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Archiver > WARBRIDES > 2004-04 > 1083148681


From: "Debbie Beavis" <>
Subject: Nurse in WW1 - BARDEN
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 20:08:01 +0930


I took the liberty of forwarding this to someone I thought could help
you. Here is the reply.

-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 7:28 PM

> From: Sherylee Eustace > Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 6:45 PM
> To:
> Subject: [WWW] Nurse in WW1 - BARDEN
>
>
> I am new to this list and was wondering if anyone could give me some
> advise or a good website where I can find information about a nurse in

> WW1
>
> Georgina BARDEN was born in Dublin in 1884 and I know she was a nurse
> in WW1 in France. According to family stories she apparently married a

> Grenadier Guard, but I cannot find what happened to her or any info on

> her after the war. Any help would be greatly appreciated
>
> regards
> Sherylee
>

Dear Sherylee,


I take it Barden was her maiden name.

If she married her Grenadier during WW1 then the records would be in her
married name. Even if she married him after the war, some records could
have been retitled.

She could have been widowed, and remarried. She could have married
before WW1. It is important, therefore, first of all to search for her
marriage.

I have looked briefly on the women's WW1 service medal index for you,
and her name does not appear. (F E Barden does appear.)

This would suggest that she was already married or only served at home,
not necessarily in Ireland. Many Irish nurses came to nurse in the UK.
Records of many nurses were held by the hospitals where they nursed, and
some of these hospital records have survived. (see the Hospital Records
Database, on The National Archives website.) Many organisations were
involved in WW1, and it would be difficult to trace her service unless
she was a VAD or an army nurse, or the likely hospital was known, or she
served abroad. She may have stayed at home, so it would be worth trying
surviving records of hospitals in Dublin.

I would suggest you contact the British Red Cross archive which can be
contacted on but I would strongly recommend that
you first of all search for her marriage. If you think she married in
the UK, start with the GRO indexes, starting around 1910, and if nothing
found up to 1920, going back to 1900 when she was legally first able to
marry and then forward to 1930.

If you find it, the certificate may offer another clue, and you will be
able to offer more identifying information to the Red Cross.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck.

Mary Ingham





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