Little Woolstone Great Woolstone Olde Map Woolstones History William Smith
Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison was from Hauxwell, North Yorkshire. Her father was an overbearing and unpleasant man. Dorothy desperately wanted to nurse and join Florence Nightingale's 'Sisters of Mercy', however her father wouldn't allow it. A local curate, James Tate wanted to marry her, but again her father forbade it and although they became secretly engaged, Dorothy eventually ended the relationship.
In 1860 Dorothy's mother died and she saw that as an opportunity to move away . She saw the advertisement for a school mistress at a new school in the village of Little Woolstone, in Buckinghamshire, and decided to apply.

Dorothy was successful in her application for position as school mistress. She stayed at The Rectory as a house guest of Rev Hill until the school house was ready. During her time as school mistress in Little Woolstone she was well liked. She spent most of her spare time either nursing the sick in the village or studying Florence Nightingale's 'Notes on Nursing'.

One night whilst she was out nursing in the village, someone stole her silver teaspoons and teapot. Dorothy was distraught, not so much at the loss, but at the thought that anyone could do such a thing. Shortly afterwards she became ill with pleurisy and went to Redcar to recover. She became re-engaged to James Tate, but this time the engagement ended because his parents objected.

Miss Pattison, as she was known to the Woolstone villagers, decided after these events, that she would leave Little Woolstone and in 1864 joined the Sisterhood of the Good Samaritan as Sister Dora, in Redcar.

The following year she was put in charge of a hospital in Walsall. She followed Florence Nightingale's nursing techniques as well as using some of her own. During the smallpox epidemic she was made superintendent of the Walsall Municipal Hospital. Sadly her nursing career only lasted about 14 years as she fell ill again and died on Christmas Eve 1878 aged 46.

A plaque in her memory was hung in the Holy Trinity Church, Little Woolstone.