Mary Ward (English nursing sister)

Mary Amos Ward (b. 1885, Stoke Bruerne, England - d. 1972, Northamptonshire, England): the daughter of rope and twine manufacturer Thomas Amos, she was never professionally qualified as a nurse but she spent ten years travelling as a nursing "Sister" in convents in Europe and the USA before returning home to nurse her sick father. This brought her into contact with the boat families again, many of whom she had known when she was growing up.

She married Charlie Ward and, as her father's health declined, he took over the running of the family business. When this moved to a shed (formerly occupied by the stonemason) by the side of Lock 15 it became her surgery from where she would administer medicine and care to the boat people. At first this was in an unofficial capacity and until the late 1930s she financed it from her own pocket, when the canal companies began to recognise the importance of her work  and she was appointed as a "Consultant Sister" to long-distance boatmen and families.

She was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 1951 New Years Honours List. On 13 April 1959 Mrs. Ward was the subject of This Is Your Life. Many of her friends from Stoke Bruerne attended the screening and a picture of this can still be seen hanging on the wall in the Boat Inn, Stoke Bruerne. She eventually retired in 1965. She was quoted as saying "You can't take me away from boat people. There isn't one of them wouldn't die for me, or one I wouldn't die for." . She died seven years later in 1972 and was buried in the Baptist churchyard in Roade, England.

Links

 * Photo of Mrs Ward


 * Muuseum Web-Site


 * Scenic walk

Publications

 * British Waterways Board, Waterways Museum Stoke Bruerne (2003, Peterborough, Peakirk Books)
 * Pearson, M., Grand Union Canal (North) Birmingham to Stoke Bruerne, Cruising Guide. (1984, Rugby, Pearsons)
 * Foxton, D., The Canal at Stoke Bruerne 1998 (Blagrove, Foxton Boat Services)