Margaret Ida Bentham; Red Cross Volunteer.

Margaret Bentham in her 2nd Suffolk VAD uniform

 

Margaret was born in Melton on 14th April 1897 and was baptised at St Andrew’s Church on 23rd May that year. When Margaret was nineteen, she joined the Red Cross as a volunteer and undertook general duties at Foxborough Hall Auxiliary Hospital from 31st July 1916 until 10th September 1917. It is probable that while at Foxborough Hall she met her future husband, Richard Charles Pratt, who had been wounded while serving with the Machine Gun Corps in France in September 1916.

Margaret and Richard were married on 2nd November 1918 in Holborn, Middlesex. The couple had four children, two sons and two daughters. In 1939, Margaret and Richard were living in Bristol where he worked for the BBC as an orchestra manager. On his retirement in 1942, the couple moved back to Suffolk and set up home in Ipswich. Richard died in 1965 and Margaret moved to Bury St Edmunds where she died in 1975. According to her daughter, Margaret retained her interest in the Red Cross and made good use of her first aid skills in family life.

For her service with the Red Cross, Margaret received the Red Cross Medal with one War Service Bar. The Bar was awarded to Red Cross volunteers who had worked for at least thirteen consecutive months.