{{Short description|Commandant}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} thumb|right|Meanwood Towers, birthplace of Edith Cliff thumb|Front cover of scrapbook compiled by Edith Cliff during the First World War. '''Edith Cliff''', OBE, (1871–1962) was the Commandant of Gledhow Hall Military Hospital in Gledhow, Leeds, Yorkshire, England from its opening in 1915, throughout the First World War until it closed 1919.
Edith Maud Cliff, daughter of William Dewhirst Cliff of Meanwood Towers in Leeds<ref>{{cite web|title=Lights, Camera, Action…Libraries|url=https://secretlibraryleeds.net/2014/03/28/lights-camera-action-libraries/|website=Leeds Library|accessdate=23 November 2017|date=28 March 2014}}</ref> was born in 1871. A woman of independent means, she began to train as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse in 1911. After the outbreak of the First World War, her cousin Albert Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale offered his home, Gledhow Hall, for use as a VAD hospital. It opened in 1915 and Cliff was appointed its commandant, that is, officer in charge, a position she held throughout the war. Cliff was awarded an OBE in the 1919 New Year Honours for her service.<ref name="EC">{{cite web|title=Edith Cliff, Commandant of Gledhow Hall Military Hospital|url=http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=2016512_175760|publisher=Leodis|accessdate=23 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Miss Edith Maud Cliff O.B.E. |url=http://www.redcross.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/History-and-origin/First-World-War/Card?fname=Edith&sname=cliff&id=43683&last=true|publisher= The Red Cross|accessdate=23 November 2017}}</ref>
Cliff's scrapbook, ''The Great European War, Gledhow Hall Hospital'', documents life there between 1915 and 1919 in letters, photographs and newscuttings.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Gledhow Hall scrapbook |url=https://secretlibraryleeds.net/2014/07/25/the-gledhow-hall-scrapbook/|publisher= Leeds Libraries|date=25 July 2014|accessdate=23 November 2017}}</ref> Leeds Libraries consider this one of the treasures of their collection, along with a 1480 ''Book of Hours''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Treasures|url=https://secretlibraryleeds.net/treasures/|website=Secret Library Leeds|date=3 August 2016|accessdate=23 November 2017}}</ref>
In 1935 Edith Cliff married Sir Thomas Willans Nussey,<ref name="TWN">{{cite web|title=Nussey, Thomas Willans |url=http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search-2016.pl?sur=&suro=w&fir=&firo=c&cit=&cito=c&c=all&z=all&tex=NSY887TW&sye=&eye=&col=all&maxcount=50|publisher=Cambridge University|accessdate=23 November 2017}}</ref> a barrister and Liberal Party Member of Parliament until 1910. They were in their mid-60s when they married.
Edith Cliff, Lady Nussey, died aged 90 in 1962.<ref name="EC"/> Her husband had predeceased her by 15 years.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.flickr.com/photos/leedslibraries/albums/72157713672835491 Link to digitised images of the Gledhow Hall Scrapbook]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cliff, Edith}} Category:1871 births Category:1962 deaths Category:People from Meanwood Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:British women in World War I Category:19th-century English people Category:20th-century English people Category:Wives of baronets Category:Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses Category:20th-century British nurses