Catherine Sarah Elizabeth Pierce was born in Wrexham on the 4th of January 1877 to John and Eliza Pierce.
Catherine trained at Manchester Royal Infirmary from 1909 to 1912 and then joined the Territorial Force Nursing Service on the 8th August 1914 and began working at the 2nd Western General Hospital, Manchester. On the 10th May she transferred to the number 8 General Hospital in Rouen, France, as a Staff Nurse. Rouen was a significant logistical centre with many Base Hospitals and Military Camps; it was directly behind the Western Front which meant that it was one of the main hospitals with many of the most injured soldiers arriving there for their primary treatment.
In July 1917 Catherine was promoted to the rank of Sister after a report showing her “good professional ability, very energetic and trustworthy, her general influence and moral qualifications were excellent”. In May 1918 Catherine qualified as an anaesthetist. Shortly afterwards she was sent home for three months because she had contracted influenza but soon recuperated.
When she returned home she was granted the Royal Red Cross for her nursing services by The King. In 1921 she was promoted to Matron and was sent to Abbasi, Cairo, Egypt to the Government fever Hospital. In 1928 she returned to England and worked at the University of Liverpool until her retirement in 1939. She passed away on the 1st of October 1965 in Caernarvonshire.