A RARE 1914-15 TRIO TO A FEMALE STAFF NURSE & SISTER.

To:
Staff Nurse & Sister Ellen Myra Cann (nee Langdale):
(Who was descended from English Civil War Nobility via Sir Marmaduke Langdale, 1st Baron Langdale, 1598-1661.)

"TERRITORIAL FORCE NURSING SERVICE"

56 Casualty Clearing Station 15.9.16 - 18.2.17.
2nd Eastern General Hospital, 1917,

56 CCS (Known as South Midland CCS) was positioned at: Hazebrouck Jun 15 - Mar 16;
Amiens Apr 16 - Jul 16;
Vecquemont Jul 16 - Sep 16;
Grovetown Oct 16;
Edgehill Oct 16 - Feb 17;
Gezaincourt Mar 18 - Aug 18;
Grevillers Sep 18 - Feb 19


[BIOGRAPHY]
Ellen Myra Cann (nee Langdale) was born in Uckfield, Sussex in 1881 into a wealthy family and is seen living at home at Ulverston House on the 1901 census age 20.

Her father was the eminent surgeon Henry Marmaduke Langdale then age 52 who was a direct descendant of Sir Marmaduke Langdale, 1st Baron Langdale, 1598-1661. Langdale was a Royalist cavalry officer who commanded the volatile Northern Horse and was one of seven Royalists excluded from pardon for their roles in the wars.
Born at Beverley in Yorkshire, Sir Marmaduke Langdale inherited substantial estates from his father. He gained his first military experience in 1620 on Sir Horace Vere's expedition to the Palatinate. In 1626, Langdale married Lenox Rodes (d.1639) with whom he had four sons and three daughters. He was knighted by King Charles I in 1628 and increased his estates during the 1630s to become one of the leading gentlemen of Yorkshire.

She had a younger sister Beatrice Mary. The family employed three servants, Mary a cook, Barbara and Emma, the two housemaids.

Pre war she has been a qualified midwife serving at the York Road Lying-in Hospital. London. Ellen actually served in France from her embarkation on 22nd May 1915 until her return to UK duty on 18th February 1917.


[MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE]
Ellen married in the following year of 1902 at the Parish Church in Uckfield on 23rd October.
Her husband was Thomas Ponsford Cann a surgeon of 28 years of age from Newhaven.

[DEATH CERTIFICATE
FOR THOMAS CANN]
The marriage was sadly only to last a little under four years as Thomas sadly died on 27th August 1906 of Cardiac Failure due to Septicaemia contracted from an accidental wound to his finger while operating on a patient on August 15th ! ....Thus, in the pre-antibiotic age of 1906 it only took 12 days from the accident to the time of death by sepsis !!!

[THE 1911 CENSUS]
Ellen Cann is here seen staying with the family of Dr J.L. Milburn who were clearly friends of her & her late husband at Oxford House, Winchester.
She is listed as "Nurse" ( Sick )

This is an unusually well documented group to a nurse who served in France during the Great War and in a London wartime hospital.

Medals are EF on original ribbons.

RARE. SOLD