Lilian Annie Margueretta Franklin OBE (1882 – 8 January 1955), known as "Boss", was the British commanding officer of the

First Aid Nursing Yeomanry The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps) (FANY (PRVC)) is a British independent all-female registered charity structured like a military reserve unit. which primarily provides surge relief to civil and military authoriti ...

(FANY) until 1932. She took the organisation of six volunteers to organise hospitals and nursing stations in France and Belgium in the First World War. In 1916 the British Army agreed that it too could use the FANY's support and Franklin was the first driver and in command. She left the FANY in 1932.

Life

Franklin's birth day is not known but she lived for a time at

Hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved/bent back or has a deeply grooved indentation, which serves to grab, latch or in any way attach itself onto another object. The hook's d ...

, Surrey. Her parents were William and Louisa and she had a brother. The FANY was formed to both rescue the wounded and to administer first aid from horseback. Their founder felt that a single rider could get to a wounded soldier faster than a horse-drawn ambulance. Each woman was trained not only in first aid but signalling and drilling in cavalry movements. The organisation was troubled and Mabel St Clair Stobart formed the rival Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps in 1910. Only six women remained in the FANY and Lilian Franklin was one of them. At the start of 1912, she was a second lieutenant, and she and Sergeant-Major Ashley-Smith won a power struggle with the FANY founder Edward Baker and his daughter, Katie. Franklin helped introduce a more practical uniform and in 1912 the FANY uniform became a khaki tunic, khaki riding skirt, and later, a khaki soft cap. Franklin and Ashley-Smith were in charge. Before the First World War started in 1914, Franklin and Ashley-Smith are credited with reinventing the FANY after the disagreement with the founders had been settled.

First World War

In 1914, the FANY offered their service to the British War Office, but they were ignored despite a recommendation from the surgeon-general. Instead, they offered their service to the Belgians and the French, who accepted. The FANYs proceeded to run casualty stations and hospitals for them. In 1916, the British War Office asked the FANY to work with them. On New Year's Day, Franklin was in command and she was the first woman driver for the British army as a convoy was formed at Calais.

After the war

Mary Baxter Ellis was leading the Northumberland section in 1928 and she took over from Franklin in 1932. Franklin died in

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

Honours

In 1917 Franklin was

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

. She was awarded the MBE in

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

and the OBE in

1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Franklin, Lilian British women nurses British women in World War I 1882 births 1955 deaths Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire