Page 37 - QARANC Vol 18 No 2 2020

A Blue Plaque for Nurse Anne Veronica Fletcher
The Gazette QARANC Association 35
Spital Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Derbyshire outside of Derby. It was opened in 1857 and is a fine example of a Victorian garden cemetery. It is still in use and is managed by Bereavement Services for Chesterfield Borough Council.
The Friends of Spital Cemetery is a community group run by volunteers. We seek to promote the cemetery as a place of remembrance, heritage, wildlife and learning. We work closely with the council who have given us their full support and freedom to run tours and have a gardening group. We organise other activities and have received generous funding from local businesses such as Greggs and the Co-op for projects, and also from Derbyshire County Council through their Action Grants. Remembrance events have featured significantly in the past few years as we have 43 Commonwealth War Graves Commission graves from World War 1 and World War II. The only grave which belongs to female service personnel is that of Nurse Fletcher.
Anne Veronica Fletcher was born in Derbyshire about 1891. Her parents were Daniel and Mary Fletcher. Anne was one of 12 children. They lived near the cemetery at 7 Spital Gardens in Chesterfield. Daniel Fletcher was a coal miner but became a nurseryman by the time of WW1. Behind the house is a long stretch of land where, it is said, food was grown for the local convent.
We believe Anne trained as a nurse at Bradford Hospital. She joined the Territorial Force Nursing Service on May 7 1915 as a Staff Nurse and was
posted to the East Leeds War Hospital (2nd Northern General Hospital). She remained there until she had to resign on the grounds of ill health. Medical Board reports indicate she contracted tuberculosis early in 1917 and by June she had left the service and was admitted to the Walton Sanatorium. As with all nurses who contracted tuberculosis her illness was described as ‘in’ but not ‘by’ her service.
She was awarded the Silver War Badge in 1917. She died at home on 14 March 1918. Her obituary appeared in the Derbyshire Courier:
“Heroic sacrifice, the result of untiring devotion to duty in nursing wounded soldiers fresh from the battlefields, was made by Nurse Ann(e) Veronica Fletcher ... Overwork and exposure undermined her constitution, and in April last year she was invalided home on pension suffering from phthisis. Her health rapidly declined, but it was not until Christmas last she had to take to her bed. Whilst on one of his visits to the hospital the King complimented Nurse Fletcher upon her skilful bandaging. She was a member of Chesterfield Catholic Church, whither the body was taken on Tuesday, and remained until the interment at Chesterfield Cemetery on Wednesday.”
It was noted that missing at the service were her sister and brother. “Nurse M. Fletcher, did service as “lady of the lamp” at the Dardanelles and is at present in Palestine. One of their sons, Pte. Charles Fletcher, died of wounds received in action during the battle of the Somme.”
On March 14 2018, to celebrate International Women’s Day, the Friends of Spital Cemetery organised a service at Anne’s graveside. It was 100 years to the day since Anne had died at the age of 27. At the event in 2018 we talked loosely about getting her gravestone (the family chose to bury her in a family plot rather than get a CWGC stone) repaired and of getting a blue plaque put up on her house in Spital. There are no blue plaques in this part of Chesterfield and few recognising ‘ordinary’ people. We wanted to celebrate a little known but incredibly brave young lady who lived locally.
Fast forward two years and we are
The grave at Spital Cemetery with L-R Frances Little (UNISON rep), Bridget Jones (UNISON rep), Jenny Flood (Councillor, Chesterfield Borough Council), Ken Smith RAF, John Collins RE (Standard Bearer), Trevor Higginson RE, Rob Nash RE, Paul Chapman RE, all members of the Chesterfield & District Royal Engineers Association (including Ken Smith)
delighted with the progress that has been made on so many fronts thanks to the generosity and hard work of a number of people.
Much of this started when, by pure chance, I met Sandra Taylor and her husband who were looking for Anne’s grave in the cemetery. Sandra’s interest in uncovering and celebrating the little known stories of the nurses who worked in World War 1 is profound (see http://www.rememberthefallen. co.uk/) and through her we started a conversation with Andy Knowlson (Regional Manager West) at the CWGC and Philip Shardlow at Croft Castings. https://www.croftcastsigns. co.uk Andy started the long process of trying to find any living relatives, so far without luck, but in the meantime ordered a Gallipoli marker which will be placed within the curb sets at the foot of her grave. It will be legible, and accurately record her date of death. The family grave records the names of her parents and remembers her brother Charles but Anne’s date of death is incorrect. We hope in time to get the lead lettering repaired when we have secured sponsorship.
Success too with the blue plaque, again, by chance! I met up with Tracey Green on the Gateway Path to plan our Remembrance event in November last year. She had invited her aunt, Jean. When I told them about our plans to get a blue plaque Jean suggested asking the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps Association for help with sponsorship. She had been a nurse with them. Philip from Croft Casting gave us a brilliant quote (he
The blue plaque for Anne Veronica Fletcher TFNS