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Doris Jaggar was born at Greatfield Road, Ossett on 30th August 1896 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 30th September of the same year. Doris was the fifth daughter and youngest of six children born to mungo manufacture Robert Pickersgill Jaggar and his wife Elizabeth Jane (nee Petch) between 1882 and 1896.All of the family, including twins Helen and Howard, were born in Ossett except Elizabeth who hailed from the North Riding. Robert and Elizabeth had married at Bagby near Thirsk in October 1881.
Joseph Jaggar, Robert’s brother built Perseverance Mill on Dewsbury Road in 1873 but the family presence there was to be short and the Mill was sold in pressing circumstances in 1881; the year of Robert’s marriage.
Workers at Jaggar’s Mill, Ossett. Courtesy of WMDC Libraries and Information Services
By 1901 the family had moved from Dale Street and were living at Greatfield Road. Sadly when Doris was just eleven years of age her father, Robert Pickersgill Jaggar of Greatfield House, Ossett died in May 1908 leaving a widow and six children, five of whom were daughters. By 1911 widow Elizabeth Jane and her only son, Howard were running the business and in that year four of her daughters, two of whom were secondary school teachers, were living with her at Greatfield.
On 4th August 1914 Great Britain declared war on the German Empire. On 10th July 1916, Doris’s sister, seven years her senior, Jessie Jaggar, aged 27, of Greatfield, Ossett, was engaged as a Volunteer Nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment and was posted to the Kitchener Hospital, Brighton.
No doubt following her sister’s example, on 20th March 1917, Doris was engaged as a nursing sister a position she held for the rest of the war, leaving on 28th February 1919. For that period Doris worked at St. John’s Auxiliary Military Hospital, Wentworth House, Wakefield (preceded by Clayton Hospital).
Doris may have had reason not to travel afar with the VAD, as had her sister Jessie, for on 10th December 1917 at Holy Trinity Church Ossett Doris Jaggar, aged 21 years, a spinster of Greatfield Ossett married George Albert Parker of Hanging Heaton, aged 25 years and a private in the Army Service Corps, Mechanical Transport.
Above: The former Wentworth House at Wakefield Girls High School.
The nature of the fighting during the Great War led to a huge number of injured soldiers and the existing Military medical facilities in the United Kingdom were soon overwhelmed. A solution had to be found quickly and many civilian hospitals were turned over to military use. As demand for beds grew, large buildings such as Universities and hotels were transformed into hospitals and wooden huts sprang up in hospital grounds and at army camps to cope with the huge numbers. Additional nursing staff were needed and this was met by a mixture of qualified nurses and volunteers. Doris Parker (nee Jaggar) was one of those volunteers.
By1939 Doris Parker, aged 43 years, was married and living at 94 Church Road Birmingham and working as a “speciality saleswoman”. Her husband, George Albert Parker died in November 1962. Doris Parker of 2 Regent Court, Grosvenor Hill, London SW19, died on 15th December 1975 and was buried at Ossett Holy Trinity Church on 19th December, aged 79 years.
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