Lily McNicholas
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox military person
|honorific_prefix = Sister
|name = Lily McNicholas
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|image = Sister Lily McNicholas.jpg
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|alt = A black and white image of Sister Lily McNicholas wearing her uniform
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|birth_date = {{birth date|1909|10|16|df=y}}
|birth_place = Kiltimagh, County Mayo, Ireland
|death_date = {{death date and age|1998|5|5|1909|10|16|df=y}}
|death_place = Oak Lawn, Illinois
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|allegiance = United Kingdom
|branch = Army Medical Services of the British Army
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|servicenumber = 246129
|unit = Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
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|awards = Order of the British Empire
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Lily McNicholas (16 October 1909 – 5 March 1998) was an Irish nurse who volunteered in the Second World War. On 7 August 1944, McNicholas survived the sinking of the Amsterdam; a hospital carrier transporting casualties to Britain from Normandy, France. The incident was widely reported in the pressLiverpool Daily Post, 30 December 1944Western Morning News, 30 December 1944The Citizen, 30 December 1944 (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) Retrieved 20 October 2018. after the London Gazette announced that McNicholas and two other nurses were to be awarded the M.B.E. for their heroic actions.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36861/supplement/5935|title=Second Supplement|date=26 December 1944|work=London Gazette|access-date=19 October 2018}}
Early years
McNicholas was born on Kiltimagh, County Mayo, Ireland to Thomas and Bridget McNicholas. After attending the St. Louis Convent Secondary School in the town, she left Ireland in the 1930s to study nursing in England.Ireland's Own (May 2013).
Career
File:M.B.E. medal and ribbon.jpg
Little is known of McNicholas' early nursing career, but on 5 October 1942 she was granted a commission as a Sister (No. 246129) in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) Reserve.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35808/supplement/5264|title=Second Supplement|date=4 December 1942|work=London Gazette|access-date=20 October 2018}} McNicholas joined an estimated 70,000 men and women from Ireland, who served in the British forces over the course of the Second World War.{{Cite journal|last=O'Connor|first=Steven|date=2015|title=Why did they fight for Britain? Irish recruits to the British forces, 1939-45|url=https://journals.openedition.org/etudesirlandaises/4451?lang=en|journal=Études Irlandaises|volume=40-1|pages=60|access-date=20 October 2018|via=journals.openedition.org}}
Sinking of the ''Amsterdam''
The Amsterdam was on her third cross-Channel voyage to pick up Allied casualties and German prisoners of war from the Battle of the Falaise Pocket, when disaster occurred.{{Cite book|title=Quiet heroines: Nurses of the Second World War|last=McBryde|first=Brenda|publisher=Hogarth Press|year=1985|isbn=978-0-7011-2939-2|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/quietheroinesnur0000mcbr/page/173 173]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/quietheroinesnur0000mcbr/page/173}} There are differing accounts of what caused the Amsterdam to sink. An official record states that the sinking was the result of "enemy action,"Recommendation for Award for McNicholas, Lily Rank: Sister Service No, 1944 (T.N.A., Wo 373/68/928) (www.discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk) Retrieved 20 October 2018. and it was widely reported in the press that the ship was hit by a torpedo. Other accounts, including the testimony of a sailor on board, agree that the ship struck a German mine.Quiet heroines: Nurses of the Second World War (1985), p. 173Manning, Patrick. "The sinking of the S.S. Amsterdam [Hospital Ship] 1944" (www.bbc.co.uk) Retrieved 20 October 2018.
The impact of the mine destroyed one half of the vessel, killing all the men in the engine room. As the ship lay broken and sinking in the water, McNicholas disregarded her place in No. 3 Water Ambulance, going back into the ship to bring grievously injured men up from the hospital deck. It reportedly took eight minutes for the ship to sink, with the loss of 106 lives including ten medical staff.
McNicholas was forced to jump from the ship as it capsized. Unable to swim, she 'fell ill' and was assisted in the water by the ship's captain. On the arrival of an American cutter, McNicholas was rescued from the sea and continued to provide medical aid to the injured men as they were pulled from the water.
M.B.E. award
McNicholas was recommended for an M.B.E. in recognition of "gallant conduct in carrying out hazardous work in a very brave manner."{{Cite news|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/36861/supplement/5935|title=Second Supplement|date=29 December 1944|work=London Gazette|access-date=19 October 2018}} According to a magazine article written in 2013, McNicholas declined to attend her investiture at Buckingham Palace, travelling instead to visit the bereaved parents of her best friend. McNicholas had tragically witnessed fellow nurse Molly Evershed go down with the ship after getting stuck in a porthole trying to escape. According to some sources, McNicholas was awarded an O.B.ERichard Doherty, Irish Volunteers in the Second World War (Dublin, 2002), p.185; Ireland's Own (May 2013). but correspondence from the War Office; the official recommendation record; medal and medal case, show that McNicholas did in fact receive an M.B.E.Correspondence from the War Office, Kensington, London, Ref: A.M.D.4. (H). P/246129 22 November 1946, on display Kiltimagh Museum, Kiltimagh, Ireland; Recommendation for Award for McNicholas, Lily Rank: Sister Service No, 1944 (T.N.A., Wo 373/68/928) (www.discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk) Retrieved 20 October 2018; M.B.E. medal and M.B.E. (Mily) case, on display, Kiltimagh Museum, Kiltimagh, Ireland.
Later life
McNicholas went on to postings in London, Egypt and Bombay, demobilising in March 1946 and released from service in June that year. She moved to Chicago in 1947, where she continued nursing in hospitals and for the International Harvester company. McNicholas retired in 1976 and resided in Oak Lawn, Illinois, until she died in 1998.
Legacy
McNicholas' M.B.E. medal, War Office correspondence and life jacket from the Amsterdam can be seen at the Kiltimagh Museum in Mayo, Ireland. 'Sister Lily McNicholas' is featured in the Our Irish Women temporary exhibition, on display at the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life, during October and November 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.museum.ie/Country-Life/Events-Projects/Our-Irish-Women|title=Our Irish Women|website=www.museum.ie|access-date=21 October 2018}}
References
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Further reading
- Doherty, Richard, Irish Volunteers in the Second World War (Dublin, 2002).
- McBryde, Brenda, Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War (London, 1985).
- O'Connor, Steven, 'Why did they fight for Britain? Irish recruits to the British forces, 1939-45' Études irlandaises, 40-1 (2015), pp. 59–70.
External sources
- [https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/39/a4368639.shtml Patrick Manning Testimony: BBC WW2 Peoples War]
- [http://www.ouririshheritage.org/content/archive/people/101_mayo_people/community-and-politics/sister_lily_mc_nicholas 101 Mayo People]
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Category:British Army personnel of World War II
Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Military personnel from County Mayo
Category:People from Oak Lawn, Illinois
Category:Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps officers