Lydia Grant (1880 - 1917) - Australian VAD who died serving and is buried in Manchester Southern Cemetery, Manchester, UK

 With thanks to Marjorie Earl for finding this poem about Australian WW1 VAD nurse Lydia William Falconar Grant, Elder daughter of Peter G. and Emily Grant of Brisbane, Queensland.  Member of the Brisbane Branch of the Red Cross Society of Australia. Nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment - 2nd General Western Hospital

GRANT, LYDIA WILLIAM FALCONAR VAD – Nurse, Red Cross Unit: BRCS VAD AUSTRALIAN DETACHMENT BRISBANE  Born in Scotland in 1880  Died 1 April 1917 - aged 37 - at the military hospital on Ducie Avenue (this was part of 2nd Western General Hospital) on 1st April 1917.

Her Brother, Chesborough G F Grant was in attendance and he gave on the death certificate an address of Whytecliff, Albion, Queensland, Australia. In 1903 and 1905 Lydia was living at Lynton, Norwood Street, Toowong, Brisbane with Emily Mary Graham Grant, Peter George Grant and John Macdonald Grant. She was buried in Southern Cemetery, Manchester, UK.

A Poem (In Memory of the Late Miss Lydia Grant.) published in the Cairn Post, Tuesday, 1st May 1917

Feeling compassion for. the sick and the wounded caused by the nations at strife.

Brought ardent desire to be up and doing her share in the battle of life.

Seeing no longer a reason why she should indolent be,

Announced she had found her vocation-"War work as a V.A.D.

Oft times her work became strenuous and sometimes irksome, too;

But she was ever ready patriotic work to do;

For had she not two brothers fighting "somewhere in France,"

She felt she could not be idle and miss so ennobling a chance.

She was one of the V.A.D.'s chosen the wounded and sick to attend;

Did she flinch when she knew 'twas in England? No! to ask it was but to offend.

Thoughts flew to her home and her mother, had fears lest she'd not give consent;

This was the answer: "God bless you and the mission on which you are bent"

That day on the quay when they parted, her tender emotions were stirred.

Though not regretting the step she was taking, she mingled her tears with theirs;

Then reminding them of the dear ones at the war who were doing their part,

She whispered, "Good-bye, mother dárling," the boat was preparing to start.

Then after anxious weeks of waiting a cable came to tell:

"Safe arrival, uneventful journey, happy and well."

Then letters followed, telling of, the wounded and dead, but

The sorrows of life are teaching a lesson, for which I am thankful," she said.

News of her serious, illness came, brothers sent for by doctor's request;

"O, God"! cried the mother in anguish, grave fears it had stirred in her breast.

In vain was the skill of the doctor, and the nurses who all did their best;

"Thy will be done," sobbed the mother, when she heard they had laid her to rest.

By L.E.R.

"Caringa," Townsville.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out who L.E.R. was.

Eleanor Charles Warrender (1862 – 1949) - British nurse in the Boer War and in the First World War

 With thanks to Becky Bishop for suggesting I research Eleanor 

Eleanor Charles Warrender was born on 20th February 1862. Her parents were Sir George Warrender, 6th Baronet of Lochend and Bruntsfield, and his wife, Helen, nee Purves-Hume-Campbell.   Eleanhor’s siblings were: Alice Helen Warrender b. 1857 d. 23 Sep 1947, Julian Margaret Maitland Warrender b. c 1856, d. 5 Apr 1950, Captain John Warrender1 b. 5 Mar 1859, d. 12 Jul 1894, Vice-Admiral Sir George John Scott Warrender of Lochend, 7th Bt. b. 31 Jul 1860, d. 8 Jan 1917 and Lt.-Col. Hugh Valdave Warrender b. 14 Sep 1868, d. 8 Mar 1926.

Eleanor must have studied nursing because she nursed on hospital ships during the Boer War and served with the French Red Cross during the First World War.  She was involved with the Guide Movement and was a supporter of local causes. She was awarded the French Croix de Guerre avec palmes and was appointed Dame of Grace, Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (D.G.St.J.). 

In 1894, Eleanor and her siblings inherited a house called High Grove in Ruislip, Ruislip-Northwood U.D., Middlesex from her mother’s stepfather, Sir Hugh Hume-Campbell. In 1935, Eleanor sold 10.5 acres (4.2 ha) of the grounds of the house to the local council to establish a new playground and park, now named Warrender Park, and 13 acres (5.3 ha) to Ideal Homes for a residential development. During the Second World War, she made Highgrove available to the military, and British and American personnel from RAF Northolt stayed there.  

Eleanor never married and died in 1949.

If anyone has a photograph of Eleanor, please get in touch. 

Rosamund Essex (1900 – 1985) – British journalist, author and lay reader

Rosamund was one of the “forgotten generation” of women who forged lives for themselves in the Aftermath of the First World War.

Rosamund Sybil Essex was born in Bournemouth on 26th July 1900.  Her parents were Herbert James Essex, a church minister, and his wife, Rachel Bissett Essex, nee Watson.  Rosamund had a brother, Philip Louis George Essex, who was born in 1895.  Educated at Bournemouth High School for Girls, Rosaumund went on to study at St. Hilda's College, Oxford, where she obtained a Master of Arts Degree (M.A.).  Her brother, who went to study medicine  at the College of Medicine in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1912, abandoned his studies and joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1914, was promoted to the rank of Temporary Sub Lieutenant in March 1916 and died in 1917.  He is remembered in St Clements Church, Bournemouth, WW1 (WMR 51401).

In 1917, Rosamund’s headmistress told the girls that only one in every ten women could hope to find a husband “Nearly all the men who might have married you have been killed. You will have to make your way in the world as best you can. The war has made more openings for women, [but] you will have to fight. You will have to struggle."

Rosamund wanted to become a priest like her Father, but that was not possible for a woman back then.  She had also hoped to marry and have children.  In her book “Woman in a Man’s World” (Sheldon Press, 1977), Rosamund tells us of her struggles to overcome the difficulties faced by women during that time and how she realised her dreams by adopting a little boy, becoming Editor of “The Church Times” from 1950 to 1960 and becoming a lay reader.

 “The highlight of all my work in the Church came in 1969 when quietly, almost unnoticed by the Church at large, a canon law was given royal assent which allowed women to be readers.  

Rosamund died on 11th April 1985.  Her book was an inspiration to me when it was published in 1977. 

The photograph shows Rosamund with her adopted son, who was ordained as a priest. 

Cover of the book "Woman in a Man's World"

Sources: 

Find my past, Free BMD, “Woman in a Man’s World” 

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/singled-out-by-virginia-nicholson-464239.html and

http://www.universitiesatwar.org.uk/explore/essex-philip-louis-george