Margaret Anderson was born in Ballinran, Kilkeel, County Down. She left school when she was eleven years old and at the age of thirteen went to Waringstown, County Down, to work as a medical receptionist. She subsequently went to England to train as a nurse in Leeds Union Infirmary. She qualified as a State Registered Nurse and obtained her state certificate of midwifery. In 1916 she joined the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Reserve and was awarded the Royal Red Cross, the highest award that could be conferred on a woman for war service. This was awarded to her by King George V in 1919. In 1921 she went to Iraq as a nurse and on her return to England in 1924, was appointed assistant matron at the Royal Infirmary, Truro, Cornwall. In 1926 she returned to Ireland as matron of the temporary hospital in the Silent Valley. In 1932 she returned to England, as matron of a hospital near Oxford, and remained there until 1939. During the Second World War, despite being fifty-eight years old, she rejoined the nursing reserve and took part in several sorties across the Channel during the evacuation of Dunkirk.

Born:	1881
Died:	1956