Margaret McBeth, who served in the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), lost her life to Spanish flu while caring for patients. She died on October 31st 1918 at the Kent and Canterbury Hospital aged twenty-eight. She battled influenza for seven days before succumbing to fatal pneumonia. Her remains were repatriated to her home town of Pitlochry in Highland Perthshire. She was interred in Pitlochry New Cemetery. The Commonwealth War Grave Commission cares for her familial headstone.
Margaret Ann was born on March 24th, 1890, in the Parish of Moulin to colporteur Colin and Helen (nee Campbell). In 1891, the family resided at Ferragan House, and Margaret was the youngest in the household. Ten years later, the family moved to The Knoll in Pitlochry, by which time Margaret, aged eleven, was attending school. Sadly, in 1895, her elder sister Louisa died, aged only ten. Additionally, Margaret was no longer the youngest when her sister, Catherine, arrived. By 1911, the family, including a twenty-one-year-old Margaret, still resided at The Knoll. Colin died aged seventy on April 25th 1916. Like many able-bodied women, Margaret enlisted as a nurse to care for the war casualties. Her work with QUAIMNs eventually took her away from Perthshire, Kent being her final destination.
Following her death, the National Probate Index formally confirmed Catherine as executor of her estate.
Margaret is commemorated on the National War Memorial in Edinburgh Castle.
Sources: Ancestry, ScotlandsPeople
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