Endell Street Military Hospital

Amongst my grandmother’s things, I have come across an autograph album belonging to Dora Frances Townsend.

It covers the period from 1902 to 1918, and contains entries by wounded servicemen and staff at various hospitals in London: The London School of Tropical Medicine, The Seaman’s Hospital, Royal Albert Dock (SS ‘Erinpura’ features:

Code:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Erinpura

, and Endell Street Military Hospital: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1712367/

and https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/endellstreet.html

This last is particularly interesting, as it is connected with the early days of women’s suffrage; I imagine Dora was a nurse there, although I remember my grandmother telling me that she was a lady, and had been presented at court.

It is full of exquisite, hand-drawn or painted entries, in pencil, ink and water-colours, with poems, messages and autographs, most of which are clearly legible. I have taken digital photographs of each page, and I have managed to trace the war records of a couple of the servicemen/doctors who feature, now, long dead, sadly.

It is a fascinating historical document, especially in view of the celebrations planned for November to mark the end of that terrible conflict.

I have uploaded an image of one of the water-colours, as the page has come loose, and it has no signature; the backdrop is the lining of the front and back covers. If anyone would like any further information on the contents of the album, or can shed any light on its owner, please let me know – I may have the autograph of an ancestor of yours!

 

Dora Frances Townsend appears on the 1939 reg living in Chelsea her occupation is nurse, she is single and born 8/5/1881

There is a birth reg in June qtr 1881 Derby 7b 550 mmn Pritchard

From the Campaign, Gallantry and Long Service Medal & Awards
Service number 44641 - Queen Mary's Army Auxillery Corps
rank -worker

On Anc there is a s/nurse D F Townsend and she was awarded the following

British War and Victory medals (?) - the whole image is too large to copy
It is in the Nursing - Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing (reserve)

Strangely I do not see her on any census.

 

Thank you so much for that! My nana always referred to her as Miss Townsend, so perhaps she never married. I have found a death in 1959, which could be her

 

Nabean? I have not looked at the links as yet, but I notice the mention of Dora being a 'Lady'. From articles I've read that seems not to prevent forthright young Ladies from doing their bit to assist during war times nor the 'Women's rights' campaigns.

Might she have been known by another Christian name in census records?

 

Probate.

 

Thank you @Sis
Now I come to think of it, I remember being dragged up Whaley Lane as a young child! I can't think of anyone else we would have been visiting.
There are entries in the album from Minnie Townsend, A V Townsend (Albert Victor George), and E Townsend, who I'm assuming were some of Dora's brothers and sisters.

 

Not to be beaten I looked on the GRO index for other Townsend births mmn Pritchard.
Arthur Charles Sept qtr 1872 Derby 7b 427
Eveline Annie Dec qtr 1874 Derby 432
Albert Victor George June qtr 1878 Derby 7b 518

So 1881 Census RG11/3400/68/38 - 24 Dashwood St. St Werburgh Derby
William b1844 Bittern Gloucestershire -Private coach body maker
Jane b 1843 Leicestershire
+ the 3 children above

Marriage 1870 Barrow on soar (Leicestershire) Sept qtr 7a 253
William Townsend and Jane Pritchard appear on the same page

1891 census, the family are enumerated as Townshand
RG12/3263/94/50 in Cheetham, Prestwick Manchester

 

Thank you @MollyMay , I have the same William Townsend (b. 1844 Bitton, Gloucs.) but with Jane (née Morgan b. 1844 Woodhouse Eaves Leics.).

 

Dora -
1901 census Sale Cheshire RG13/3325/123/15
1911 census in West Ham, London working at the Seaman's Hospital
RG14 PN9478 SN1

There is also this entry in "The Midwife's Roll 1904 -1959"
date 1926 - enrolled 21/12/1914


the last column is headed 'qualification'.

I have looked on Freebmd and cannot see a Willam Townsend/Jane Morgan marriage

 

Jane Pritchard can be found on the 1851 census in Woodhouse
HO107/2087/297/29 born Woodhouse
she is with her widowed father Charles and siblings
in 1861 RG09/2280/130/19 in Woodhouse (FMP has her pob as Woodhorn)
ith now remarried father and siblings

 

Over to you MM, on my phone now and just can't grasp searching using it.

 

At first I could not find a birth reg for Jane Pritchard in Barrow upon Soar
(but I did find Jane Morgan June qtr 1842 15 -32)
Then the GRO came up with

Checking with younger brother George his mmn came up as Squires

On 8/7/1833 at Woodhouse, Charles Pritchard married Catherine Squire

FMP have the image of the marriage of Jane Pritchard to William Townsend
13/9/1870 at St Pauls, Woodhouse Eaves
William's occ is Coachbuilder, and address as Christchurch Derby

 

This is all really interesting; thank you.
One of the entries in the album, from 1911 (a poignant little poem), is by one of the doctors at the London School of Tropical Medicine, Harold Sinclair Coghill, whose father, JGS Coghill, has a fascinating Wiki entry, from which this extract is taken.

"Harold Sinclair Coghill (1880–1919) H Sinclair Coghill, JGS Coghill’s younger son was born in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Following his father to Edinburgh University, he graduated MB ChB in 1905 and immediately showed an interest in going East, preparing himself well by taking the Certificate of the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1908 and the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at Cambridge in 1911. After serving as a senior demonstrator at the London School of Tropical Medicine he joined the West African Medical Service and was an assistant at the Medical Research Institute at Lagos, Nigeria. He was then sent to Sekondi in the Gold Coast as a member of the special commission investigating yellow fever and other non-malarial fevers. Important work was done on the differentiation of fevers and their insect carriers. He returned to the UK in 1919 and died that year at Guildford at the early age of thirty-eight.21 His obituarist records that he ‘was generosity and honour personified; great patience and care marked his work.’"

 

Another is by Gunner Joseph Benjamin Wilby (1916), who I have dicovered was at the Endell Street Military Hospital with a leg wound. He was with the New Zealand Field Artillery, and died in 1965, details of his life here:

Code:

http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C58523

His contribution is a poem entitled 'Emetine', and carries the message 'kia ora ake ake', which I believe is Maori for 'Best wishes always'.

I don't really want to post the original images, without first contacting any descendants, who may find it inappropriate, but I find the album such a treasure - each page tells a story.

 

Hello again! I'm looking to connect Ernest Townsend, the artist (Derby), with Dora Frances Townsend. via Minnie (Mary?), Albert Victor George, James, William, Dora May, Florence, Arthur Charles, Evelyn Annie, all Townsends.
Were William and James perhaps brothers and the other names in the list some of the cousins?

 

Thank you; that's interesting, and helpful, as I don't have an Ancestry subscription! I'm actually more interested in the the period after that. Ernest Townsend's (the artist, that is) was the 8th child of James Townsend (coach builder), and his son, Bruce, gave an interview to the Derby Telegraph:

Code:

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/nostalgia/how-artist-ernest-townsend-helped-1686949

I am trying find out if the E Townsend, whose signed miniature is in Dora Frances Townsend's album I shared on here, is the artist (a relation).

 

I don't know if you know this but according to the 1921 census, Dora was then working as a staff nurse at the Ministry of Pensions Hospital in Neath, Glamorganshire.

 

Here's an image of Ernest Townsend's signature, taken from his painting named 'Dunkirk', painted in 1941, now owned by the National Trust and housed at Chartwell. Is it anything like the signature in the autograph book?

Code:

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1102534