Here are some of the nurses working on the Smale’s Home Helpers scheme:
Mrs Laura Price
Born 1870 at Sellattyn, Oswestry. In 1911 she was married to John Price, a labourer, and lived at 3 Hurdsman Street, Oswestry. She had been married 20 years and had 6 children, four living, whose ages ranged from 4 to 16 years old. In 1939 she was still living in Oswestry, at 71 York Street and was a widow. She died in 1963 aged 94 years old. She worked on the scheme from 1913 until the scheme closed. These were some of her cases:
Mrs Evans: 38 Gate Street, 2 children, both with Phthisis – pulmonary tuberculosis or similar progressive wasting disease.
Mrs Hughes: 3 Coronation Cottages, 9 children all with abscesses.
Mrs Carrington: 3 Oakhurst Road, described as aged, bronchitis.
Mrs E Barclay
Known as Minnie, she was born in 1883 and died in 1911. Married to Edward, a house painter, living at 71 Castle Street in Oswestry. They had 2 young children, 4 years and 5 months. Minnie worked on the scheme between 1912-13 and only had one case:
Mrs Roach: 67 Castle Street, internal illness.
Mrs Mary Ellen Pearce
Born in 1856 in Camberwell London. In 1911 she lived at 66 Salop Road, Oswestry. She had been married for 40 years and had 11 children – 10 living. She began working for Smales in 1912 and worked until the end of the scheme, on a large number of cases. She was still nursing in 1919 aged 64 years old. These were some of her cases:
Mrs Heath: 17 Edward Street, one child, with cancer.
Mrs Thomas: 14 Oswald Place. A widow. Dropsy.
Mrs Lumids: 8 Green Cottage, Castle Street. Her baby had pneumonia.
Mrs William Evans. 46 Upper Brook Street, described as aged with bronchitis.
Mrs Wood: 3 Lorne Street, bronchitis.
Mrs Pritchard: 46 Roft Street, aged with a broken leg.