INDENT"To Mrs. Catchside, Commandant of the Northumberland 5th V.A. Hospital, Tynemouth, a silver Medal. On Thursday 28th October, 1915, at.10.30.a.m. a fire broke out in the Hospital at 44, Percy Gardens, Tynemouth and spread rapidly. Mrs Catchside at once superintended the rescue of the forty patients who were in the hospital at the time, and had them removed to adjoining premises. When the roll-call was taken, it was found that Private William Edwards, one of the patients, was missing, and Mrs. Catchside, learning that he was upstairs in the burning building, went up to the ward, where she found him helping the firemen, and brought him downstairs. At the time she went up, the roof had fallen in and the top floor was all ablaze; burning timber and refuse were falling down to the first and second floors, and the main chimneys looked like falling in. Throughout the whole time of the fire, as Commandant of the Hospital, Mrs. Catchside displayed great courage and bravery, especially so before the military or firemen arrived, when she had only the female nurses to assist her to get all the patients to safety out of the burning building.
Medal presented by the Sub-Prior at a Chapter-General on 3rd March, l916".

Extract from the Annual Report, Chapter-General, Order of St John, l916