Walsall Local History - Sister Dora

Have you ever looked at the old statue on The Bridge in Walsall town centre and wondered who it is? We did a bit of digging and learned all about Sister Dora: the first ever non-royal woman in Great Britain to get a statue, and why it was well deserved. 

Dorothy Pattison was born in 1832 in North Yorkshire. After a tough childhood, she became a nun and devoted her life to nursing. She arrived in Walsall in 1865, soon to become a local legend.  

Dorothy worked in a hospital near the railway in Bridgeman Street. Accidents were common back then and the railway workers were so grateful for the care and expertise of the woman they called ‘Sister Dora’ that they raised £50 to buy her a pony and carriage for her home visits. 

When Walsall was hit by smallpox, Dorothy worked tirelessly, risking her life every day. After an ironworks explosion, she nursed over 12,000 patients in a year. But the workload took its toll. She died of breast cancer on Christmas Eve, 1878. The whole town turned out to pay their respects, as 18 railway workers bore her coffin to Queen Street Cemetery. 

The people of Walsall honoured Sister Dora in many ways: the new General Hospital quickly became known as the Sister Dora Hospital; on the railways a new steam engine was named after her. The driver always polished its nameplate carefully before the Derby to Walsall run. And, finally, a statue went up on The Bridge in 1886 - of Sister Dora, a true Walsall heroine. 

(Source: History of Walsall's Sister Dora and the steam engine by Stuart Williams and Jack Haddock, https://go.walsall.gov.uk/)