Ethel Hunter Waddy

Ethel Waddy was born into a Methodist family in Sheffield on 7 January 1906. She had an elder and a younger brother. Her father Frederick Henry Waddy was a general practitioner who married Ellen Elizabeth Hunter. Ethel was educated at Sheffield High School for Girls, becoming senior prefect in 1924. She graduated in medicine from Sheffield University in 1930 working in general practice in Leamington Spa until she married her first cousin Francis Fisher Waddy in 1931 and moved to Northampton. During the war Frank trained her in anaesthesia and she continued practising as an anaesthetist for several years after the war, working mostly at the Northampton Manfield Hospital and the Kettering General Hospital. In 1945 they moved to Great Brington when she took up horse riding and horses remained a life long passion even after she stopped riding. Apart from managing a large traditional English country house she enjoyed playing bridge for a penny a point until more recent years. Latterly she was looked after at home by her son David. Reasonably active to the last she enjoyed Christmas but became ill a couple of days later and died peacefully at home on 30 December, just eight days short of her 101st birthday. Predeceased by her husband, Francis; she leaves two sons; three grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.