Dorothea Mary Lynette Crewdson, MM, ARRC

CREWDSON, DOROTHEA MARY LYNETTE

• Rank: Nursing Sister
• Date of Death:12/03/1919
• Age: 32
• Regiment/Service: Voluntary Aid Detachment
• Awards: M M, A R R C
• Grave Reference: XLV. C. 13.
• Cemetery: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY
• Additional Information: Daughter of Henry and Margaret Croom Crewdson, of Nottingham.

Sister Crewdson, who died from peritonitis while on active service, was one of 38,000 Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses who went overseas to care for injured servicemen. She is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France (grave ref 45.C.13).

Etaples was the location of immense concentrations of Commonwealth reinforcement camps and hospitals where tens of thousands of wounded Allied soldiers were treated. It was considered far enough behind the lines to be safe from attack. But on a summer's evening in 1918, German bombers targeted the area, despite the obvious signs that it was mainly populated by the wounded.

As the bombs fell, Nurse Crewdson was injured. But she bravely refused treatment. For her courage she was awarded the Military Medal, a rare honour for a woman at that time. She was already the holder of the Royal Red Cross medal (ARRC), an award instituted by Queen Victoria in 1883 specifically for women, to recognise special devotion or competency while engaged on nursing or hospital duties with the Navy, Army or Air Force.

Sister Dorothea's service began with training at Nottingham hospitals including Bagthorpe and the General, before she left for France in 1915 after the military authorities lifted their restriction on VADs on the front line. Female volunteers over the age of 23 and with more than three months' experience were then allowed to go to the Western Front, Mesopotamia and Gallipoli. Later VADs were sent to the Eastern Front.

Many nurses went against their family's wishes. They had precious little in the way of medicines. There was a distinct class divide among the VADs. Because the volunteer nurses did not get paid, they tended to come from the working class: maids, cooks, cleaners and the like. However nursing sisters like Dorothea Crewdson, and matrons, were paid to organise the volunteers and generally were from a higher background (source: Nottingham Post, Feb 2011)

Dorothea's war diaries have been edited by her nephew, Richard Crewdson.

Source: Nottinghamshire County Council Roll of Honour

Links:

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission Record