Kate BEAUFOY. Acting Matron 2ndRes/B620.QAIMNS.
Born 20 December 1868 at Aston, Birmingham to Thomas and Susanna Beaufoy, nee Marston. 1871 residing with her parents and siblings at 60 Oliver Street, Aston. 1891 residing with her parents and siblings at 109 Nechells Park Road, Aston. 1901 her parents were residing at 2 Springfield Road, Erdington, Warwickshire.
She was a nurse of the South African War and at Gallipoli.
On the 1st November 1917 the Embarkation Paymaster was notified that Matron Kate Beaufoy was fit for general duties and she has been warned by telegram to embark on HMHS Glenart Castle as duty as Matron, date to be fixed. At date not known she was posted the Glenart Castle. On the 25 February 1918 the ship embarked Cardiff 25 February 1918 without passengers for Brest, France, via Bristol Channel to load with wounded. At 03.47 the next day 26 February 1919 a torpedo struck her near Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel. The went down quickly, and only 38 survived from 206 on board. Despite showing the lit Red Crosses and painted white with green stripe on the sides, she was torpedoed by German submarine at UC56, she lost her life that day aged 50. Commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton, Hampshire
Her service medals issued 14 June 1923.
Wills and Admin, Ancestry.
Katy Beaufoy of The Grange, Shirley, Warwickshire, spinster a matron in the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service lost her life 26 February 1918 at sea on the occasion of the loss Hospital Ship Glenart Castle. Probate Birmingham 5 September 1918 to Joseph Howard Kirk, manufacturer and Joseph Elliott Beaufoy manufacturer’s managing clerk. £1073 16s 11d.
Notes from her service records.
17 August 1914 called up and posted for duty at Devenport Military Hospital.
24 May 1915 attached for temporary duty to No 15 General Hospital, Alexandria, Egypt.
01 June 1916 duty aboard as Matron on Hospital Ship Dover Castle bound for Malta
18 May 1917 she joined 29th General Hospital in Malta.
19 June 1917 she arrived in England after travelling overland from Malta
27 November 1917 she joined the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, Hampshire.
She was given notice whilst in residence in London, to be at Euston Railway Station for the 11-50 a.m. train to Lime Street Railway Station, Liverpool with rest at the North Western Hotel, Lime Street, then to join Hospital Ship, Glenart Castle the following day.
The following extract credited to https://www.qaranc.co.uk
Katy was trained for three years as a nurse at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in 1893. After qualifying she quickly rose to the position of Sister in charge of the Operating Theatre in 1896 and soon attained the position of Matron to the 80 bed Exeter Fever Hospital in 1899.
She volunteered for the Second Boer War and a copy of her letters home from the 18 General Hospital, Charlestown, Natal are included in the book. When the Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service was formed into the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service in 1902 she applied to the Reserve several years later in 1908. In the meantime, she had an active nursing career as theatre sister to a private surgeon then as a nurse tutor in Italy training local nurses.
On the 17 August 1914 she volunteered for war service and was sent to Devonport Military Hospital and then to No 15 General Hospital in the former Abbasieh School at Alexandria. She then nursed aboard the Hospital Ship Dover Castle as Sister and the 29th General Hospital in Malta before being promoted to Matron. Her diaries from this period are transcribed into the book, as is her time approaching her appointment as Matron to the Hospital Ship Glenart Castle.
http://www.bandcstaffregister.com/page312.html
Extract from British Journal of Nursing 1918
Miss Kate Beaufoy the Matron who was amongst the missing had occupied the position of Matron on several ships, had travelled 60,000 miles since the beginning of the war and 30.000 patients had been under her care. She served as a nurse in the South African War and some years ago taught nursing to Italian probationers in Rome and was decorated by the Queen of Italy. (Princess Jelena of Montenegro, commonly known as Queen Elena of Italy)
