Harriet served in the TFNS for four and a half years and left in July 1918. She was discharged as medically unfit for duty having contracted malaria in Salonika in 1916. What happened to her after she left the service?
I discovered that Harriet married as soon as she left the service - in July 1918.Maybe she requested that she be discharged in order for her to marry (she could not have stayed in the TFNS after marriage). She had persisted in working even after several medical boards had confirmed that she was suffering the chronic effects of malaria. Harriet's husband, William Cooper, born in 1880 was a widower with two young children. He was an analytical chemist, working for the Admiralty at HM Portsmouth naval dockyward.
A First World War Admiralty "On War Service 1914" badge. This was given
to men who were not obviously in active war service, to signify their
contribution to the war effort.It is highly likely that William would have been issued with a similar badge.
The Chemical Department and later known as the Central Dockyard Laboratory was the Admiralty department that was responsible for the testing and trials of lubricants, metals and paints for the Royal Navy. It was based at Portsmouth, England from 1870 to 1977.
Map of the dockyard 1909
Having met him while both were working for the war effort, Harriet married in Portsmouth and never returned to her native Sheffield.
William married his first wife - Mary Ann Musson- in 1906. According to the 1911 census they were living in Southsea. They had no children at this time. William states he had begun working for the Admiralty. According to the 1921 census, Harriet and William were still living in the Portsmouth area and Harriet had two stepchildren. - a stepson, Philip Musson born 1916 and a step daughter born in 1914. I have been unable to find the date of Mary's death, which must have occurred between 1916 and 1918. Perhaps she died in childbirth.
I lose track of the family for several years after the 1921 census. In 1939 the couple are still living in Southsea - in the same house that they have lived in for many years. By 1943 Harriet's stepson was serving in the Army - in the Royal Engineers. William died in 1950 and Harriet in 1952. They had been married for 32 years.
While researching Harriet I discovered that two of her sisters also became nurses. Ada who was born in 1884 was educated at a grammar school and after working as a cashier in a chemist, trained to be a nurse at Staffordshire General Infirmary from 1909-1912 and at an eye hospital in Birmingham until the outbreak of war when Ada joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS). She left the service in 1917 citing "serious home trouble". I do not know what this was! However she did carry on nursing after the war. She was a visitor to another sister in 1921 and notes her occupation as a medical and surgical nurse (as did her sister Alice). Both Alice and Ada give their residential address to be the same as Harriet - William was living with three nurses! Ada married in 1930 aged 46.
Members of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, c1914
I was given the extremely rare TFNS medal by my friend and fellow WW1 historian Laurence John Manton. With his kind permission I have donated it to the Royal College of Nursing museum and archives. I am told that they are so rare they do not own an example of one that is complete with ribbon and bar. I do believe that this medal is now going to be where it deserves to be - in a museum dedicated to the nursing profession that she served so well.
https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/queen-alexandras-royal-army-nursing-corps
https://portsmouthmuseums.co.uk/collections-stories/record/?si_elastic_detail=PORMG%20:%202012/116
ancestry.co.uk
FindMyPast
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