Kate Maxey

Kate Maxey (17 December 1876 – 14 March 1969) was a British nurse. Maxey served in France throughout the First World War and was awarded the Royal Red Cross and the Military Medal. Maxey was one of the inaugural recipients of the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1920.

Early life Maxey was born in Spennymoor, County Durham, on 17 December 1876. She was one of two daughters of Walter Maxey and his second wife Jane (nee Watford). As a teenager, Maxey and her sister Amelia lived in Leeds with an aunt and uncle. Maxey then trained to be a nurse, training at Leeds General Infirmary, qualifying in 1903. In September 1917 was posted to 58th Casualty Clearing Station (58th CCS) as Sister-in-Charge.

On 21 March 1918, the German army launched the Spring offensive. As part of this, German aircraft from Bogohl 3 bombed the railway station at Lillers. Maxey and three other nurses from 58th CCS were returning from the hospital to their billets in the town when the bombing began. One bomb hit a train loaded with ammunition standing in the station, which was only a few hundred metres from 58th CCS. The train exploded, causing extensive damage to 58th CCS. One of the other nurses with Maxey, Sister Ellen Andrews, killed and Maxey was serious injured with blast wounds all over and a broken arm. Despite the severity of her wounds, Maxey continued to direct the staff and refused treatment to herself until all other casualties had been attended to. Maxey was initialled treated at 58th CCS but on 24 March, she was evacuated, first to a base hospital and then to the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital in London.

On 2 April 1918, Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the British Commander-in-Chief approved the award of the Military Medal to Maxey and three other nurses from 58th CCS. The notice of the award of the Military medal appeared in the London Gazette on 31 May 1918. The citation stated: On the same date, Maxey was awarded the Royal Red Cross (1st class). Both awards were presented to Maxey by King George V at an investiture ceremony on 22 June 1918.

Maxey's achievements were recognised by her home town in July 1918 when the Spennymoor Ambulance Brigade and Nursing Division presented her with a set of silver salt pots and spoons.

A medical board assessed Maxey as fit to resume her duties in August 1918. Maxey applied to return to France but the Matron-in-Chief, Sidney Browne, decided that a posting in England was suitable and assigned Maxey to the 2nd Northern General Hospital in Leeds. Maxey remained at the Beckett Park hospital until she was demobilised in June 1919 although she remained an active member of the TFNS and its successor, the Territorial Army Nursing Service, until she reached the mandatory retirement age of 55 in 1931.

Later life On being demobilised, Maxey started a nursing home in Halifax with friend and fellow nurse Anne Simpson.

In 1920, Maxey was name as one of the inaugural recipients of the International Committee of the Red Cross's Florence Nightingale Medal.

In 1931, Maxey retired and moved to live in London and later the south coast of England. She returned to her roots in her last years and was living with a niece in Bishop Auckland when she died in 1969, aged 92.

In film Maxey's nursing service during the First World War was incorporated into a 62-minute documentary called Behind the Lines. The film made by Lonely Tower Film and Media for Tudhoe & Spennymoor Local History Society looks at the part played by Spennymoor residents in the medical services during the war