Elsie Blest (1884-1961)

Post date: Jul 13, 2020 6:25:31 PM

Elsie was born on 12 August 1884 (per 1939 census) and baptised in Wateringbury Church on 26 September 1884. Her parents were William Wigram Blest and Elizabeth Ann. Elizabeth Ann was the daughter of John Beale Jude (JBJ) who founded the Kent brewery in Wateringbury and later also became a farmer. When JBJ died most of his estate was inherited by his son, Thomas, until on his death it passed to Elizabeth. She was the wife of William Wigram Blest and thence on her death the estate passed to her eldest son, Frank Blest.

In 1915 the vicar reported in the parish magazine in respect of the impact of the shortages of nurses on the hopping hospital:

Later on, when the number of little babies as in-patients made the nursing very strenuous, Miss Elsie Blest kindly responded to an appeal for help in the outpatients' department. Nurse Porter described her assistance as being invaluable. (Nursing is evidently Miss Elsie's metier, and she has recently gone to Flanders to work in the hospitals there. Our gratitude and good wishes go with her.) The hospital was open 23 days: daily average of out-patients, 32; total number of in-patients, 10. Kind donors, as usual, sent fruit and vegetables.

In fact from one of Elsie's two Red Cross record cards we know she undertook unpaid work at Hayle Place V.A.D. hospital (in Cripple Street, Tovil Maidstone) from October 1914 (which is when it opened) to October 1915. Hayle Place took a lot of wounded Belgian soldiers.

From October 12th 1915 she was more formally engaged by the Red Cross and on her termination in March 1919 was being paid the princely sum of £20 p.a. She was sent to the 24th General Hospital, France located at Etaples (Jun 15 - Jul 19) along with a number of other hospitals. Etaples is near the French coast just south of Boulogne and across the river from Le Touquet. It was described by Lady Olave Baden-Powell, "Étaples was a dirty, loathsome, smelly little town". In 1917, 100,000 troops were camped among the sand dunes and the hospitals, which included eleven general, one stationary, four Red Cross hospitals and a convalescent depot, could deal with 22,000 wounded or sick. In September 1919, ten months after the Armistice, three hospitals and the Q.M.A.A.C. convalescent depot remained.

In January 1917 she makes, along with Ellen Keat, both slightly separated but otherwise not particularly highlighted, the vicar's list of village "men" serving in the armed forces.

In the South Eastern Gazette of January 15th 1918:

HONOURS FOR V.A.D. NURSES

Among, the ladies figuring in the New Year Honours List are Miss Elsie Blest, of Broomscroft, Wateringbury, and Miss M. E. Bunyard, of the Crossways, Mereworth, each of whom has been awarded the Royal Red Cross (2nd class). Miss Blest and Miss Bunyard are both members of V.A.D. Kent 148. Both served at Hayle Place¹ Hospital from its opening in October, 1914, to October, 1915 when they were transferred together to 24th General Hospital³, B.E.F., France.

Miss M. E. Bunyard was mentioned in dispatches year ago for an act of conspicuous devotion

to duty.

In 1939 (per 1939 census) she was living in South View Cottage, Tonbridge Road, Wateringbury and was described as an unpaid domestic. June Pickett in her reminisces on Wateringbury village life recalls during the bombing of the village in WW2:

An example of British understatement must surely be Miss Elsie Blest’s. Cycling along Bow Road, with complete disregard for the mayhem overhead, she greeted my father with a cheerful “Another little do Mr. Pickett”.

She died 12 July 1961 at West Kent General Hospital, Maidstone. She was recorded as living at The Cottage, Tonbridge Road, Wateringbury. Probate was granted to Frank Blest (brother) and John Blest (nephew), her effects being valued for probate as £14,162.