Kate Evelyn Luard

Katharine Evelyn Luard
Nickname(s) Kate
Born 29th June 1872
Aveley, Essex
Died 16th August 1962
Wickham Bishops, Essex
Buried St. Bartholomew’s Church, Wickham Bishops
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Queen Alexander Imperial Military Nursing Reserve Service
Years of service 1914–1918
Rank Nursing Sister
Battles/wars Boer War, First World War
Awards Royal Red Cross & Bar
Mentioned in Despatches
Other work Author

Katherine Evelyn Luard (known as Kate) was a nurse in the Boer War and the 1st World War who was awarded the Royal Red Cross medal 1st class and bar. She is the author of two books describing her experiences.

Early life

Luard was born in Aveley vicarage on 29th June, 1872.[1] Her father was Bixby Garnham Luard, the vicar of Aveley between 1871 and 1895.[2] Her mother was Clara Isabella Sandford Bramston. She had twelve brothers and sisters, three of whom were born after her. She subsequently moved to Birch after her father was appointed to that living.[3] She was educated at Croydon High School[4] where the headmistress, Dorinda Neligan had served as a nurse at the Siege of Metz (1870) during the Franco Prussian War in 1870-71. Luard worked as a teacher and governess in order to pay for nursing training at Kings College Hospital, London.[5]

War service

Luard served as a nurse in the Boer War and was one of the first nurses to join the British Expeditionary Force at the start of the 1st World War.[6] She arrived in France on 8 August 1914 and was therefore listed as eligible for the 1914 Star,[7] with a clasp because she served under enemy fire, although it is not clear whether she received it.[8] Initially, she worked on ambulance trains bringing the wounded from the battlefields.[9] During the war she was twice mentioned in despatches and was awarded the 1st class Royal Red Cross medal and bar.[10] Luard was Head Sister of No 32 Casualty Clearing Station at Brandhoek during the Battle of Passchendaele.[11] She resigned from the nursing service shortly after the Armistice because of the illness of her father.[12]

Post war

Abbotts, the home of Kate Luard in Wickham Bishops

After the war, Luard worked in the South London Hospital for women[13] and as a matron at a boys school.[14] She retired to Wickham Bishops in Essex where she died in 1962.[15]

Publications

Luard is the author of two accounts of her experiences in the war:

  • Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front, William Blackwood & Sons, 1915 (published anonymously);
  • Unknown Warrior, the Letters of Kate Luard, History Press Limited, 2017.

References

  1. ↑ the Marquis of Ruvigny (1911). The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal. the Descendants of Elizabeth Percy. p. 532.
  2. ↑ The Ecclesiastical Gazette, 12th September, 1871
  3. ↑ Gazette & Standard 22nd January 2018
  4. ↑ Green Howards Museum
  5. ↑ Maldon Gazette
  6. ↑ Hallett, Christine E. (2016). Nurse Writers of the Great War. Manchester University Press. p. 102.
  7. ↑ UK, WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920 on Ancestry
  8. ↑ British campaign Medals of World War 1
  9. ↑ WomensWork100 at IWM
  10. ↑ Santanu Das (ed.). "colonial troops in French and British nursing memoirs". Race, Empire and First World War Writing. p. 174 note 45.
  11. ↑ Nurses of Passchendaele
  12. ↑ Great War Forum
  13. ↑ Hallett, Christine E. (2014). Veiled Warriors: Allied Nurses of the First World War. Oxford University Press. p. 259.
  14. ↑ Essex Record Office blog
  15. ↑ Kate Luard Unknown Warriors
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