Patience Darton

Patience Darton (married name: Patience Edney; 11 August 1911 – 6 November 1996) was a British nurse and political activist active during the Spanish Civil War.

Biography Darton was born on 11 August 1911 in Orpington, England, into a middle-class family and hoped to study medicine, but her father's bankruptcy led her to work as a nanny and in a tea shop while saving up for the admissions fees into a nursing programme. From 1932-1935 Darton studied to be a nurse at University College Hospital, London, subsequently becoming a registered nurse Her experiences working in London's impoverished East End radicalized her and she joined the Labour Party. She also worked at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies in London.

Darton volunteered her services as a nurse upon the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. She fell in love with a German member of the International Brigades named Robert Aaquist; Aaquist was killed in 1938.

Once back in London in 1938, Darton joined the British Communist Party.

In November 1996, Darton travelled with other former International Brigade members to Madrid to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, where they received honorary Spanish citizenship. Darton died on 6 November 1996 while in Madrid.