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In St John's Church, Ravenhead, St. Helens.

"Miss Clara Evans was one of a group of trained nurses from the London Hospital chosen by the Princess of Wales to care for soldiers in South Africa. Clara was born about 1871 in St. Helens, Lancashire. She seems to have been well educated and at one time was a Sunday School teacher at St John’s Church, Ravenhead, in St Helens. At that time she lived in the corner shop opposite the church, and this shop survives today.

She entered The London Hospital as a non-paying probationer on the 30th April 1896, aged 26. The sisters were always glad to have her in their wards as her work was thorough and capable, and she was always pleasant and adaptable. She was very punctual, kept the rules carefully and got on well with fellow workers. She had satisfactory results in her examinations, and she obtained a 1st Grade for her sick room cookery.

She was appointed as a Staff Nurse on Mellish Ward, on the 13th June 1898, where she served under Miss Becher who was selected to go out to South Africa. Miss Becher was anxious that Miss Evans be one of the nurses selected to go, as was Miss Evans herself. She was selected, and as a result was enrolled into Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service (Reserve) on December 18th 1899, and given the number 132.
The nurses from The London Hospital sailed from Southampton on the SS Dunotter Castle, on Saturday the 21st December 1899. This was the same voyage that Lord Roberts took as he went out to take over command in South Africa.

Clara was posted to No. 1 General Hospital, Wynberg. Like most of her group of nurses she kept in regular contact with Miss Eva Lükes (Matron of The London Hospital). In May 1900 she was transferred to Bloemfontein, but quickly became ill and died of ‘enteric fever’ on the 31st May, 1900.

In June of the same year, the council of her home town of St Helens decided to include her name on a memorial tablet they were commissioning for the Town Hall. She is thought to be the first woman to be included on a war memorial in Britain.

The nurses at The London Hospital subscribed towards a clock that they placed in Mellish Ward. St John’s Church in St Helens also erected a memorial in the form of a stained glass window of three lights. One depicted a South African battlefield with Bloemfontein in the distance; another was a picture of a ward in the London Hospital; and the last was Clara in army nursing uniform."
(The above is taken from britisharmynurses.com/wiki/index.php?title=EVANS,_Clara )

Evening

Her name is one of 5 engraved on the memorial at the Garden of Remembrance in Bloemfontein. She has no marked grave.





Jon