Margaret Purves facts for kids

Margaret Purves GC (née Vaughan; 25 November 1934 – 12 September 2021) was a British nurse who received the Albert Medal for an act of bravery when she was only 14 years old. In 1971, the Albert Medal was discontinued (along with the Edward Medal) and all living recipients were invited to exchange the award for the George Cross.

Early life

Margaret Vaughan was born in Cardiff, Wales. Her father James Boswell Vaughan was a Chief Superintendent of Cardiff City Police and her mother was Dorothy May Vaughan (née Powditch).

In 1949, Vaughan was awarded the Albert Medal after she saved a Boy Scout and his leader from a rough sea off the coast of Cardiff. Notice of the award was published in the London Gazette on 1 November 1949. She became one of the few living holders of the Albert Medal.

Later life

After leaving school, Margaret Vaughan trained as a nurse, and from 1957 served as an officer in the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. She married Captain John Watt Purves of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers at Llandaff Cathedral in 1961, six months after meeting him in a military hospital bed in Hanover.

In 1983 Purves and her husband retired from the army and settled at Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire, where she served on the town and county councils until 1989. She was the Referendum Party candidate in North Wiltshire at the 1997 election.

In 2016, the National Portrait Gallery purchased a portrait of Purves by photographer Rory Lewis for its permanent collection.