ABBS Ethel Annie

Ethel Abbs was born at East Dereham, Norfolk on the 11th December 1883, the daughter of Alfred and Mary Ann Abbs. She was baptised in the local Parish Church on the 24th February 1884 and in 1901 she was living with her parents, 3 sisters and 3 brothers at a “Farm House” in East Dereham. By 1901 Ethel was living at 16 The Avenue, West Ealing, Middlesex where she was employed as a ‘Domestic Nurse’ for the family of Edward E. Stephens. Ethel did her nurse training at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington London, she is recorded there on the 1911 census as a Hospital Nurse.

It is not known when Ethel returned to Norfolk but she was resident at Waterside House, East Dereham when she joined the British red Cross Society on the 14th February 1915 as part of the Hon. R. Coventry Personnel, being immediately posted overseas. She was awarded the Victory Medal, the British War Medal and the 1915 Star.

Ethel is not commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as she died in September 1921, a few short weeks after the 31st August 1921, the date set by the British Government for acceptance as a war casualty.

The following information has been researched by and is courtesy of Alfred Beard:
Extract from The British Journal of Nursing 24 September 1921.
We regret to record the sad death of Miss E. A. Abbs, the Matron of the Isolation Hospital at Gillingham.
A sting from a mosquito or a wasp was the cause of illness, of which little notice was taken until serious symptoms developed. Miss Abbs died from septic pneumonia at the early age of 37, and is sincerely regretted by a wide circle of friends.