Miss D. Annakin, (centre back row with spectacles) was appointed Matron of the Burnley Hospital for Infectious Diseases in April 1939, succeeding Miss Girling who had been in post for 40 years. In complete contrast to Miss Girling, who was around her mid-seventies, Miss Annakin was definitely on an upward career path, and was 35 when she came to Burnley, with a wealth of experience behind her. Having completed her nursing training at St. Luke's Bradford, she also undertook midwifery and fever training. She had been mid-wifery staff nurse at St. Luke's Bradford, then was maternity ward sister at Bury Infirmary, back at St. Luke's she had been children's ward sister and then ward sister, and at the time of her appointment she had been Assistant Matron and Sister Tutor at the Bradford City Fever Hospital for 5 years.
Almost exactly six years later, she was on the move again, the Express reported she would be taking up a post as Deputy Matron at Whipps' Cross Hospital, West Ham with 1,200 beds. She was presented with a wireless set from all the staff and personal friends. She was described as always having concerned herself with the welfare of her staff, and in reply she particularly thanked the domestic staff "who had, in wartime, an unusually hard job to perform." However, if she did go to Whipps Cross, then she didn't stay long, or perhaps something happened to change her plans, as certainly by October 1946, she was Matron at Nottingham City Hospital. She was soon credited with the hospital becoming very successful in training nurses, crucial in a time of post-war staff shortages. In 1953 a journalist from the Nottingham Post described her as "genial, unassuming but highly efficient Matron. " We do not know whether this was her final nursing post, but rather like Miss Girling,despite her close contact with disease, she lived to a good age, being 88 when she died in Derby in 1992.
None of the newspaper reports gives her first name, perhaps because it was Daisy, which sounds a bit lightweight for such a competent career woman.
For Miss Girling, see under People, Retirement.