Ethel Watkins Taylor
Born 17 Mar 1880 - Died 19 Jul 1964
- Service number
- WWI 22/47 AWMM
- Also known as
- Ethel Watkins-Taylor AWMM
- Pritchard AWMM
- Watkins AWMM
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Last rank
- WW1 Sister AWMM New Zealand Army Nursing Service AWMM
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
About
- Title
- —
- Forenames
- Ethel Watkins AWMM
- Surname
- Taylor AWMM
- Ingoa
- —
- Also known as
- Ethel Watkins-Taylor AWMM
- Pritchard AWMM
- Watkins AWMM
- Service number
- WWI 22/47 AWMM
- Gender
- Female AWMM
- Religion
- AnglicanPublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 18 May 2016 - Military Record
Images
Documents
About birth
- Birth
- 17 Mar 1880 AWMM
- 1880 AWMM
- Date of birth
- —
- Place of birth
- —
- Birth notes
- daughter of Ratahi Madgeline Taylor (widow of Watkins) and stepdaughter of Colin MacKenzie TaylorPublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 11 November 2015 - Research
- Address before enlistment
- Pre 06 Apr 1915 AWMM Nelson, New Zealand AWMM
- Post war occupation
- —
- Next of kin
- Mrs Major C.M. Taylor, College Hill, Nelson, New Zealand AWMM
- Relationship status
- Pre 08 Apr 1915 AWMM Single AWMM
- 1921 married Alfred Pritchard in GisbornePublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 11 November 2015 - Research
Wars and conflicts
- War
- World War I, 1914-1918 AWMM
- Campaign
- 1914-1916 AWMM Egypt AWMM
- Sinai & Palestine AWMM
- Armed force / branch
- Army AWMM
- Service number
- WWI 22/47 AWMM
- Military service
- Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers
- —
Military decorations
- Medals and Awards
- Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) AWMM
MBE awarded in 1949 AWMM - 1914-1915 Star AWMM
- British War Medal (1914-1920) AWMM
- Victory Medal AWMM
- Long-service Medal from the Legion of FrontiersmenPublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 18 May 2016 - Research
- Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) AWMM
Training and Enlistment
- Military training
- Wellington, Hawera & Christchurch HospitalsPublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 18 May 2016 - Nursing Record
- Branch Trade Proficiency
- —
- Enlistment
- WW1 06 Apr 1915 AWMM
- Age on enlistment
- 35yrsPublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 18 May 2016 - estimated from birth/enlistment dates
- Occupation before enlistment
- —
Embarkations
- Embarkation details
- WW1 08 Apr 1915-18 May 1915 AWMM
Rotorua 8 April 1915 AWMM Vessel was Rotorua AWMM Nurse AWMM New Zealand Army Nursing Service Corps AWMM New Zealand Expeditionary Force AWMM
Prisoner of war
- Capture details
- —
- Days interned
- —
- Liberation date
- —
- POW liberation details
- —
- Liberation Repatriation
- —
- POW serial number
- —
Medical history
- Medical notes
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Last known rank
- Last rank
- WW1 22 Jun 1919 AWMM Sister AWMM
New Zealand Army Nursing Service AWMM - Last rank
- —
Biographical information
- Daughter of Madgeline Ratahi Cochrane Watkins Taylor (1860-1933) and Bazett (Barrett) Watkins. Great grandaughter of Judge Frederick Edward Maning. Wife of Albert Pritchard, married 5 July 1921. Taylor was the great granddaughter of Moengaroa of Te Hikutu, a hapu of Nga Puhi. Siblings - Sarah (b. 1881), William (b. 1883), Madeline (b. 1887). Children – Albert Manning (1924-1924).
Served 4 years 78 days in WW1.
Joined Legion of Frontiersmen around 1916 and was awarded long-service medal in 1949
Awarded the MBE in 1949
Name changed from Ethel Watkins to Ethel Watkins Taylor after 1902. Portrait in DNZB. Listed by Kai Tiaki as Ethel Watkins-Taylor.
One of the few Nurses of Māori descent serving in WWI.
Ethel Watkins Taylor (later Pritchard) (WWI service no. 22/47) was born in Onehunga on 17 March 1880, the daughter of Madeline (Magdaline) Rātahi Cochrane and her husband, Bazett (Barrett) Watkins, and was of Ngāpuhi descent. Following her mother’s remarriage to Colin McKenzie Taylor in 1902, she used the surname Watkins Taylor.
She trained in midwifery in Wellington in 1906, began hospital nursing at Hāwera, and completed her nursing training at Christchurch Hospital, qualifying with honours in 1910. After working as a sister at Cook Hospital, Gisborne, she volunteered for the New Zealand Army Nursing Service.
Selected among the first 50 nurses to serve overseas, she embarked on 8 April 1915 and was posted to No. 15 New Zealand General Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. There she supervised orderlies and cared for large convoys of wounded from Gallipoli. By February 1916 she had personally tended more than 3,500 patients. In total, she served 4 years and 78 days overseas, nursing in Egypt, on hospital ships, and in army hospitals in England, before returning to New Zealand in 1919.
After the war she served as native health nurse at Te Karaka. Following her marriage to Albert Pritchard in Napier in 1921, she undertook district nursing across the Matawai–Mōtū district for many years. In 1949 she was appointed MBE and received a long-service medal from the Legion of Frontiersmen. She died in Gisborne on 19 July 1964 and is buried at Taruheru Cemetery (Profile written for “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 initiative by Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand). AWMM - 1919 - Among those who arrived on the Ripple yesterday morning was Sister Ethel Watkins Taylor, who left with the first drafts of 50 nurses from New Zealand in 1915. She has returned after four years service, and was awarded the 1915 decoration. She is the guest of Mr and Mrs Hewitt, Fox street. Sister Watkins Taylor's first appointment was to the 15th General Hospital, Alexandria, and in the course of her experiences she was for a time engaged on hospital ships, and on one occasion witnessed a fight between a submarine and a transport.Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 11 November 2015 - Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14925, 31 May 1919, Page 2
- 1921 - Sister Ethel Watkins Taylor is resigning her position as Native Health Nurse at Te Karaka, on account of her approaching marriage -Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 11 November 2015 - Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XIV, Issue 2, April 1921, Page 101
- Daughter of Madgeline Ratahi Cochrane Watkins Taylor (1860-1933) and Bazett (Barrett) Watkins. Great grandaughter of Judge Frederick Edward Maning. Wife of Albert Pritchard, married 5 July 1921. Taylor was the great granddaughter of Moengaroa of Te Hikutu, a hapu of Nga Puhi. Siblings - Sarah (b. 1881), William (b. 1883), Madeline (b. 1887). Children – Albert Manning (1924-1924).
About death
- Death
- 19 Jul 1964 AWMM
- Date of death
- —
- Age at death
- 84yrsPublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 11 November 2015 - Gisborne Cemetery Records
- Place of death
- —
- Cause of death
- —
- Death notes
- 1st NZEF, 9/744 Tpr A PRITCHARD, M.M., Otago Mtd Rifles, died 6 August 1975 aged 90 years. 1st NZEF, 22/47 Sister ETHEL PRITCHARD, M.B.E., Army Nursing Service, died 19 July 1964 aged 84 years.Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 11 November 2015 - Gisborne Cemetery Records
- Cemetery
- —
- Cemetery name
- Taruheru Cemetery, GisbornePublic - Lorraine M - Researcher - 11 November 2015 - Gisborne Cemetery Records
- Grave reference
- Block RSA; Plot 178; Warrant # 10923Public - Lorraine M - Researcher - 11 November 2015 - Gisborne Cemetery Records
- Obituary
- Obitiuary: Gisborne Herald, 20 July 1968 p. 8 AWMM
- Memorial name
- —
- Memorial reference
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Memorial
- Memorial name
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Sources
- External links
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5p38/pritchard-ethel
Sources Used - Military personnel file
https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R7824200
Further Reference - Other military personnel file
https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R7880982
Further Reference - Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Published on Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand online.
http://dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp?Find_Quick.asp?PersonEssay=5P38
Further Reference - Marriages and Engagements. Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume XIV, Issue 4, October 1921, Page 213
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=KT19211001.2.54&srpos
Further Reference - New Zealand Military Nursing: New Zealand Army Nursing Service - Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps.
http://web.archive.org/web/20220126041404/https://www.nzans.org/index.htm
Further Reference - Letters from Our Nurses Abroad, Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume IX, Issue 3, 1 July 1916, Page 139
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/KT19160701.2.26
Further Reference - An Overview of Māori Military Service for the Crown, 1899 – 1945 (Wai 2500, #A247)
https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_137303813/Wai%202500%2C%20A247.pdf
Further Reference - Cowan, J. (1926). The Maoris in the Great War. Auckland, N.Z.: Maori Regimental Committee by Whitcombe & Tombs.
https://ndhadeliver.natlib.govt.nz/webarchive/20201108000000/https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-CowMaor.html
Further Reference - Nelson Museum Profile
https://web.archive.org/web/20210207152822/http://ww100.nelsonmuseum.co.nz/character?profileId=79
Further Reference - The Last Train, Gisborne Photo News, Issue 57, 2 April 1959.
https://photonews.org.nz/gisborne/issue/GPN57_19590402/t1-body-d3.html
Further Reference - New Zealand nurses for the Front: the party which left Wellington for London on the SS Rotorua last Thursday under arrangement with the imperial authorities. Supplement to the Auckland Weekly News, 15 April 1915, p.38. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19150415-38-01
https://kura.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/digital/collection/photos/id/214958/rec/165
Further Reference
- Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.
- References
- McDonald, W. (2013). Honours and Awards to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the Great War, 1914-1918. (3rd ed.). Hamilton, N.Z.: Richard Stowers.
- Burling, G.B. (2009). Legion of Frontiersmen New Zealand Command Inc : History 1904 - 2009. Waihi, N.Z.: Graham B. Burling.
- New Zealand Army Expeditionary Force. (1914-1919). Nominal Rolls of New Zealand Expeditionary Force, Volume I. Wellington, N.Z.: Govt. Printer.
Vol1: 713 - Gisborne Herald
Obitiuary: Gisborne Herald, 20 July 1968 p. 8 - Service Women Project: Sponsorship to research this record was kindly provided by the Auckland Returned Services Association, Returned Servicewomen's Branch; Marjorie Traill, Dorothy Grant, Daphne Shaw and Margaret Woollett.
- McNabb, S. (2015). 100 years New Zealand military nursing : New Zealand Army nursing service : Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps, 1915-2015. Hawke's Bay, N.Z.: Sherayl McNabb.
- Cowan, J. (1926). The Maoris in the Great War. Auckland, N.Z.: Maori Regimental Committee by Whitcombe & Tombs.
- Soutar, M. (2019). Whitiki! Whiti! Whiti! E!: Maori In the First World War. New Zealand: David Bateman Ltd.
- This record was part of “A Flight to Remember”, an Anzac Day 2026 commemorative partnership between Online Cenotaph and Air New Zealand, where service stories were shared onboard a dawn flight from Auckland to Sydney.
- Tolerton, J. (2017). Make her praises heard afar : New Zealand women overseas in World War One. Wellington, New Zealand : Booklovers Books.
- Rogers, A. (2003). While You're Away: New Zealand Nurses at War 1899-1948. Auckland, N.Z.: Auckland University Press.
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