Tributes paid to North Shropshire’s 104-year-old ‘amazing’ wartime nurse
Tributes have been paid to one of North Shropshire’s oldest residents who has died, aged 104.
Former nurse Mrs Sally Baggaley, from Welshampton, passed away at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on Saturday, following a fall at her home shortly after Christmas..
“My Mum has had an incredible life ,” said her daughter, Ruth Allen, She has done so much over the years and she tried hard to remain active, interested and involved in things right to the end. She was simply amazing.”
Born at Redhill , Surrey, Sally was 17 when the 2nd World War began, and she immediately signed up to become a nurse. Throughout the war, she worked at hospitals in London and the south east, caring for troops wounded during the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation and after the Normandy landings on D-Day four years later. She also looked after casualties from the Blitz and trained as a midwife in the East End.
At the end of the war, she and her Liverpool-born husband, Fred, an accountant, moved north to Merseyside where she became a district nurse, working in some of the city’s poorest areas.
With two sons and a daughter, the couple set up home on the Wirral before moving to the Welsh resort of Barmouth where they ran a hotel. Sally continued nursing as well as setting up a branch of the junior Red Cross and becoming involved in other community activities.
In the early 1970s, the family moved to the Ceirog Valley, where she became matron of the Leonard Cheshire home at Dolywern. She was also involved in dog training and helping her daughter, Ruth, run swimming lessons and other sports activities for local children.
Sally and her husband moved to Welshampton 25 years ago, where she played an active part in village life, including the gardening club, a craft group, the Methodist Church and the Women’s Institute. She remained a keen fan of Liverpool FC, even though Fred supported Everton.
In the past two years, Sally became part of the day care ‘family’ at the Our Space community hub in Ellesmere.
Services manager Rachel Davies said: “She was 104 at the end of last year and we were privileged to celebrate this amazing milestone with her. Sally lived a wonderfully full life and she shared her life and memories with us all.
“She loved dogs, nature and trees. She grew vegetables and became self-sufficient. She also loved love. Her mantra was ‘All you need is Love.’
“One of her favourite trips out with the group was when they went to hug a tree by the Mere.
Sally could be outspoken and rarely held back with her opinions. but she would always win everyone around with her pragmatic and honest approach to life. She brought so much to us here at Our Space and she will be much missed by us all.”
Sally shared her wartime experiences with students at Ellesmere’s Lakelands Academy in the run-up to the 80th anniversary of V.E Day last May.Her reminiscences were also broadcast on BBC Radio Shropshire.
Christine Howard, vice-president of the Lyneal-cum-Colemere W.I said: “Sally will be long remembered and missed. I think we can all say that she was a great character who had filled her years with an incredible variety of good work and interests She was never afraid to say what she felt and ask what she wanted.
She lost her husband, Fred after moving to Welshampton, and other close family members, but with her deep Christian faith she ploughed on regardless; determined – that is how she managed to live to such a great age.”
Sally’s funeral will take place at 11.15 on Tuesday, February 17. Donations in her memory will go to the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People
