Mrs Elsie May Harling, Nurse and Voluntary Worker, Huddersfield

Elsie May Hallas was born in Huddersfield on 19th May 1899. She married Frank Harling in 1928. They did not have any children. Elsie Hallas trained as a nurse at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary; she won the silver medal at the training school in 1924, and became a S.R.N. in 1925. She gave up her work as a nurse on her marriage in 1928 and began to concentrate on voluntary work. In 1938 Mrs Harling joined the ARP and the Civil Nursing Reserve. She assisted Dr Denton Guest, pathologist at the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, in inaugurating the blood donor service. She was the founder chairman of the League of Friends of Huddersfield Hospitals in 1958 and continued as chairman until 1960. In 1954 Mrs Harling became a member of the Management Committee for Storthes Hall Hospital and was on various sub-committees, eventually becoming Chairman of the Mansion House Committee in 1968. She was also a member of the House Committee no 1 for the Huddersfield Group Hospitals for 15 years and a member of the Royal College of Nursing. Mrs Harling was Honorary Secretary of the Huddersfield branch of the United Nations from 1949 and was the vice-president in 1968-69. She was a member of the Standing Conference of Womens' Organisations for about 20 years, representing in all three different bodies - the Business and Professional Womens' Club, the Family Planning Association, and the Royal College of Nursing. Elsie Harling died on 30th December 1988.

Records for this collection are held at WYAS Kirklees, collection reference: KC981