The role of women to be explored through WW1 project
The role of women at war and those that were left back home, will be explored as part of the ‘Coleraine’s Road to the Somme’ project.
Coordinator Joanne Hunniford says that our local war memorials are a “key source of information”.
Aghadowey war memorial lists the names of 14 nurses that served during WW1.
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Hide AdThe tragic story of one, named Annie Kelly Shirley, is one that sticks out.
After serving with the US Army, the brave local woman sadly died of pneumonia at the tender age of 35.
Another local nurse, Margaret (Maggie Blair) from Union Street in Coleraine nursed in the battle fields in France.
She was selected to take part in the victory parade in London, in July 1919. Maggie continued to nurse the wounded even after the war was over, sadly she caught typhoid fever from one of the men she was nursing and died in November 1921.