order to inform the residents of Kastelorizo that they needed help, but her husband died on a boat which came to help. Achladiotou then brought her blind mother to the island, while later she personally rowed her mother's remains back to Kastellorizo for

burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

. Article: ''The Lady of Ro's memory lives on Kastellorizians revere symbol of Greek defiance, scoff at concerns of a flood of Turkish migrants'' By Brian Williams - Reuters She has been compared to Joan d'Arc and

Boudica Boudica or Boudicca (, known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea, and in Welsh as ()), was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She ...

. Achladiotou's most renowned deed is that every day she would fly a

over the island, even though the island was not formally part of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

(as with the rest of the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; el, Δωδεκάνησα, ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey's Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. ...

controlled by

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

) until 1948. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she helped the members of the Sacred Band against the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

. She raised the flag every day, regardless of the weather, from the time she arrived on the island until her death on May 13, 1982 at the age of 92.''Chroniko tou Eikostou Aiona'' (''Chronicle of the 20th century''), ed. 4E, Athens, 1990, p. 1258. Despite not having

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that has ...

status, she was buried on the island with full military honors. A Greek military unit is now based on the island, with the main duty of keeping the tradition of raising the flag.

References

External links

Videos

Interview of the Lady of RO - 1976
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ro, Lady of 1890 births 1982 deaths 19th-century people from the Ottoman Empire 19th-century women from the Ottoman Empire 19th-century Greek people 20th-century Greek people 19th-century Greek women 20th-century Greek women People from Kastellorizo Greek hermits Greeks from the Ottoman Empire Greek Resistance members Female resistance members of World War II People from Ro, Greece