Lucy Cane
CBE (''c.''1866 – 23 April 1926) was an Irish public servant.
Life
Lucy Cane was born Mary O'Brien around 1866, probably in Cahirmoyle,
County Limerick. She was the third and youngest child of Edward William and his wife, Mary Spring O'Brien. Her elder siblings were
Dermod and
Nelly
Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur. He embarked on his music career with the hip hop group St. Lunatics in 1993 and signed to Universal ...
. Her paternal grandfather was
William Smith O'Brien, and a maternal cousin was
Mary Spring Rice. O'Brien was educated at home. Following the death of her mother from
tuberculosis, the three siblings were raised by their aunt,
Charlotte Grace O'Brien.
In 1894, she married a childhood friend of her brother, barrister and administrator Arthur Beresford Cane, CBE (died 1939). The couple had two daughters. O'Brien joined the
Voluntary Aid Detachment of the
British Red Cross, serving at the headquarters from 1914 to 1917 under
Katharine Furse
Dame Katharine Furse, ( Symonds; 23 November 1875 – 25 November 1952) was a British nursing and military administrator. She led the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment force during the First World War, and served as the inaugural Direct ...
. She eventually moved to England and became the VAD assistant director, and retired in 1919 with a CBE. She died in London on 23 April 1926.
Some of her correspondence is held along with that of her family in the
National Library of Ireland. Katharine Furse's husband,
Charles Wellington Furse
Charles Wellington Furse (13 January 1868 – 16 October 1904) was an English painter.
He was born at Staines, the son of Jane Diana (Monsell) and the Rev. C. W. Furse, archdeacon of Westminster, and rector of St John's, Smith Square and de ...
painted a portrait of Cane.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cane, Lucy
1866 births
1926 deaths
People from County Limerick in health professions
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire