Lives of the First World War

Memorial plaque presented to the next of kin of Nurse Winifred Stanley Coates, Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), British Red Cross Society. Serving in Malta Nurse Coates contracted a serious illness and was invalided home. She died in hospital in London on 8 February 1916, only five days before her twenty-seventh birthday and is buried in Sheriff Hutton (St Helen and Holy Cross) Churchyard, Yorkshire. The IWM also holds Nurse Coates' Next of Kin Memorial Plaque (EPH 4139) and the Badge of the Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class, awarded to her sister, Miss Edith Coates. Accompanying this plaque is a small 'cabinet' portrait photograph of Miss Coates in nursing uniform. Miss Coates is recorded in the 'British Red Cross Register of Overseas Volunteers 1914-18' and is shown as serving as a VAD in Malta. Another list that includes her is 'Members of Voluntary Aid Detachments who have died on active service'. Embossed on plaque: WINIFRED STANLEY COATES.

A Memorial to Voluntary Aid Detachment and Professional Nurses who lost their lives in the 1st and 2nd World Wars, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, dedicated and unveiled on 4th June 2018 at an event attended by HRH The Countess of Wessex GCVO, Royal Patron of the Nursing Memorial Appeal. The memorial takes the form of hands cast in bronze holding a globe carrying the names of nurses who lost their lives in service in the two World Wars. Further information about the memorial can be found on the Nursing Memorial Appeal website at www.nursingmemorialappeal.org.uk