Introduction
Eleanor Anna MacCarthy was born into an Irish Protestant family and came to England as a young woman. She qualified as a midwife before working independently as a nurse for more than twenty years. In 1928, she married a widowed bank clerk, bringing her professional career to an end. Although she spent most of her life elsewhere, she retained a connection with Hardington, where her father had served as a curate.
Early life
Eleanor was born in County Cork, the child of Charles Godfrey MacCarthy. Her mother’s identity has not been established. In the 1939 Register, her date of birth is recorded as 20 May 1890, but this is probably incorrect. While no record of her birth has been found, the 1901 census recorded her age as 19, the 1911 census as 27 and the 1921 census as 37. It has therefore been inferred that she was born on 20 May 1881 and later misreported her age, especially after her marriage.
By 1901, Charles was a widower serving as a Protestant Missionary at Sillerna, Galway, and Eleanor was his housekeeper. He later continued his missionary work in British Honduras and became an Anglican priest in 1906.[1]
Move to England and nursing career
In her early twenties, Eleanor moved to England, where she worked for a maternity charity at Plaistow. In April 1906, she passed the midwifery examination.[2] After qualifying, Eleanor took nursing positions across England. By April 1911, she may have been a nurse at an isolation hospital in Kettering, and by March 1913, she was working at the hospital in Biggleswade. When she obtained probate for her father’s will in January 1914, she lived at Newton Abbot.[3]
Her father had spent his final years at Hardington Mandeville, serving as a curate. He died on 23 January 1914 of apoplexy, leaving an estate valued at £430 16s 4d, which he bequeathed to Eleanor.[4] This represented a comfortable inheritance for a single professional woman. Eleanor was the chief mourner at his funeral, which was also attended by the matron of the Isolation Hospital at Newton Abbott, probably a friend or professional colleague of hers.[5]
When the census was taken in 1921, Eleanor was recorded at Hardington in the same house where her father had lived. The census described her as a sick nurse working on her own account. It is unclear if she returned to Hardington to care for a patient, was temporarily between nursing engagements, or was simply visiting.
Married life
In 1928, her life took a new turn when she married Harry Woodruffe Green in Biggleswade. He was 58, while she was 46.
Harry was the son of Thomas Green, a prosperous farmer who left an estate valued at £9,838 2 10d, upon his death in 1896.[6] However, Harry did not pursue farming; instead, he entered finance, joining the London Stock Exchange in 1899 and later becoming a bank clerk at Lloyds Bank in Biggleswade. His first wife died in December 1927, leaving him with two adult children.
Eleanor initially moved into Harry’s home at 47 London Road, Biggleswade, but by 1938, they had moved to 16 Drove Road in the same town.[7] Just before the war, Harry retired, and he and Eleanor moved to 11 Church Road, Elmstead, close to where he had grown up.[8]
Harry died on 4 August 1956 at the age of 86, leaving an estate valued at £1,567 18s 10d.[9] After his death, Eleanor moved into a residential home for gentlefolk at Stour House, Dedham. She died on 10 November 1962 at the age of 81, leaving an estate valued at £1,176 5s.[10]
Conclusion
Eleanor spent more than twenty years supporting herself through skilled nursing at a time when relatively few women pursued independent professional careers. Her career took her to different parts of England before her marriage in 1928 brought a more settled domestic life with an older widower from a comfortable middle-class background. Her brief return to Hardington in 1921 suggests she retained some connection to the village after her father’s death, although the purpose of the visit is unknown.
References
[1] Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1908, p.913.
[2] The Nursing Times, 28 April 1906, p. 353.
[3] The will of the Rev. Charles Godfrey MacCarthy, dated 18 March 1913, proved in London on 25 March 1914.
[4] Death certificate of the Rev. Charles Godfrey MacCarthy; the will of the Rev. Charles Godfrey MacCarthy, dated 18 March 1913, proved in London on 25 March 1914.
[5] Western Chronicle, 6 February 1914, p.6.
[6] National probate calendar.
[7] Voters’ lists.
[8] 1939 Register.
[9] National probate calendar.
[10] National probate calendar. The civil registration death index recorded her age as 72.
