![](\"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220117_141203-142x300.jpg\")
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nDuffin was best known for her work as a nurse and was a grandaughter of United Irishman, doctor, radical, author and poet William Drennan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Born on 8th November 1883, she was a daughter of Adam and Maria Duffin of 26 University Square, Belfast. Her father was a stockbroker and businessman and served in the first government of Northern Ireland as a Senator before his death in 1924.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emma\u2019s was educated by a governess and several German Frauleins. At 16, she then studied at Cheltenham Ladies\u2019 College, Gloucestershire, England and Churchill College, Shrewsbury, England.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After this, as a keen artist she attended Belfast Art College and illustrated children\u2019s\u2019 books and poetry anthologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1911, Emma spent a year working as a Governess in Pomerania, Germany where she learnt fluent German.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the Great War, she enlisted as a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment. She served in Alexandria, Egypt for six months in 1915-16 and then for two years on the Western Front at military hospitals in Le Havre and Calais, France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the outbreak of the Second World War, Duffin became a Commandant of the Voluntary Aid Detachment in Belfast. She managed 100 volunteer nurses based at Stranmillis Military Hospital, Belfast. She kept a diary during this time and recorded in detail the events and aftermath of the Belfast Blitz in April and May 1941.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After spending her later years at the family home in Newcastle, County Down, she died on 31 January 1979, aged 95 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her grave is in St. Colman\u2019s Cemetery, Newcastle, Co. Down next to her sisters Dorothea, Sylvia, and Celia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the 2017 commemoration of International Women\u2019s Day, the Ulster History Circle unveiled a blue plaque for Emma Duffin at her former University Square home in south Belfast. Duffin was best known for her work as a nurse and was a grandaughter of United Irishman, doctor, radical, author and poet William Drennan. Born on 8th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-34"],"blocksy_meta":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/20220117_141203-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drtomstours.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}