Brackley Care Home honours very special nurse on International Nurses Day

Delia's devotion to duty, which also saw her caring for elderly people convalescing following discharge from the Horton Hospital, in Banbury, led to her being made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours list on her retirement.

It was fitting that when Brackley Care Home opened in 2020, in the town’s Wellington Road, a public appeal for suggestions led to its nursing and residential units being named the Delia Frost Suite.

Now, to further honour her, the Kingsley Healthcare home hosted a grand afternoon tea and entertainment for the local community on the occasion of International Nurses Day.

The home’s Customer Relations Manager, Julie Wilson, said: “We invited anyone from the community who had any connection to Delia Frost and had a great turnout and it was wonderful to see how loved Delia was. We are furthermore blessed to have our very own "Delia baby" in Nicky Andrews who was born in 1971 and is our Hospitality Host at Brackley Care Home."

One of Brackley Care Home’s current residents, Marian Frost - no relation - became a friend of Delia’s when she moved to the town from South Yorkshire in 1996.

She had decided to start going to St Peter’s Church and, on her first visit, the Rev Canon Peter Woodward introduced her to “another Frost in my congregation”.

She recalled Delia had made her very welcome as a new parishioner, inviting her to her home for coffee and for Bible readings; they went on to become as close as sisters.

She said: “Delia wanted to be a member of the Mother’s Union but thought she could not join as she was not a mother. I was determined Delia would be able to join, particularly as she had delivered most of the babies born in Brackley, but sadly she passed away before it could happen.”

The Rev Canon Woodward was a guest of honour at the event. At Delia’s funeral he had given a moving eulogy, describing her as “surely one of the best nurses ever known”.

“She had such a gentle manner, so wonderful with people, and a special rapport with animals too, her dog, her cat and all the others,” he said.

Ahead of International Nurses Day, the home’s activities coordinator, Barbara Foley, had appealed to the public for recollections of Delia and many people came forward with fond memories.

Caryl Billingham, former vice-chairman of Brackley Hospital Trust, which ran the cottage hospital, wrote: “I do remember Delia Frost coming to Brackley to nurse at “the Cottage” in the company of Rosemary Miles who was a Sister there. Both of them were, I believe, Northamptonshire ladies. They shared a bungalow in Westminster Crescent and had a poodle named Rosie who used to accompany them to the hospital and patrol the corridors. Things were different at that time.”

Philipa MacMahon worked with Delia at Brackley Cottage Hospital and although she was a District Nurse rather than a midwife, she recalled delivering one baby with her.

She recalled: “I remember the lovely cottage hospital feel that Brackley had. When attending the birth with Delia she said to me just before the baby was born, ‘would you get the table cloth ready please’. I was puzzled but then a cloth was produced that was not a table cloth but the swaddling to wrap the baby in.”