Mary Frances McGath
...... known as Frances, Fanny or Auntie Mac. Her life story as gleaned by Judy Storr after conversations with herself, Ivy and Noel, and looking at papers at the bungalow in which she lived.
Mary Frances was born on December 19th 1902 at her parent's farm, Lakefield, Shrule Co Mayo in Ireland. She was the second child and first daughter of John McGath and Bedelia Mary Golding. She had an
older step-sister, Daisy, but she did not live with them. Her mother had four more children before dying in childbirth when Frances was eleven years old. Frances talked about her father drinking at
the pub every evening, and how she wouldn't go to sleep until he came home, because she was concerned about his mood and subsequent behaviour towards her mother. She also talked about little Francis
Aloysius' death, caused by the other children making him drink something toxic they found in the barn that looked like black treacle.
After her mother died, the children were sent to be cared for at different places. Her mother had strongly requested that Frances and Alice stay together, and they were both taken in by their aunt,
Alice Boyd née Golding, and her husband, John Boyd, who had two young children, Robert and Molly, and were living in Dundalk. However, Alice was not happy there, and at her request was sent to
a boarding school. Frances continued to live with the Boyd family until she went to train as a nurse at the Children's Hospital in Dublin, in 1919. She talked about watching the Black and Tans
fighting in the streets outside the hospital; and being very upset over the death of her young cousin, Cecil, brother of Robert, Molly and Peggy, who died of consumption (TB) in Dublin when he was
only four years old.
After the partition of Ireland, the Boyd family moved to Liverpool. In 1924, Frances followed them to continue her training at Southport Infirmary. She had completed her prelims as a Sick Children's
Nurse in Dublin, and in 1928 became a full Registered Nurse. She was promoted to Staff Nurse and also met her oldest and closest friend, Ivy. Ivy was beginning her nursing training and credits
Frances with keeping her on track so she was successful in her prelim exams.
Ivy had a boyfriend in New York, and Frances' sister, Alice, was there working as a nanny; so the two of them set sail in 1930 on the Lancastria to look for work in New York. Frances had her sister's
employer's Park Avenue address which gave her high status and an easy passage through immigration. However, when they went to the address they found the family and Alice had gone to Florida, and so
Frances accompanied Ivy to her boyfriend's family home. A week later they found jobs as nurses at Flushing Hospital in Long Island, where they lived and worked happily for two years. Two more British
nurses joined them, and they had a holiday at the Red Cross Nurses' Centre in New York, and another one in Kingston, Canada, with Ivy's brother, Frank, and his wife. The had a wonderful time there, fishing
on the lake and sightseeing.
In 1932 the depression hit and the nursing jobs ended. They returned to England on R.M.S. Berengaria only to find it was difficult to find work in England. They worked at a nursing home in Norwich
for a short time, then Ivy travelled to India with her brother's wife and Frances took her midwifery training at Quarry Bank, Liverpool. She was doing some private nursing at Colwyn Bay when Ivy,
having returned from India, and working at the Women's Hospital in Liverpool, was able to recommend Frances when a vacancy occurred at short notice.
Ivy left the Women's Hospital to get married, but Frances stayed on, becoming a Ward Sister after two years. She was well liked and respected by patients, nurses and doctors alike, receiving
references stating: 'efficient yet charming', ......'commands everyone's respect', ....'the best Ward Sister I have ever had'. It was here she met her long-term friends, Ruby Forte and Nealy.
Unfortunately, the war interfered with this promising career. The bombing of Liverpool caused the evacuation of the Women's Hospital to Lancaster and also the move of the Boyd/Robinson family home to
Lancaster. Frances moved with them and became the factory nurse for Armstrong Whitworth. Here she met Connie Priestley who became a close family friend. Peggy moved up to Lancaster from London and
the extended family all lived together at Sunnycroft, near Nether Kellet.
At the end of the war, the factory was closed and Frances joined her friend Ruby and her sister Vi in opening a nursing home in Crewe. After a year they had a disagreement and Frances left, and Mr
Boyd came down to sort out the finances. Soon after, Ivy's stepmother heard that the Frank Webb Nursing Institute was looking for a nurse, and the job came with a furnished house. This appealed to
Frances as the family home at Sunnycroft was getting crowded with two sisters, five children, Mr Boyd, herself and Robert and husbands when around. So she moved into 8, Heathfield Avenue, Crewe, with
Peggy, Patricia and Jennifer, where she lived for the next 25 years.
Frank Webb was a railway charity and just had enough money to pay the housekeeping expenses plus a small allowance for a district nurse. However, Frances like the job because she was her own boss and
could get most of her work done in the mornings, leaving her afternoons free to visit her friends. She always said that the district nurses passed on their most difficult patients to her.
Sometime after Peggy's family left for New Zealand in 1948, she took in a boarder, Ann Morgan, to help out financially. She cashed in her nurses' insurance to buy a car, and most holidays she would
drive down to Southampton to visit the Robinsons and Mr Boyd. Every Easter holiday, Molly and the girls would drive up to stay with her. She often visited her family home in Ireland, especially when
Sister Marie Therese (Alice, who had become a nun) was over from America and once she and Penny visited on the Mauritania. Lakeview was run by her brother Dick, followed by his son Sean.
She was 68 when she retired and the Frank Webb Trust was wound up. She moved into the bungalow at 19 Mount Close, Nantwich, purchased with money from the Trust set up by her cousin Robert. She lived
there until Christmas 1995, when Noel, now living close by, with Ivy and Ivy's daughter Jane's help, arranged for her to move into Brookfields Nursing Home. She died there peacefully on August 6th
1996.
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