Sister Alice Gertrude May

Alice Gertrude May was born in 1865 in Woodlands, County Durham and was the daughter of Jonathan and Alice May. Her father was a Coal Owner and a Farmer in 1871. Alice gives some conflicting information with regards to her age. She states she was born in 1871 in one description and in 1882 in another.

Alice served as a Nurse in South Africa during the Boer War.

Alice’s overall service is impressive.

1. Royal Infirmary Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (Aug. 1891-Oct. 1894)
2. Nursing Home – Harley Street (Nov. 1894-Oct. 1895)
3. 5th Eastern Fever Hospital (Oct. 1895–April 1896)
4. Gray Hospital, King Williamstown, South Africa (May 1896-June 1897)
5. St. Michaels Home, Kimberley (June 1897-October 1899)
6. Private Nursing (Feb. 1900 – August 1900)
7. The Military Hospital No. 11 – Kimberly (February 1900- August 1902)
8. Hospital to England (August 1902)
9. Returned to South Africa Troop Ship (Feb. 1903)
10. Private Nursing at Port Elizabeth (Feb. 1903-Aug. 1903)
11. As Sister at Memorial Hospital, Bulawayo (Sept. 1903 – 1904)
12. As Paying Pupil – Maternity Hospital, Durham (Dec. 1904 – Feb. 1905)
13. Private Nursing – Durban, South Africa (Feb. 1905 – 1906)
14. Taking duties for the Matron, Seaham Harbour General Hospital
15. Taking duties for the Matron at Sedgefield Isolation Hospital
16. Private work – North East of England and Birmingham (Feb. 1907 – Dec. 1909)
17. Mexico – Hospital Administration – Guadalajara – Isla de Belvedere – Mazaltan (Jan. 1910 – Aug. 1912)
18. Toronto – Canada – Private Nursing June 1913- August 1914.
19. Tampico, Mexico – Private Work Aug. 1914 – March 1915.

In 1911 she was living at 43 Harrogate Street, Sunderland and was described as a Trained Nurse.

In 1915 Alice was living at Elm Cottage, Crook, County Durham.

Alice joined the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (Q.A.I.M.N.S.) on 15th July 1915 after attending an interview and paying her own expenses in doing so. Her declaration was witnessed by William Greenwell Omand, a Solicitors Clerk from Crook.

She was promoted to the position of Sister by request of Matron G. M. Payne along with 2 other nurses called Miss G. N. Penley and Miss M. Gleave. Payne wrote “all these ladies have done their work at this Hospital in a highly satisfactory manner and in my opinion are well worthy of promotion.”

Alice was transferred to give her services in France on 20th August 1916. Her conduct and character was seen as very good, however on 11th November 1916 it was commented that she appeared as not very strong with regards to her health by one of her references and as Fair by another. It is interesting to read that one reference thought she was suitable for all kinds of duties and yet another didn’t think she was capable of serving on Hospital Ships, Ambulance Trains or Casualty Clearing Stations.

Alice was demobilised on 7th May 1919 and sent to Warncliffe Hospital, Sheffield for temporary duties pending an appointment with the Serbian Relief Fund. Originally she had requested repatriation to Mexico, but relinquished this request.

I have not found any record of Alice’s death, nor do I know where she ended up.

Tony Young has also submitted his research:

Sister Alice May.

‘Sister Alice May’ is one of the two female names on the Crook War Memorial for those killed in WW1 and WW2, and there is a local story that she is believed to have served as a nurse in the Crimean War and that her name appears simply because the town were proud of her.

Whilst I query such an attractive story with some trepidation, my research suggests that the lady remembered is more likely to be someone who served in the Boer War and then with distinction in WW1; but she wasn’t among those killed and so her name may indeed appear on the memorial because the town were proud of her.

I don’t know when the Crimean War story originated but, at least in part, it may date back no earlier than 2006 when two Mike Amos articles appeared in the Northern Echo querying the female names on the War Memorial. Speaking to Harry Brook recently about this, he recalled that following the first article, he had contacted the Durham Record Office and been told that there was indeed an Alice May living in Crook at the 1901 census but that she was then aged 65, and hence the only significant war where she might have served would have been the Crimean War.

However I can find no evidence that this lady served in the Crimean War or even that she was a nurse. Alice May was her married name and, at the time the Crimean War, she would have been Alice Stephenson, a farmer’s daughter who had been born in Woodland about 1835 and lived there before marrying Jonathan May in 1862, thereafter farming in Woodland for a while before moving to Crook. There are no complete lists available of women known to have served as nurses in the Crimean War, but those lists that do exist do not include an Alice Stephenson (or an Alice May).

Mrs Alice May died in Crook in October 1918 aged 83, but her death attracted no comment in the local newspaper – as might have been expected had she had a more interesting past.

However she did have a locally more famous daughter, another Alice May, and this Alice was a nurse. She is missing from both the 1901 and 1911 censuses because on both occasions she was nursing abroad. Her military records survive in the National Archives and these include details of all her nursing experience up to the end of WW1.

Her introduction to military nursing seems to have occurred involuntarily. She had started training as a nurse in Newcastle in 1891. After various posts in the UK, she went out to South Africa in 1896 to do private nursing, and she happened to be nursing in the town of Kimberley in October 1899 when the Boer War started. The town was immediately besieged by Boer forces and she was trapped inside for the next 4 months. After the siege was lifted in February 1900 it seems that she stayed on, nursing in the military hospital there for the next two years. Her return to the UK was reported in the Auckland and County Chronicle of 09/10/1902.

In the following years she held civilian nursing positions successively in South Africa, UK, Mexico, and Canada, before accepting a post back in Mexico in August 1914, just as WW1 started in Europe. In March 1915 she returned to UK and volunteered to join the QAIMNS(R) (Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve). Her application form shows that she fibbed about her age, saying she was 44 whereas in fact she was 50. With her considerable nursing experience she was soon promoted to ‘Sister’ and was posted to France in Aug 1916. During the next 2½ years she nursed in 17 different medical units including 3 Casualty Clearing Stations – in spite of a note on her records saying she was not suitable for these due to limited strength and only ‘Fair’ health. Her service file includes a glowing report about her capability, kindness towards patients, and her ability to supervise orderlies and other staff as a Ward Sister, and mentions her potential ability to act as Matron.

After the end of WW1 ‘Sister Alice May’ was one of about 50 members of the QAIMNS(R) – out of 10,000 – who were honoured by being ‘Mentioned in Despatches’ by Field Marshall Haig for ‘gallant and distinguished service in the field’. This distinction was reported in an article in the Auckland and County Gazette for 25/11/1920 under the heading of ‘A Worthy Crook Nurse’. Whether she continued in nursing after WW1 isn’t known but when she died in 1926 a newspaper article said that Nurse May had been a very well known personality in Crook and also in Witton-le-Wear where she had been running a successful poultry farm for some years. An earlier article in the A&CC of 02/08/1923 mentioned that ‘Miss May’ had presided at the recent monthly meeting of the Crook & District Ratepayers Association – and this may well have been Alice.

Alice died on 26th May 1926 and her funeral was reported in the Auckland and County Gazette 03/06/1926. She had been buried on Saturday 29th May following a service in St Catherine’s Church. She seems to have had something approaching a civic/military funeral – the coffin was covered with a Union Jack and many flowers; there was a very large attendance and the cortège was led to the cemetery by the Willington Silver Band.

I believe that this Alice May is the lady remembered on the War Memorial. After 9 years of apathy and false starts, the Crook War Memorial Committee appears to have been reformed in the second half of 1926 (conceivably reminded by Alice’s death?) and this time they carried the project through to completion and to the unveiling of the Memorial in November 1927. Alice May wasn’t actually a war casualty but her death would have been in recent memory, and it does seem quite likely that her name was included on the Memorial because Crook was proud of her.