Military Nurse Catherine Meikle - Will any service records survive?

[Malcolm12hl]

Although all three of her brothers served on the Western Front, my Great Aunt, Nurse Catherine Meikle, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, was the only member of my mother's family to die in the war.  She died in London on 14 October 1918 (perhaps a victim of the influenza epidemic), three days short of her 23rd birthday, and is commemorated on the memorial screen at Tottenham Cemetery.  I would be very interested to learn whether any of her service records are likely to have survived, and if so, where I might look for them.  Thank you.

[Jim Strawbridge]

2 hours ago, Malcolm12hl said:

Although all three of her brothers served on the Western Front, my Great Aunt, Nurse Catherine Meikle, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, was the only member of my mother's family to die in the war.  She died in London on 14 October 1918 (perhaps a victim of the influenza epidemic), three days short of her 23rd birthday, and is commemorated on the memorial screen at Tottenham Cemetery.  I would be very interested to learn whether any of her service records are likely to have survived, and if so, where I might look for them.  Thank you.

 

I have been researching WW1 serving female casualties for over twenty years and have yet to find any surviving service papers for any of them. I think that they went up in the WW2 blitz where the factory holding some National Archive material was hit. Some partially burnt papers were recovered but not those for the females. But I would like to be proved wrong. Your Great Aunt is someoone whom I have researched. You will, no doubt, have details on her and her family from the Scotland censuses. But some little extras here which you may not know. She was born as Nora Catherine Meikle at 8 Bellevue Terrace, Cathcart, Glasgow in 1895. Catherine’s name was on the memorial tablet on the Chancel wall of the North Middlesex Hospital, Edmonton, London in memory of five nurses who died at their post during the war. This was dedicated by the Bishop of Willesden on the 16^th July 1921. The inscription on the marble tablet read :- “In Affectionate Remembrance of the Nursing Sisters and Probationers Of the Edmonton Military Hospital and the Infirmary, who died during the influenza epidemic in the Year 1918. Catherine Meikle .. Oct.14^th 1918, Mary Evans .. Oct. 15^th 1918, Minnie Yerbury ..  Oct. 20^th 1918, Ada Marian Johnson .. Oct. 24^th 1918. Also in Loving Memory of Lena Crowther, died Oct. 22^nd 1916. All you had hoped for all you had you gave To save mankind  - Yourselves you scorned to save. This Memorial was Erected By their Colleagues and Members of the Staff”. Unfortunately the chapel was bombed in WW2 and the memorial tablet destroyed. A kind lady on this forum consulted the Tottenham and Wood Green cemetery records for me and has confirmed that she is recorded as Nora Catherine Meikle (Register no. 45796), aged 23, who died in Edmonton Military Hospital with reference 7301 buried second ground, on the 17^th October 1918. Three QAIMNS women are buried in the grave being Lena Crowther, Ada Marion Johnson and Catherine Meikle. That said, the CWGC are not marking the grave but are using a screen wall for commemoration purposes. The kind lady also obtained the death certificate, showing in the name of Catherine Meikle, that she died on the 14^th October 1918 at the General Military Hospital, Edmonton of influenza and oedema of lungs and syncope. She was aged 23, a spinster and a probationer nurse at the military hospital. No post mortem was considered necessary. The evidence confirming her background was that the death certificate showed the informant as her father, William Meikle, tram car driver, of 54 Albert Road, Cross Hill, Glasgow. Her obituary was in the Glasgow Herald dated 22^nd October 1918. Her name is on a memorial in Cathcart Old Parish Church, Glasgow.  Her name is on the York Minster panels as N.C. Meikle under "Auxiliary Hospitals" and not under "Q.A.I.M.N.S.". The British Journal of Nursing (26/10/18, page 252) shows probationary-nurse Michael from Glasgow and nurse Evans of Carmarthen as having died of influenza contracted whilst nursing at a military hospital. They were buried in the Heroe’s Corner, Tottenham Cemetery with full military honours. Enquiries have been made as to where Heroe’s Corner actually was and it seems to have been lost as the local cemetery staff are not aware of the name. It can be assumed that the name fell into disuse once the memorial cross and screen wall were erected and that it is the grassed area in the front of them. Michael is almost certainly a mis-spelling for Meikle.  If you have a photograph of your Great-Aunt I would welcome seeing it. Similarly, if you have access to the Memorial Plaque I would love to have a photograph of it.  I hope that the above is of interest.

Edited 15 April , 2019 by Jim Strawbridge

[Malcolm12hl]

Jim

 

Thank you very much for sharing the fruits of your research with me - I am very impressed with the breadth and depth of your research.  I have very little information on Catherine Meikle save background census and CWGC material, so almost everything you have told me adds to my store of knowledge.  Such family records as there are refer to her only as Catherine, but I don't have a copy of her birth certificate which would confirm the first name Nora.  I have only a handful of old family photographs (any others that survive will be half a world away with my mother in a seniors' home in British Columbia) and the only one one of these showing Catherine is a family group portrait taken when she was still a small girl.

 

Thank you again for shining a light into this poor woman's life and death.

 

Malcolm

[TEW]

Meikle, unusual name and 4 results in TNA's records for nurses, including a Nora. Hughina, Ruby & Daisy are the other three. Noted that there is a Nora and Daisy Meikle together in Ipswich on 1911 census. Could these be sisters (of the sibling kind)?

 

£3.50 each to download

 

TEW

[DavidOwen]

1 hour ago, TEW said:

Meikle, unusual name and 4 results in TNA's records for nurses, including a Nora. Hughina, Ruby & Daisy are the other three. Noted that there is a Nora and Daisy Meikle together in Ipswich on 1911 census. Could these be sisters (of the sibling kind)?

 

£3.50 each to download

 

TEW

Had a look at Nora, she was still alive in 1927 so those aren't the records of Nora Catherine.

[Malcolm12hl]

Thank you for your thoughts gentlemen.  Meikle is a more common surname than you might think - there are, for example, 61 Meikle First World War deaths on the C.W.G.C. list, 53 of them from the U.K.  All of the my mother's father's family were still living in Glasgow in 1911, and I am not aware of any relatives who might have moved to East Anglia, so the Ipswich nurses can I think be discounted.  

[TEW]

Did spot one entry for a C. Meikle Glasgow Midwife in 1914. Passed exams I think. British Nursing Journal.

TEW