V.A.D. Violet Isabel Hamilton Moberly

Violet Moberly was born on 20 November 1888, the only daughter of Robert Campbell Moberly and Alice Sidney Hamilton. Her parents, whose respective fathers both served as successive Bishops of Salisbury, married at Salisbury Cathedral on 29 June 1880. After her father became the vicar of Budworth in Cheshire, the couple settled into the local vicarage and had three sons before Violet's birth. Just four days after she was born, her father baptised her as Violet Isabel Hamilton at the parish church.

When the 1891 census was taken Robert was visiting his brother in Wiltshire whilst Alice, who was expecting her fifth child, and the children remained at home along with their housemaid, undernurse and nurse. In 1892, the family moved from Budworth to Christ Church College, Oxford, following Richard's appointment as Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology and canon of Christ Church Cathedral.

By 1901 only Violet and her younger brother, George, remained living with their parents. Following Robert's death just over two years later, Alice moved to 5 Linton Road in Oxford's St. Giles district. The 1911 census records her still living there with 22 year old Violet and George, supported by her cousin, a cook, and a housemaid.

All four of Violet's brothers served in the army in WW1; it was, perhaps, her concern about them that prompted her to volunteer her own services to the Red Cross.

Though there is little information about Violet's service as a V.A.D. we know that she served from 3 January 1916 until November 1918. For almost three years, she nursed the sick and wounded at 3rd Southern General Hospital in Oxford before, like so many others, contracting influenza.

Unfortunately she also developed pneumonia, and died at the hospital where she worked on 9 November 1918. Two days later an armistice was announced, ending hostilities on the Western Front. Violet was 30 years old. She was buried the following day in the grounds of Christ Church Cathedral. The funeral was reported at some length in the Oxford Chronicle.

Violet's headstone reads 'Beloved daughter and sister to four brothers, all of whom survived France and Flanders'

Probate of Violet's estate was granted to her mother, who died in 1939. She was buried with her husband and daughter in the grounds of Christchurch Cathedral. It was not until 8 September 2018 that Violet was recognised as casualty of war, as a result of the work of Chris Harley, volunteer from the In From the Cold Project.