Edith Mary Petter (1870-)
Commandant of Durham 6th Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital
The 1911 census records Edith Mary Petter as being a doctor’s wife with the charge of a household, including a locum, a nurse, a cook and a domestic servant. This must have stood her in good stead, as during the First World War she became the Commandant of the 6th Durham Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital. The Quakers of Darlington gave over their Meeting House to the treatment and rehabilitation in November 1914. In September 1915 the VAD hospital transferred to Woodside, which had been a private house owned by the Pease family. The move meant that an extra 25 beds could be offered to the wounded (75, as opposed to 50 at the Meeting House) and an operating theatre could be added to the amenities it offered.
Edith Mary Petter won the OBE for her services.
http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/in_your_town/darlington/the-nurses-of-the-voluntary-aid-detachment
http://www.thenortheastatwar.co.uk/in_your_town/darlington/a-soldier-his-spoon-and-his-spouse
Civil Parish: Darlington
Birth date: 1870
Armed force/civilian: Civilian
Residence: The Poplar, Brookside, Darlington (1881 census)
Carmel Road, Darlington (1891 census)
Netherlaw, Stanhope Road South, Darlington (1911 census)
Organisation membership: Voluntary Aid Detachment
Family: Parents: James Hutchinson Robson, Elizabeth Robson
Sister: Kate Robson (1881 census)
Husband: Walter Petter, married 16 January 1896, Saint Cuthbert’s, Darlington
Children: Northcote Petter, Edith Audrey Petter
Medal(s): OBE, London Gazette 7 June 1918
Gender: Female
Contributed by Durham County Record Office
