Marion Greeves

[12] After leaving school, Molly trained in Birmingham as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse at the Queen’s Hospital.

[16] In 1917 she met her future husband, William “Bill” Edward Greeves (1890–1960) of the Portadown Weaving Company.

He was serving in Dunkirk with a Friends’ Ambulance Unit while she was treating “the first French casualties of the German gas attacks at Ypres”.

[17] Molly returned to England in October 1916, where she attended Evandine, one of the Baird Schools for Domestic Economy, to prepare for housekeeping duties including learning about cooking and washing.

[18] Greeves and Winefred Haddon, the daughter of the doctor who delivered Greeves’ children, started the Portadown Infant Welfare Centre, to “reduce the high infant mortality rate due to ignorance and lack of hygiene.”[19] The George Cadbury Trust provided the funds, local doctors gave their time for free, and patients paid what they could or in kind.

By 1942 she was overseeing 1,600 volunteers involved in 43 projects, including providing first aid, firefighting, anti-gas and emergency cooking training for housewives.

She joined the Ulster Women’s Unionist Association in 1925, taking on multiple roles over the years, including senior vice-president in 1975.

[32] Greeves was the first woman to be elected to the Senate of Northern Ireland,[33] as an independent member, on 20 June 1950, serving until 1969.

[35] Upon her retirement it was said “it was in the field of the aged that her leadership had produced the greatest change in circumstances and opinions [in Northern Ireland]”.

[40] Olave Baden-Powell, the Chief Guide, visited Ulster twice, staying with the Greeves family both times.