Lucy Pownall DEAKIN ARRC (1884-1974)

Lucy Pownall DEAKIN was the daughter of George DEAKIN and Elizabeth DEAKIN (née DAVIES) of Stockport, Cheshire. Born on 14 January 1884 in Stockport, after leaving school, Lucy trained as a nurse at the Royal Hospital, London. On 16 December 1912, she passed the Examination of the Central Midwives Board¹.

Lucy served with the Civil Hospital Reserve and the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) during the First World War. On 8 August 1914, a few days after the outbreak of the First World War, Lucy was posted to France, arriving on 15 August 1914.

Lucy initially nursed at a Clearing Hospital in Boulogne. By late 1915, Lucy was serving as a Surgical Sister, in October 1915 she was at No. 8 Casualty Clearing Station at Elnes in the Pas de Calais. In 1916 Lucy was on the Surgical Ward of No. 4 General Hospital, in Étaples (December 1916). Lucy also served at No. 5 and No. 8 General Hospitals and at No. 4, 6, 35, 41, 48, 50, 54 and 56 Clearing Stations² often administering anaesthetic due to the shortage of doctors.

Lucy was demobbed on 21 March 1919 and returned to England. She was awarded the 1914 Star, British War Medal 1914-1918, the Victory Medal 1914-1919. Lucy was also awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal 2nd Class (posted 3 April 1919) for “holding on to a 6ft plus guardsman when he jumped out of the window in delirium preventing him from falling to the ground”. She also “returned to the hospital they were in the process of evacuating to retrieve an officer’s precious orange blind”.

After the First World War Lucy travelled to Snook’s Harbour, Newfoundland, Canada, with her friend Martha “Mona” Isabel Loder³, a Canadian nurse from Newfoundland who had also served in France and had known Lucy since their nursing days in London. On 23 October 1919, Lucy and Mona travelled to Manitoba where they worked as private duty nurses at Brandon General Hospital. The following year, In August 1920, Lucy returned to England⁴ and found work as a private school nurse working from London County Council. Her address in London was 7 Robyn Road, Tulse Hill, London SW2.

From 1928⁵ to 1933, Lucy’s London address was 27 Brighton Terrace, London SW9. On 21 April 1936, when she tendered her resignation from QAIMNS, Lucy was living at 74 Sternhold Avenue, London SW16⁶. In 1939 her sister, Mary Hannah Deakin was living with Lucy. By 1942 Lucy had moved to 53 Woodleigh Gardens, London SW16⁷ before retiring to Llysfaen, Wales, to live with her sister, Mary Hannah DEAKIN.

Lucy died in 1974 in and she is buried in the cemetery at St Cynfran Church, Llysfaen, alongside her sister Mary Hannah DEAKIN.

Notes:

1. Source: The British Journal of Nursing Supplement, January 11, 1913.
2. Source: Service Record Lucy P. Deakin, QAIMNS, WO 399/2147 The National Archives.
3. Source: Nurse Martha Isabel Loder (1884-1963) and the Great War: From Snook’s Harbour to the Somme (Part Two) by Margot I. Duley.
4. Lucy Pownall sailed on the S/S Metagama from Montreal to Liverpool in August 1920. The passenger list records her address as 128 Grenoble Street, Stockport, Cheshire.
5. Lucy gave an alternative address as 1 Calcutta Road, Edgeley, Stockport, Cheshire.
6. Lucy gave an alternative address as Darley Dale, Woodlands Drive, Stockport, Cheshire.
7. Source: General National Council Register for England and Wales, 1942.