Maria Margaret Netherwood

‘No one, until these awful things happen, can conceive the untold value of fully-trained and disciplined British nurses’

- Millicent Sutherland (Duchess of), Six Weeks at the War

Maria Margaret Netherwood (1881-1956) was born in Sheffield on 22 March 1881. She was the daughter of Joseph Walshaw Netherwood (a railway inspector) and Eliza (née Fenner). The Netherwood family moved to 6 Ashfield Road, Altrincham, sometime between 1891 and 1901. Maria chose to be known as Margaret Netherwood and she became a well-known member of St. Margaret’s Church Institute.

On 21 June 1904, she entered the service of Birkenhead Borough Hospital as a nurse and completed her training on 21 June 1907. Later, she worked as a charge nurse at Ilkeston Accident Hospital and then moved to Broadstairs, Kent, to work in the General Institution. Margaret started her work as part of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (V.A.D.) on 2 November 1914, until  the same date the following year (as indicated on her V.A.D. card).

On 16 August 1914, a group of eight nurses, a surgeon, and the Duchess of Sutherland (Millicent Sutherland) assembled in Brussels, to care for injured soldiers at a hospital in Namur. On 2 October 1914, the Altrincham, Bowdon and Hale Guardian reported on Margaret’s time at the Front, in an article titled ‘Nurses Experiences – Altrincham Lady’s Adventures at The Front’. Margaret was one of the eight nurses who were tasked with taking charge of the Namur hospital that held 150 beds.

Margaret was at Namur during its bombardment; after six weeks of serving at the front, the nurses were captured by the Germans and held as prisoners of war. Fortunately, under American Protection, they were released after four days. The condition of their release, however, was that they were to go back to England and never return. The nurses arrived at Maastricht; from there, they travelled to The Hague and Flushing, eventually landing safely in England. 

Determined to fulfil her work as a nurse and to provide the much-needed aid to those serving, Margaret returned to Belgium, despite her assurances to German officials that she would not do so.

In the Duchess of Sutherland’s book, Six Weeks at The War, in which she recounts her time in Belgium in 1914, the Duchess states that “To them [her eight nurses and her surgeon] and to their skill and courage, I have dedicated this book” (page 13).

Heavy shelling took place on 22 August and the Duchess recalled that in less than twenty minutes, there were forty-five wounded, most of whom had apparently “been for three days without food or sleep in the trenches” (page 26).

“No one, until these awful things happen, can conceive the untold value of fully-trained and disciplined British nurses” (page 28).

Margaret served as a staff nurse in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserves (QAIMNSR) from May 1915 to October 1917. 

On 10 November 1917 Margaret married Canadian-born William Daniel Wesley Mills, at St. Clement’s Church, Chorlton cum Hardy, during which time they resided at 45 Church Road. Her father and sister (Ethel) were witnesses to the marriage.

After the war, Margaret left the United Kingdom: moving first to Canada and residing for a while at 114 Hollywood Crescent, Victoria BC (indicated on her overseas V.A.D. card). She then moved to the United States of America, where she settled permanently.

Margaret was awarded the British Red Cross Society and Order of St John 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal, QAIMNS (Reserve) British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Margaret died on 7 November 1956.

Throughout her distinguished career as a nurse in the First World War, Margaret kept a diary of her experiences. The Margaret Netherwood Mills Papers 1914–1918 were deposited with the Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, California, in 1961.

On Friday 5 October 2018, a Blue Plaque commemorating the remarkable achievements of Margaret Netherwood was unveiled by Trafford Council and The Royal College of Nursing, at her former home in Altrincham.

Sources

Altrincham, Bowdon and Hale Guardian, October 1914 [*held at the Trafford Local Studies Centre on microfilm]

Ancestry Library Edition, ancestrylibraryedition.co.uk

Becky Farmer, ‘Marie Margaret Netherwood – Prisoner of War’, <https://gm1914.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/marie-margaret-netherwood-prisoner-of-war/ > [accessed 3 August 2021]

Online Archive of California, ‘Overview of the Margaret Netherwood Mills Papers’, < https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9p303740/entire_text/> [accessed 16 August 2021] 

Royal College of Nursing, ‘Blue Plaque to be unveiled for unsung hero nurse in Altrincham’, <https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/news/blue-plaque-to-be-unveiled-for-unsung-hero-nurse-in-altrincham> [accessed 3 August 2021]

Salter’s Directory Limited, Slater’s Directory of Altrincham, Bowdon, Sale, Brooklands and Dunham Massey, and Neighbourhood, (Manchester: Slater’s Directory Limited, 1899). [*held at the Trafford Local Studies Centre]

Millicent Sutherland (Duchess of), Six Weeks at the War (The Times, 1914), < https://explore.library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/365416/six_weeks_at_the_war?query=Sutherland%2C%20Millicent%20Duchess%20of%20%281867-1955%29&browseQuery=Search&resultOffset=3> [accessed 16 August 2021]