Ita Lawson uncovered fascinating details amongst the records for Queen Alexandra nurses held at The National Archives that revealed a First World War hero in her family <\/p>
The life of Ita Lawton\u2019s great aunt<\/a> \u2018Cissie\u2019 Lecky was anything but a bed of roses. However, it\u2019s Cissie\u2019s award-winning work as a nurse during the First World War<\/a> that Ita is understandably keen to focus on \u2013 especially because Cissie ended up concealing her heroism from her own family.<\/p>\n Born in Belturbet, Co. Cavan, Ireland, in 1887, it\u2019s easy to see why Mary Teresa Lecky, later nicknamed Cissie, wanted to become a nurse: she was just 10 when she found her father dead in a field, while tuberculosis killed three of her eight siblings. Not only did these tragedies inspire her interest in the medical profession, but \u2013 as Ita points out \u2013 nursing was one of the few options available at the time that enabled women to bring in a good income for a struggling family.<\/p>\n \u201cHer eldest sister became a nurse as well. They all had to work as there wasn\u2019t a lot of income once her father died, the eldest breadwinner died of TB, and the next eldest brother was disgraced and ran off to join the British Army.\u201d<\/p>\n However, it was expensive to send both Cissie and her sister to nursing college in Dublin, leading the pair and their mother to make lace at home to raise funds. Their sorry state of affairs led to an act of compassion that went down in family legend, which Ita was thrilled to confirm as fact.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were trying to make enough lace for Cissie and her sister to go to nursing college. They were using the light of a candle reflected in a bowl of water to make the light go further,\u201d explains Ita. \u201cA parish priest came along and said it was ridiculous, so he actually paid for Cissie to do her nursing training.\u201d<\/p>\n Cissie\u2019s training coincided with the outbreak of the First World War and, as a member of Queen Alexandra\u2019s Imperial Military Nursing Services, her service was meticulously documented.<\/p>\n \u201cThe National Archives has the documentation for the Queen Alexandra nurses<\/a>. They keep all their service records, letters, reviews and references, and Cissie\u2019s are incredible with all these comments about her work that you can see first-hand,\u201d explains Ita.<\/p>\n After leaving Dublin she worked at the Third London General Hospital in Wandsworth, before heading to Pembroke Dock, Wales. Here she was awarded a medal after receiving a great deal of praise for her work over several years, including battling through the pneumonia she contracted in May 1917, and contending with the Spanish Flu epidemic that plagued the tens of thousands of wounded soldiers coming back from the trenches. \u201cWhy her commendation came about was her tireless work to keep the conditions spick and span, because they knew about dirt and infection.\u201d<\/p>\n