Princess Tsehai Haile Selassie (13 October 1919 – 17 August 1942) was the third daughter and fourth child of Emperor

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

and Empress

Menen Asfaw Menen Asfaw (baptismal name: Walatta Giyorgis; 25 March 1889 – 15 February 1962) was Empress consort of the Ethiopian Empire. She was the wife of Emperor Haile Selassie. Family Menen Asfaw was born in Ambassel, located in Wollo Province of ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. Deaths in childbirth

Biography

Princess Tsehai was born in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

. She often accompanied the Emperor to public events during his exile in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

(1936–1941), where she trained as a nurse at

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children Great Ormond Street Hospital (informally GOSH or Great Ormond Street, formerly the Hospital for Sick Children) is a children's hospital located in the Bloomsbury area of the London Borough of Camden, and a part of Great Ormond Street Hospita ...

. She graduated as a state registered children's nurse on 25 August 1939. After the restoration of her father in 1941, she married Lieutenant-General (later Brigadier-General) '' Lij''

Abiye Abebe '' Lij'' Abiye Abebe ( am, አብይ አበበ; born 1918 – 23 November 1974) was an Ethiopian politician and son-in-law of Emperor Haile Selassie. Biography Son of '' Liqa Mequas'' Abebe Atnaf Seggad, Abiye was born 1918 in Addis Ababa ...

, and moved with him to

Welega Province Welega (also spelled Wollega; ; am, ወለጋ) was a province in western Ethiopia, with its capital city at Nekemte. It was named for the Wollega Oromo, who are the majority of the population within its boundaries. Welega was bordered on the ...

when he was appointed governor there. She later worked at

Dessie Dessiè City which is politically oppressed by the past Ethiopian government systems due to the fact that most of the population follow Islamic religion. Dessie ( am, ደሴ, Däse; also spelled Dese or Dessye) is a town in north-central Ethiopia ...

Hospital in

. Princess Tsehai died in

Nekemte Nekemte, also spelled as Neqemte (, Amharic: ነቀምት), is a market town and separate woreda in western Ethiopia. Located in the East Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, Nekemte has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 2,088 met ...

on 17 August 1942, from complications during childbirth. Her baby did not survive. She was buried in the crypt of the Ba'eta Le Mariam Monastery in Addis Ababa that had been built as the mausoleum church of Emperor

Menelik II , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Menelik II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ ; horse name Abba Dagnew ( Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 ...

.Mentioned by her father in his ''Life and Ethiopia's Progress'' (translated by

Edward Ullendorff Edward Ullendorff (1920–2011) was a British scholar and historian. He was a prominent figure in Ethiopian Studies and also contributed work on the Semitic languages. Biography Born on 25 January 1920 in Zurich, Switzerland, Ullendorff was e ...

hicago: Research Associates, 1999, at p. 296. Ullendorff's note provides some details about her and Abiye Abebe's lives. Emperor Haile Selassie founded the Princess Tsehai Memorial Hospital in her memory, which also served as a nursing school. After the

1974 revolution The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " ...

, the hospital was renamed the Armed Forces General Hospital.

Patronages

* Honorary President of the Association for the Benefit of Ethiopian Women (1935–1942).

Honours

National honours

* Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the

Order of the Queen of Sheba The Order of the Queen of Sheba was originally instituted as a ladies' order in 1922 in the Ethiopian Empire by Empress Zawditu and would later become the diplomatic symbol of a holy pact. Classes The Order of the Queen of Sheba is presented in ...

(1930). * Imperial Coronation Medal (1930). Waizero Manen

Ancestry

Notes

External links

Ethiopian princesses Ethiopian nurses 1919 births 1942 deaths Haile Selassie Daughters of emperors Ethiopian expatriates in the United Kingdom {{Ethiopia-royal-stub