Sorry Helen, but I couldn’t find anything specific to Anna Belli,
You would have to ask how a nurse in a children’s hospital in London would obtain a governess job at the highest level in Tsarist Russia. I saw a couple of advertisements in the London Times around about then, one asking for and the other offering a Governess job in Russia, but in both cases there appeared to be an employment agency involved. Perhaps she put her name down at an agency, was interviewed and found suitable. Maybe she was recommended by someone with contacts to the Evelina Hospital and to Russian aristocracy.
If the Russian royal family employed an “English” Governess there is absolutely no doubt that it would be a case of “monkey see, monkey do” and every Tom Dick and Ivan who could afford it would want the same. Probably why there was a warning to English Governesses in Russia in the London Times on 1st June, 1914. I would guess there would be a great many English Governesses in Russia in 1917 working for the much privileged classes who had to leave for their own safety.
Few would have ever made the newspapers. Here’s a couple in the London Times
14 April 1919 - Minnie Petch an English Governess employed by baroness Rosen rescued by Cossacks.
13 Sep 1974 - Review of a book by Rosamond E Dawe “Looking back; a Memoir of an English Governess in Russia 1914-17” (governess in the homes of aristocratic Russian families).
I couldn’t find anything in the Times for the Margaret Eagar/Eager Heather mentioned in the other post. Even if you make the top of the Governess tree doesn’t mean you make the newspapers. She seems to have had a similar sort of employment background to your Anna. It would be interesting to know how she got her job in Russia in 1898. Had she not written the book and had there not been surviving correspondence she too would possibly have remained a relative unknown.
http://www.alexanderpalace.org/eagar/eagar.html
One thing you can be sure of is that if one petty noble or military person or wealthy individual somewhere in Russia could afford an English governess the Tsar could easily afford more, perhaps carrying out different duties including nursing but who could all be loosely describes elsewhere as governesses. I don’t know whose description it is but see the anonymous “another nanny” in the photo on this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaretta_Eagar
Alan
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