Elinor Grace Hall (1879-1918)
VAD nurse in Fencehouses who died of influenza four days before the Armistice
Elinor Grace Hall was born Elinor Grace Broadbent on 5 November 1879 on the Isle of Man and baptised on 6 February the following year. She was one of at least eight children born to George Thomas Broadbent and Eliza Catherine Broadbent nee Kewley. George is listed as working as a commercial traveller in drapery at the time of the 1881 census. The family continued to live on the Isle of Man during Elinor’s childhood, remaining there after George’s death in 1895.
Elinor moved to live at Noble’s Isle of Man Hospital in 1901 where she began training as a nurse. She completed this training on 12 February 1903. Elinor completed further training in midwifery and district nursing before being finally registered as a ‘Queen’s nurse’ on 1 July 1910. Following this training in various parts of the country, Elinor returned to the Isle of Man to live with her mother. In 1911 Elinor and her mother are living in Kirk Onchan and Elinor is working as a district nurse. Elinor’s younger sister, Harriet, followed Elinor into nursing and was working as a staff nurse at Noble’s Isle of Man Hospital at the time of the 1911 census.
The Queen’s nurses Roll reports Elinor to be a “good worker taking an interest in her patients” and “a particularly pleasant woman”.
It is not entirely clear when Elinor married John Robertson Hall but there is a possible record which suggests it may have been in 1912 on the Isle of Man. Sometime after Elinor and John’s marriage, the couple moved to the north east where John was working as a doctor.
During the war Elinor worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse where her considerable pre-war nursing experience and knowledge must have been invaluable. She was a nurse in her local VAD hospital of Morton House in Fencehouses, known as the 14th Durham VA Hospital. Elinor fell ill with influenza in either October or November 1918, during the time when the influenza epidemic was affecting large numbers of people in Durham. The attached newspaper article describes how after a short illness Elinor died from pneumonia following influenza on 7 November, just four days before the armistice.
Following her death her husband, Dr J. Robertson Hall, remained living at Fencehouses working as a doctor until at least 1930. Elinor’s brother, Francis, also served during the war with the Royal Engineers as a sapper.
Civil Parish: Morton Grange
Birth date: 5-Nov-1879
Death date: 7-Nov-1918
Armed force/civilian: Civilian
Residence: Ballecregan, Isle of Man (1881 Census)
Bradden, Isle of Man (1891 Census)
Noble’s Isle of Man Hospital (1901 Census)
8 Sunnyside Terrace, Isle of Man (1911 Census)
Gill Crescent, Fencehouses (Address at time of death)
Education: Southlands Ladies School, Douglas, Isle of Man
Noble’s Isle of Man Hospital (Nursing training)
Religion: Church of England
Employment: Confectioner (Nursing records)
District Nurse (1911 Census)
Family: Parents: George Thomas Broadbent, Eliza Catherine Broadbent
Siblings: George K. Broadbent, Charles S. Broadbent, Francis T. Broadbent, Isabel K. Broadbent, James K. Broadbent, Harold E. Broadbent, Harriet E. Broadbent
Spouse: John Robertson Hall
Military service:
VAD nurse
14th VA Hospital, Morton House, Fencehouses
Gender: Female
Contributed by Fiona Johnson - Durham
