Ada STANLEY

Ada STANLEY. Staff Nurse TFNS. Born 1869 Enlisted 12 January 1915 to 23 July 1915. Served in Alexandria, Egypt. Died of typhus the Royal Victoria Hospital, or Netley Hospital, Southampton 22 December 1915 aged 46, contracted on the hospital ship Mauretania.

At rest in St Paul Churchyard, Armitage, Yorkshire.

Following extract from The British Journal of Nursing dated 8 January 1916 -

THE PASSING BELL.

We regret to report the death of Sister Ada Stanley, recently a member of the staff of the Sheffield Base Hospital. Miss Stanley, who was a member of the Territorial Force Nursing Service, was posted to the Third Northern General Hospital, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield, in January of last year. In July, she was ordered on active service abroad. She was attached to H.M. hospital ship, Mauretania, and it was while she was attending patients being conveyed from the Eastern theatre of war that she contracted dysentery. She died in Netley Hospital. In the little wooden church erected in the grounds of the Base Hospital, the Bishop of Sheffield conducted a memorial service for the deceased sister. In addition to a number of patients, R.A.M.C. orderlies, and some hundred nurses, there were present the Matron (Miss Earle), Mrs. Burrows, Colonel A. M. Connell, and Lieutenants D. Stout and R. Furnell. The Bishop addressed himself briefly to the congregation, and in simple language touched upon the heroic devotion displayed by the women of the country. The example of Ada Stanley, he said, should inspire those who knew her with stronger faith, and it should give comfort to those who mourned her loss. Great truths were exemplified at such times as these, and the beauty of faith was manifested in the deeds of heroic women such as Ada Stanley. The scene in the little church, with the blue garbed wounded soldiers and the white-capped nursing sisters, was singularly impressive.

Photograph credited to IWM