(1832 – 1878)
Dora arrived in Walsall from north Yorkshire in 1865 – at the height of the industrial revolution. For the next 13 years she worked tirelessly to establish and run a professional medical service for the people of Walsall at a time when disease, epidemics, abject poverty and dangerous working conditions were commonplace. She looked after relatives of victims of the Pelsall mining disaster in 1872, in which 22 men and boys were killed, with 13 survivors. She formed a particular bond with the local railway company. Many workers, at some point in their working life, required medical treatment due to working hazards and Dora created a bond with them. In 1873, in recognition of her devotion, workers saved up their meagre wages to buy a pony and carriage to assist with her home visits to ailing patients. In 1875 an explosion occurred in a local iron foundry. Sister Dora was at the heart of emergency medical care which saw around 16 men seriously or fatally injured in the accident. That same year Walsall was hit by smallpox. Dora worked directly with the patients, risking her own life to help them.
When she died in 1878 thousands lined Bridge Street in the town centre to pay their respects with her coffin borne by eighteen railwaymen, engine drivers, porters and guards, all in working uniform.
The respect for Dora is still present in the town, with not one, but three statues attributed to her.
The first stop is the Walsall Manor Hospital. Parking is tight, so I stunt roll out of a moving car to take in the first and most recent tributes on the ground floor reception – a glass figure made from the old Infirmary windows, bringing old into new. Upstairs in a glass case is a plaster cast used to make the original 1886 statue. Known as the first non-royal woman to receive a public statue in the UK, the original was carved in white Sicilian marble, but, due to erosion, was replaced in 1956. This cast was given to the council in 1921 by the daughter of the original sculptor (F J Williamson).
Today, the bronze statue of Dora stands proud on The Bridge in Walsall town centre.
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