Annie Blackley Denton

This signed photograph of Annie Blackley Denton, shows her wearing her Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve Cape Badge on her ward dress. Annie was born in Liverpool in 1868 and trained at Royal Stanley Hospital. She served as a Sister in the Boer War and later served in the First World War from 1914. She became acting matron and was twice mentioned in dispatches in 1915 and 1917 for courage under fire. She was also awarded the Royal Red Cross in 1918. This decoration is awarded to army nurses for exceptional services, devotion to duty and professional competence in British military nursing. Florence Nightingale was the first recipient. Over 10,000 qualified nurses joined the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNS[R]) which for the first time in the history of the QAIMNS included married women and those of a lower social class. Nurses tended to the wounded in field hospitals, aboard ambulance trains, hospital ships and barges, and in casualty clearing stations across the world.