Mrs. Alice S. Weeks

From the "Introduction" by Arthur C. Watson to Greater Love Hath No Man, compiled by Alice Weeks.

During the Great War this family came into being; it was founded on that peculiar kind of idealism which belongs to struggle. Restraints had vanished, along with the influences of birth, wealth, education, and social standing. For a brief spell, the few soldiers of the French Foreign Legion who composed this family were privileged to live as themselves.

The comradeship was not limited to the regiment. It was not even centered in the regiment, but rather in Paris, at the residence of Mrs. Alice S. Weeks, mother of an American youth who had joined the Legion immediately after the general mobilization. Mrs. Weeks' residence was in every respect a home; it was unique among the war services. Here the soldier-members of the family lived when on leave; here they sent letters when with the troops. The freedom and confidence they felt in their headquarters showed the quality of what they received. Mrs. Weeks was known as the Mother of the Legion, Maman Legionnaire.

The enlistment of Mrs. Weeks' younger son, Kenneth, led directly to the founding of the family. Kenneth Weeks was born in chestnut Hill, a Boston suburb, on December 30, 1889. He was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at the Beaux Arts in Paris, planning to make architecture his career. About 1910 he made two decisions: first, to devote his life to writing, and second, to reside permanently in Paris. four years later the Great War opened, and on August 21, 1914, Kenneth weeks was in the Foreign Legion in the service of his adopted country.

Mrs. Weeks had lived continuously in Europe, but at the outbreak of the war she was organizing a music school for the Greenwich Settlement in New York City; her son's enlistment had influence on her future plans. As the war seemed to settle down for a long duration after the first battle of the Marne, Mrs. Weeks decided to share more closely in the cause of the Allies. In January, 1915, she left for France.

The opening of a home in Paris for the men who were associated with her son was an idea which came to Mrs. Weeks gradually but naturally. Soldiers came; they came again, bringing others. Letters came from the Front and were answered. Almost without realizing the process, Mrs. Weeks suddenly found herself with the responsibilities and, in addition, several native French soldiers who needed assistance of one sort or another.

The financial burdens grew heavier, and at the close of 1916 Mrs. Weeks returned to the United States to raise money for the support of her service. While she was still in this country lecturing, the United States entered the war, and the idea was suggested to Mrs. Weeks that she broaden the scope of her work to include many of the American soldiers then on the point of leaving for France. As a result, the Home Service was established, which Mrs. Weeks conducted on her return to Paris and which was represented in this country by a committee of business men.

But this collection of letters does not concern itself with the broad activities of the Home Service. It is confined to the original family, to those soldiers of the Legion who in the early years of the war enjoyed a common home in Paris. Those of this group who survived preserved their intimate relationship to the end. Their letters, together with many Mrs. Weeks wrote to her relatives to America, tell the story.

MRS. ALICE S. WEEKS

Voted 'Mother' of American Boys in French Foreign Legion

Special to the New York Times.

BOSTON, Dec 12 -- Mrs. Alice Standish Weeks, who was officially voted "mother" of American boys serving with the French Foreign Legion during the World War, died today at the age of 77 in her home, 66 Beacon Street. It was her work on behalf of these men in the early years of the war, all at her own expense, that led to the organization of the Home Service for American Soldiers Abroad. Her benefactions, which led to her decoration by the French Government as a Chevaliere of the Legion of Honor, started in 1915 when she took up residence in Paris to be near her son Kenneth, who had joined the Foreign Legion while studying in France to be an architect and was killed in action when expecting a furlough to see her. Daughter of Edward Standish Taber and descendant of Myles Standish, Mrs. Weeks was born in New Bedford. Her husband, the late Andrew Gray Weeks, associate in Zoology and entomology at Harvard, died in 1931. Mrs. Weeks leaves a son, Allen Taber Weeks, of Florida.