Mayor pays tribute to town’s heroine of the poor
THIS photograph was taken some 82 years ago, in 1939, when celebrated funfair impressario Pat Collins was Mayor of Walsall. It shows him, along with fellow councillors and aldermen and a group of Walsall nurses, paying tribute to the town’s greatest heroine – Sister Dora.
Dorothy Pattison may have been born in Hauxwell, Yorkshire, on January 16, 1832, but she was truly taken to heart by the people of her adopted home.
Devotion
The Anglican nun arrived in Walsall in 1865 and remained there for the rest of her life, devoting herself to the care of the poor and needy, particularly when smallpox ravaged the town. She worked tirelessly and her sterling efforts during two notable disasters also helped to cement her place in the affection of Walsall folk. In 1872 22 men and boys were killed in the Peslall Mining Disaster, and in 1875 an explosion at the Green Lane Furnaces maimed 17 workers, some fatally.
When Siser Dora died on Christmas Eve 1878, thousands lined the streets for her funeral, when 18 local railway workers bore her coffin to Queen Street Cemetery.
Since her death, a memorial church service has been held in Walsall around Sister Dora’s brithday. A statue of the nurse was erected in 1886, the first statue in Britain of a non-royal woman. Since then flowers have been ceremonously laid at the statue on, or around Sister Dora’s birthday. Pat Collins laid his wreath in 1939 and last year Mayor of Walsall Paul Bott continued the tradition.
143 years after her death, Sister Dora is still revered in the Black Country.