Brigid Elizabeth Murphy, World War I nurse

I remember seeing her many times as she made the short journey from her house at 4 Stanhope Street to the Parish Church on the far side of the road. Her frail body was bent over with her face positioned in what appeared to be just a little more than knee high above the pavement. She attended Mass every morning as did my mother and both exchanged pleasantries as they exited from the Church. I knew her as Mrs. Murphy, no first name, no knowledge of her background or where she came from. That was until a few days ago when examining an Athy Old Age Pension Committee Minute Book, I found her full name Brigid Elizabeth Murphy. Some years ago, long after Bridget had passed away, I was told that she might have served as a nurse during World War 1. Without her full name a search could not be carried out in the Imperial War Records. With her full name I now enlisted the help of my friend Clem Roche and he was able to access the Service Records of Nurse Bridget Elizabeth Murphy from Ballyroe, Churchtown. Born on the 1st February 1892 to Elizabeth Murphy, formerly Barber, and Thomas Murphy a farmer. Bridget Elizabeth trained as a nurse at the Central London Infirmary and joined the staff of the 4th Southern General Hospital Plymouth on 8th August 1916 as a member of the Territorial Force Nursing Service. She was required to have at least three years training as a nurse before applying to serve so we can predate her training in London to some time before the start of the War. On the 30th March 1917 she signed an agreement to serve abroad signing her name Brigid rather than Bridget as appeared on her birth certificate. The Hospital authorities in Plymouth had to certify that she was “medically examined, re-vaccinated, innoculated against typhoid and para-typhoid and actively fit for service abroad in a hot climate”. A further requirement of the Matron in Chief of the T.F.N.S. was receipt of a confidential report “on the work, conduct etc. of Ms. Brigid Murphy, Staff Nurse”. By now Brigid had returned home to Ballyroe, Churchtown to wait her call up for service overseas. Brigid travelled back to England at the end of April 1917 and on or about the 2nd May embarked on S.S. Transylvania to travel to Salonica. On the 4th May the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat a few miles south of Savona in Italy. A Japanese destroyer came alongside the sinking ship and began to offload the passengers. Before the rescue work was completed a second torpedo sank the Transylvania with the loss of 410 lives. Brigid Murphy with 59 of her nursing colleagues were amongst those rescued. Within a few weeks Brigid returned to Plymouth where she resumed temporary duties in the army hospital pending further orders. The following December she was a staff nurse attached to the 65th British General Hospital in Baghdad and I believe she served there until she was demobilised in May 1919. Brigid came ashore in Folkestone on the 18th May 1919 and her demobilisation Cert confirming her release from the T.F.N.S. is dated that day. Before returning to England she had indicated that she did not wish to extend her army service and had expressed a desire to take up a civil appointment in New Zealand. Following her disembarkation in Folkstone, Brigid and another Irish nurse Lillian Perishe applied for nursing positions with the Park Lodge Medical and Surgical Nursing Home in Brockly whose Matron sought references for both from the Matron in Chief of the T.F.N.S. The references were not furnished as both Brigid and Lillian decided to remain in London. Brigid Murphy’s post war career is not known apart from a few snippets culled from her war records. In July 1924 Brigid applied to the Army Medical Board on the grounds that she has not been at all well citing “I’ve had to leave London, also to come home from America twice in three years on sick leave”. She was granted a temporary Disability Pension in respect of Malaria attributable to her army service. Twelve years later she applied for help from the Joint Nursing and V.A.D. Service Committee as she was suffering from Rheumatic Fibrositis of the shoulder and arm. The war office confirmed that “her record and services were satisfactory”. Brigid Murphy died in 1986 aged 95 years and I have come across an email sent to me showing a medal which Brigid received from Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy as one of the survivors of the ship Transylvania on the 4th May 1917. Little did I know when I saw the stooped figure of Brigid Murphy crossing the road to her church that here was a woman with an interesting story the outline sketches of which can only now be told.