This year’s exhibition – will focus on Buckfastleigh in the 1920’s. 

If anybody has any local family memories or photos which go back to those years and would like to share them please email our Archive Group on valiantsoldierbuckfastleigh@gmail.com.

If you visited our exhibition ‘from Plague to pandemic’ you may remember two remarkable women who contributed to the health of the town in the 20s.

Dr Eva Ironside, one of the first women GPs, came to Buckfastleigh in 1916 to cover a local doctor who went to war. Soon she was also working as an anaesthetist at the hospital in Ashburton and also carrying out minor surgery. After the war she became the partner of  Dr Williams’, the local medical officer of health, living and setting up her practice at Redmount. She was the public vaccinator for Buckfastleigh.

Eliza Cook was one of the first district nurses, working in Buckfastleigh for 30 years. She was often called to emergencies, there is an account of her trying to save the life of a badly burned child and giving evidence at post-mortems. She was also a trained midwife and no woman died in childbirth here during the 20s. She retired in 1927. A retirement reception was held for her, she was given a cheque for 100 guineas, raised by grateful townspeople.