Dame Emma Maud McCarthy, GBE, RRC & Bar, DStJ (22 September 1859 – 1 April 1949) was a nursing sister and British Army matron-in-chief.

[1] By 1891, McCarthy was in England, and on 10 October 1891, entered The London Hospital, Whitechapel, to begin general nursing training as a probationer.

[2][3] Hospital records state that "she had an exceptionally nice disposition" and was "most ladylike and interested in her work" although "she found it hard to control others, or to take firm action when necessary".

Resigning from the hospital on 25 December 1899, McCarthy served with distinction throughout 1899–1902 with the Army Nursing Service Reserve, receiving the Queen's and the King's Medal and the Royal Red Cross.

[1] McCarthy sailed in the first ship to leave England with members of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), arriving in France on 12 August 1914.

In 1915 she was installed at Abbeville as matron-in-chief of the BEF in France and Flanders, taking charge of the whole area from the Channel to the Mediterranean, wherever British and allied nurses worked; she was directly responsible to General Headquarters.