Dame Maud McCarthy

There are several references in Edie's diaries to 'Miss McCarthy' and  'Miss McC'.  Maud McCarthy was Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force and Edie clearly had great respect for her.  Family memories have it that Edie stayed in France until well into 1919 and was responsible for repatriating Canadian nurses. However, thanks to the wonderful Sue Light (http://scarletfinders.co.uk/), we now have copies of Edie’s papers and official records and these show that she joined the staff of the redoubtable Dame Maud McCarthy in Boulogne in February 1919, remaining there until her demobilisation in December 1919.

Sue Light has done an amazing job of making available the diaries of Maud McCarthy and you can see them here: http://scarletfinders.co.uk/25.html. 

On 17 June 1917 (click here for relevant page) Dame Maud writes in her diary as below.  This is a particularly interesting piece of information as the date falls in a period (16 November 1916 to 20 June 1918) for which we have no diary of Edie's; the entry reveals that she was at 45 CCS which was located at Achiet-le-Grand between April 1917 and March 1918.

• 17.06.17
  45 CCS: Received letter from Sister Appleton, in temporary charge of 45 CCS, to say that the hospital had been quite busy and shells had been falling very near. The hospital cook and a patient had been wounded. The patients and staff had had to go to dug-outs.

In January 1919 (click here for the relevant page) Dame Maud makes two mentions of Edie:

• 28.01.19
  Miss Blakely left to report at the War Office. Miss Appleton QAIMNSR who has been out since the beginning of the war and who is a woman of considerable experience, is working temporarily at the Principal Matron’s office until the arrival of Miss L. E. Mackay.

• 09.03.19
  .......This Hotel [the Marine Hotel in Boulogne] is able to accommodate comfortably 100 people. The Staff consists of the Sister in charge, Miss Easby, 4 VADs, Sister Appleton, QAIMNSR who with a VAD secretary will take all particulars, and 5 French servants......

They remained in touch, and in the 1920s Dame Maud persuaded Edie to join the Territorial Army Nursing Service.  At first Edie declined, on 16 August 1923, with this delightful paragraph:

“Thank you for offering to have me in the Territorials.  I am afraid I cannot join – much as I should like to for many things – and should love having you as my Chief again.  One reason is that I am 46 and the other is that I really mean to give up nursing next year and to make my living at poultry keeping etc.”

But clearly the Matron in Chief, who replied on 18 August, was persuasive and by 23 August Edie had agreed to join!

The Australian Dictionary of Biography has a page on Dame Maud here: www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100210b.htm.

There's a charming portrait of Dame Maud in the National Portrait Gallery in London. You can see a copy here: www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?LinkID=mp05535&rNo=0&role=sit.

UPDATE November 2008: In May 2008 Sue wrote to English Heritage to propose that a plaque be placed on one of the two houses in Chelsea that was home to Dame Maud McCarthy.  When I saw this initiative on Sue's blog (http://greatwarnurses.blogspot.com/2008/05/blue-plaques.html) I wrote to English Heritage to support the proposal. On 1 November 2008 Sue updated progress here: http://greatwarnurses.blogspot.com/2008/11/blue-plaque-update.html. We are keeping our fingers crossed but it may be some time.

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