HUNT, Elizabeth [of Collingham]

Elisabeth Hunt 1884 - 1917

Elisabeth Hunt's grave, All Saints, Collingham

Collingham War Memorial

A nurse on the Roll of Honour

Elisabeth Hunt was born in Low Street, Collingham in 1884, fifth and youngest child of Thomas, a smallholder, and Ruth (nee Bocock). She and her sister Nellie (b. 1882) both volunteered as Nurses (VADs) in the Great War. Elisabeth contracted appendicitis while working at the Royal Oak Sea Bathing Hospital in Margate in June 1917, tragically dying aged 32 after the relatively routine operation to remove her inflamed appendix. Her body was returned to Collingham where she was buried at All Saints Church.

Although they were not a military unit, VAD (Voluntary Aid Detatchment) personnel were entitled to Commonwealth war graves*, but in this case there is a private family grave. She is also commemorated on the war memorial inside the church, along with 25 men from Collingham who died in that war and a further six from the Second World War. (Although her name is spelt with a 'z' on the indoor memorial, that spelling was occasionally used within her lifetime and she was known to the family as Lizzie, so it is not a terrible mistake.)

* See YOUNG, Ada Elizabeth on this website for an interesting nearby example of a VAD Commonwealth War Grave.