Person

It seems almost inevitable that Albert Edward Coates would marry a nurse. He spent much of his war service in and out of hospital. According to his Canadian Service Record he suffered from influenza, pneumonia, pleurisy, tuberculosis of the lung and gonorrhea. In December 1918, he reported sick while on leave in Leeds, where his family had moved from his Canadian birth-place, sometime before 1911. A pre-existing squint had become a problem so he was admitted to the East Leeds Military Hospital where his eye was operated upon.

Edith Rowlandson enrolled with the Voluntary Aid Detachment in 1914 or 1915 (her Medal Card states she is entitled to the 1914 Star but her Record Cross Record Card states her date of joining as 7 July 1915). It may have been that she assisted the master of the household, a surgeon, who she worked for in Coundon and received a taste of nursing. It was a career that she excelled at. Edith was commended in 1917 and Mentioned in Despatches in 1919. Her Medal Record Card states that she achieved the rank of nursing sister while her Red Cross Record shows that she worked at the East Leeds Military Hospital.

Albert was admitted in December 1918 and married Edith in March 1919, so either theirs was a whirlwind romance, or the pair already knew each other. Edith arrived in Canada on the ship Orduna on 8 August 1919. The boat docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia but the passenger list notes that she was headed for Toronto, Ontario.

Albert died in 1962, when the couple were living in Aurora, Ontario.

See also:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Leeds/
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/new-trail-looks-at-care-received-in-leeds-by-wounded-ww1-troops-1-6838494#axzz3r0OkSURJ

Civil Parish: Coundon

Birth date: 1891

Armed force/civilian: Civilian

Residence: 29 Buckingham Terrace, Leeholm (1901 census, Red Cross Record Card)
24 Wharton Street, Coundon (1911 census)
944 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario (1919?, Canadian Service Record)
105 Edward Street, Aurora, Ontario (1962, Canadian Veterans’ Death Index Cards)

105 Edward Street, Aurora, Ontario Canada (1962, Canadian Veterans Death Index)

Employment: Maid for Victor Alfred Settle, surgeon (1911 census)
Nurse at Military Hospital (Marriage certificate, 1919)

Medal(s): 1914 Star (Medal Card)
Commended, 20 Oct 1917 (Red Cross Record Card)
Mentioned in Despatches (Durham County Chronicle, 8 May 1919)

Gender: Female

Contributed by Mavis Dixon | Durham County Record Office