{{Short description|British nurse and political activist (1911–1996)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | other_names = Patience Edney | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date |1911|08|11|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Orpington]], England | death_date = {{death date and age |1996|11|06|1911|08|11|df=yes}} | death_place = [[Madrid]], Spain | nationality = | known_for = | education = [[University College Hospital]] | spouse = Eric Edney | children = 1 | occupation = Nurse and political activist }} '''Patience Darton''' (married name: Patience Edney; 11 August 1911 – 6 November 1996) was a [[British Empire|British]] [[Nursing|nurse]] and [[Activism|political activist]] active during the [[Spanish Civil War]].
== Biography == Darton was born on 11 August 1911 in [[Orpington]], England, into a middle-class family and hoped to study medicine, but her father's bankruptcy led her to work as a nanny and in a tea shop while saving up for the admissions fees into a nursing programme.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/darton-patience-1911-1996|title=Darton, Patience (1911–1996)|last=Haag|first=John|date=10 December 2019|website=Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia|publisher=Cengage|via=Encyclopedia.Com|access-date=2020-01-13}}</ref> Darton studied to be a [[midwife]] at [[University College Hospital]], London.<ref name=":0" /> Her experiences working in London's impoverished [[East End of London|East End]] radicalized her and she joined the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/SPdartonP.htm|title=Patience Darton|last=Simkin|first=John|date=August 2014|website=Spartacus Educational|access-date=2020-01-13}}</ref> She also worked at the [[British Hospital for Mothers and Babies]] in London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80008195|title=Edney, Patience Mary Gertrude (Oral history)|website=Imperial War Museums|language=en|access-date=2020-01-13}}</ref>
Darton volunteered her services as a nurse upon the outbreak of the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref name=":0" /> She arrived in Spain in February 1937 and worked in medical units at medical units in [[Aragón]], [[Brunete]], [[Teruel]] and [[Ebro]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Despite working in difficult conditions (including a hospital inside a cave during the Ebro offensive), Darton re-diagnosed incorrectly diagnosed patients, saving them with correct treatment.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
While in Spain, Darton met American writer [[Ernest Hemingway]] and English poet [[Stephen Spender]] and wrote in a letter of Hemingway: "He can't say what he wants to say and he talks just like his books, in bursts."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.albavolunteer.org/2012/07/patience-and-the-americans-an-english-nurse-in-spain/|title=An English nurse in Spain|last=Jackson|first=Angela|date=July 2, 2012|website=The Volunteers|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-13}}</ref> She fell in love with a German member of the International Brigades named Robert Aaquist; Aaquist was killed in 1938.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" />
She was evacuated from Spain with the rest of the [[International Brigades]] in October 1938.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sidbrint.ub.edu/es/content/darton-patience|title=Darton, Patience|website=SIDBRINT -- University of Barcelona|access-date=2020-01-13}}</ref>
Once back in London in 1938, Darton joined the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British Communist Party]].<ref name=":1" /> She would remain a committed member for the rest of her life.<ref name=":0" />
Darton taught specialized courses in war nursing and wound treatment during World War II for the [[London County Council]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> After World War II, she worked in famine relief for the newly-established [[United Nations]] Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA).<ref name=":0" />
Darton married British Communist Party official (and Brigade member) Eric Edney; the newlyweds traveled to China in 1949 to assist with the transition to socialism, but faced complications in their political task and were jailed for some time.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> She also worked for the [[Foreign Languages Press]].<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Darton gave birth to her son Robert while in China.<ref name=":0" /> The family returned to England in 1958.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mhcat.cat/enmhc/exhibitions/exhibition_history/beyond_the_trenches_1936_1939_photographs_by_alec_wainman/testimonis/els_testimonis_d_alec_wainman/patience_darton|title=Patience Darton|website=www.mhcat.cat|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-13}}</ref>
In November 1996, Darton travelled with other former International Brigade members to Madrid to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, where they received honorary Spanish citizenship. Darton died on 6 November 1996 while in Madrid.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Patience Edney: Great Exit for a Fighter|last=Barker, Dennis, and Shen Liknaitzky.|date=November 12, 1996|work=The Guardian|page=16}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
== Further reading ==
* [[Angela Jackson (writer)|Angela Jackson]], ''‘For us it was Heaven’:The Passion, Grief and Fortitude of Patience Darton from the Spanish Civil War to Mao’s China'' (Sussex, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2012). * {{NPG name|id=58681}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Darton, Patience}} [[Category:1911 births]] [[Category:1996 deaths]] [[Category:British women in World War II]] [[Category:British women nurses]] [[Category:Women wartime nurses]] [[Category:Foreign volunteers in the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)]] [[Category:Nurses from London]] [[Category:People from Orpington]] [[Category:20th-century British nurses]]