GILLHAM Rita Dorothy

Category: Nurse/Medical
Rank: VAD Nurse
Regiment or Ship: VAD Surrey 112
Occupation: Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurse
Date of Birth: 1891/1892
Place of Birth: Little Common
Address: Thornleigh, Little Common Also Wallington, Surrey

Photos and newspaper articles

Family Information

Father:         William, born 1857 Little Common. Occupation builder.

Mother:       Mary, born 1861 in Catsfield.

Brother:     Ralph, born 1890 in Little Common. House painter. By 1917 in Wallington, Surrey, joined Expeditionary Force Canteens Branch of Army Service Corps and posted to France.

Sister:         Roma Kathryn, born 1898 in Little Common.

First World War Experience

Served in Horton War Hospital, Epsom, Hursley Hospital, Winchester, and Citadel Hospital in Cairo.

Mentioned in dispatches in March 1917 whilst a VAD in Horton War Hospital, Epsom.

Volunteered for service in Cairo. On the way the ship, HMT Aragon, was torpedoed twice and sank. A transcript of her account of the story as published in Bexhill Observer 2nd February 1918 is available here. It gives the name of the ship as Osmanich. This was corrected in the issue of the 9th February which is also transcribed on the same page.

Transcript. War Appointments. Bexhill Observer 8th December 1917 P1070419

Transcript. On a mined ship. Little Common Nurse escapes. Bexhill Observer 2nd February, 1918 P1070374

Transcription. A Meeting at Cairo. Bexhill Observer 13th July 1918 P1070249

 

 

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