V.A.D. Hilda Moorby

Hilda Moorby was the elder child of Welbury Moorby and Edith Elizabeth Duckworth who married in 1894 at Christ Church, Skipton. The couple made their home on Commercial Street in Skipton where Hilda was born on the 3rd of April the following year and taken to Holy Trinity church for baptism three weeks later.

By 1897 the family had moved to Waller Hill, Skipton, where a son, John William, was born into the family. When the census was taken in 1901 Welbury was earning his living as a packer in a cotton mill and the family had moved to 27 George Street, Middletown in Skipton, which was to remain their home for many years. When she left school, Hilda also went to work in the cotton mill, employed as a weaver in 1911, whilst her younger brother was a grocer's assistant. John William enlisted in the army in 1916, serving in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He had been in France for two months when he was reported missing in February 1917, and it was another ten months before he was officially presumed dead.

It was a few months later that Hilda joined the Red Cross. She was engaged on the 1st of August 1918 and served at the 2nd Western General Military Hospital.

Manchester based, this hospital had three facilities in Stockport; Stepping Hill Hospital, Greek Street and Alexandra Park. It was at one of these that Hilda worked, but unfortunately her Red Cross records don't specify which one.

After a little over two months service, Hilda developed bronchopneumonia and died at the Alexandra Park Hospital on the 8th of October 1918. She was 23 years old. Within just a few months both of Welbury and Edith's children had become casualties of war.

Hilda was taken back to Skipton and her funeral was held on Saturday, October the 12th, prior to her burial in Skipton (Waltonwrays) Cemetery.

It wasn't until the 8th of September 2018 that Hilda was recognised as a casualty of the war, thanks to the work of 'In From the Cold Project' volunteer Chris Harley.

She is remembered on the Women of the Empire Screen in York Minster . The screen comprises twelve carved wooden oak panels with concealed doors, beneath the Five Sisters window, listing the names of 1,514 servicewomen who died during World War I.

Hilda's parents were still living at 27 George Street, Skipton in 1921. In due course they were both buried in Waltonwrays cemetery near their daughter, and Hilda's Commonwealth War Graves headstone now sits at the head of their plot.