Mary Annie de Burgh Burt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1874 |
| Died | 7 April 1916 (aged 41–42) Salonica, Greece |
| Cause of death | Dysentery |
| Resting place | Lambet Road Military Cemetery, Salonica, Greece |
| Occupation | Nurse |
| Organization | Scottish Women's Hospitals |
| Awards | French Red Cross Medal |
Mary Annie De Burgh Burt (1874 - 1916) was a sister in the Scottish Women's Hospital (SWH), Girton & Newnham Unit, based in Troyes, France and Macedonia in World War One. [1] [2]
Burt was one of the Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Institute for nurses as a Health Visitor to Finsbury Social Workers’ Association. [3] [4] When she joined the Scottish Women's Hospital as a Sister, Burt was living in London at 49 Norfolk Square, Hyde Park. [1] She had been a member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) who brought together suffrage societies in the UK. [5] On 28th October 1915, a unit of women sponsored by the NUWSS from London left for Salonika left from Liverpool. [1]
Burt's unit had travelled with the French Expeditionary Force from France to Serbia and onto Salonika. [1] The women were exposed not only to the severe challenges for warfront medicine, but to challenges of extremes of weather in winter or summer in a tented hospital, and along with their patients exposed to the risks of malaria and dysentery. [6]
Mary Burt died on 7 April 1916, at the age of 42, [3] and was listed on 24th February 1917 among those of the staff at the SWH, who had died of dysentery. [1] Fellow staff mourned the death of their colleagues but had to continue nursing, of course. [7] She is buried at Lambet Road Military Cemetery, Salonica, Greece. [3]
Burt was awarded the French Red Cross Medal, [8] and was named among over 1500 women who died in the Great War on the roll of honour in York Minster's St Nicholas Chapel Five Sisters Window. [9] [10]