Zoe Blanche Douet: From Brighton Hospital to the Western Front

In 1904, Zoe Blanche Douet began her nursing training at Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital. Her career would take her to a military hospital in France during the First World War, but Sussex remained an important part of her life. Census returns and nursing registers place her in Hove and Rottingdean, while her probate record brings her story back to a Brighton hospital in 1926.

These records also give firmer evidence of her family’s connection to Jamaica. Behind the name recorded in a wartime honours list was an English-born woman whose parents were both recorded as Jamaican-born.

A family connection to Jamaica

Zoe’s birth was registered in the Croydon district in the spring quarter of 1872. Later census returns identify her birthplace as South Norwood. In 1881, she was an eight-year-old schoolgirl living in Croydon with her mother, Sophia C. Douet, and her siblings. The handwritten census page records Sophia’s birthplace as Jamaica. Birth index, 1881 census.

An earlier census strengthens that family connection. In 1871, before Zoe was born, Ernest Henry Douet and his wife Sophia C. were living in Deptford with their infant daughter Ethel. Both parents’ birthplaces were recorded as “West Indies—Jamaica”. 1871 census.

The 1869 marriage index lists Ernest Henry Douet and Sophia Caroline Paterson against the same Woolwich registration reference. This strongly supports the identification of Zoe’s mother as Sophia Caroline Paterson, although the full marriage record remains to be checked. Marriage index.

By 1891, Zoe was living with her father and two sisters in Teddington. Ernest was recorded as a widower. Later that year, he married Henrietta Mary Bessie Jadis. This matters when reading the 1901 census transcription: Ancestry labels Henrietta as Zoe’s mother, but the family records show that she was her stepmother. 1891 census, marriage register.

The evidence supports a family history with two Jamaican-born parents. It does not establish Zoe’s racial identity or tell us how she understood her own cultural background.

Learning and working as a nurse in Brighton and Hove

Zoe was in her early thirties when she began training in Brighton. Her entry in the General Nursing Council’s 1922 register records a qualification associated with the Royal Sussex County Hospital for the years 1904–1907. This gives direct documentary support to the Brighton training described in earlier accounts of her life. 1922 nursing register.

A separate College of Nursing register names the same hospital but gives 1908 in its certificate column. The records checked so far do not explain the difference. The training period and the certificate year should therefore remain distinct. College of Nursing register.

We do not yet know what brought Zoe to Brighton or why she chose nursing. What we can establish is that she was working in the profession by 1911.

That year’s census records her at 112 Addison Road, Hove, in the household of Frank Fiennes Trotman and his wife Edith Maud. Zoe was single, aged 38, and described as a “Sick Nurse”. Her relationship to the household head was recorded as “Visitor”. This places her in Hove on census night, but does not prove that Addison Road was her permanent home or identify whom she was nursing. 1911 census.

Nursing during the First World War

Zoe later served as a Sister in the Territorial Force Nursing Service.

The Noonans catalogue of her medals and surviving papers places her at No. 55 General Hospital, Wimereux, France, from 30 April 1917. It also records that she was Mentioned in Despatches. These details are supported here by the catalogue account; her complete military nursing service file has not been examined. Noonans catalogue, lot 299.

Her award of the Royal Red Cross, Second Class, is independently confirmed by the London Gazette. The June 1919 honours list names “Miss Zoe Blanche Douet, Sister, T.F.N.S.” among the recipients. It is a brief entry, but it gives official recognition to the wartime service of a nurse trained in Brighton. London Gazette, page 6840.

A home in Rottingdean

By the 1921 census, Zoe was living at 8 Nevill Road, Rottingdean. She was recorded as single, aged 49 years and one month, and a “Private Nurse”. Within the household, she was identified as the niece of its head. Nursing remained her recorded occupation after the war. 1921 census.

Her professional records give the same address. The College of Nursing register records registration in 1919. The General Nursing Council register records a separate registration on 19 May 1922, under number 3912. Its 1925 edition still lists 8 Nevill Road as her permanent address. These are different registration records and should not be treated as the same event. College register, 1922 register, 1925 register.

Zoe died on 13 October 1926 at Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. Her probate calendar entry records her home address as 8 Nevill Road, Rottingdean, and names Ethel Henrietta Douet as the person to whom probate was granted at Lewes on 5 January 1927. Probate calendar.

The surviving records tell us more about Zoe’s work than about her private thoughts. They do, however, allow us to place her within Brighton and Hove’s history with greater confidence: a nursing trainee at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, a working nurse in Hove, a wartime Sister in France and a resident of Rottingdean.

Her story gives the city’s nursing history an earlier Jamaican family connection. It also reminds us how much can be recovered from a few ordinary entries—an occupation, a birthplace, a hospital and a street address—when they are read together.

For a later chapter in the city’s nursing history, read Elaine Humphrey’s account of training and working in Brighton.

A British army operating theatre at Wimereux, near Boulogne, during the First World War. Zoe served at No. 55 General Hospital in Wimereux; this photograph has not been identified as showing her hospital or Zoe herself.

Source: Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0.

Sources

General Register Office: Zoe Blanche Douet’s birth registration, April–June 1872, Croydon, volume 2a, page 219. Birth index via Ancestry.

General Register Office: Ernest Henry Douet and Sophia Caroline Paterson, marriage registrations, January–March 1869, Woolwich, volume 1d, page 857. Marriage index via Ancestry.

The National Archives, 1871 census: Ernest Henry and Sophia C. Douet, Deptford. RG10/746, folio 134, page 15. Records both parents’ birthplaces as Jamaica. View record.

The National Archives, 1881 census: Sophia C. Douet and her children, including Zoe, Croydon. RG11/818, folio 107, page 15. View record.

The National Archives, 1891 census: Ernest and Zoe Douet, Teddington. RG12/618, folio 21, page 36. View record.

Surrey History Centre: Marriage of Ernest Henry Douet and Henrietta Mary Bessie Jadis, 2 September 1891, St Mark’s Church, Surbiton. Parish register reference 2217/1/8. View record.

The National Archives, 1901 census: Douet household, Epsom, indexed as “Dorset”. RG13/583, folio 61, page 6. View record.

The National Archives, 1911 census: Zoe Blanche Douet, indexed as “Doriet”, at 112 Addison Road, Hove. RG14/5179. View record.

The National Archives, 1921 census: Zoe B. Douet, indexed as “Donet”, Rottingdean. RG15/4860, enumeration district 11, schedule 158. View record.

Royal College of Nursing collection: College of Nursing register, collection dated 1916–1921, page 145, entry 13672. Records Zoe’s Brighton training school and Rottingdean address. View record.

General Nursing Council for England and Wales: Register of Nurses, 1922, General Part, page 88, entry 3912; and the corresponding entry in the 1925 register. Royal College of Nursing collection, via Ancestry. 1922 register, 1925 register.

The London Gazette: Issue 31370, page 6840, June 1919. Zoe Blanche Douet’s award of the Royal Red Cross, Second Class. Original Gazette page.

Noonans Mayfair: The David Laban Collection of Territorial Force War Medal Groups, lot 299, 11 October 2023. Catalogue description of Zoe’s medals, wartime service and surviving papers. View catalogue entry.

Principal Probate Registry: National Probate Calendar, 1927, entry for Zoe Blanche Douet. Records her death on 13 October 1926 at Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, and her home address in Rottingdean. View record.