Violet Mond, Baroness Melchett
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Violet Mond, Baroness Melchett, DBE was a British Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Her brother, Sigismund Goetze, was a painter, introduced Violet to the wealthy Mond family, which was of German Jewish descent. Violet charmed both the elder and younger Monds, and immediately accepted when Alfred Mond finally proposed. They married in 1892. She worked hard to promote her husband’s political career and used her influence with David Lloyd George to secure Alfred’s appointment to ministerial office in December 1916. As First Commissioner of Public Works, Sir Alfred Mond proposed the idea of a national war museum in February 1917. Lady Mond wished to play an active part in the success of this venture.
As a member of the Women’s Work Subcommittee, Lady Mond was asked to undertake the gathering of information on home hospitals. She appears to have been very diligent with regard to this responsibility, and drew up a questionnaire to be circulated. The fruits of this labour can be found in the BRCS section of the Women’s Work Collection.
In the autumn of 1914, Sir Alfred Mond had enthusiastically supported a scheme proposed by Herbert J. Paterson for a hospital for officers. Paterson had already been turned down by the Medical Authorities of the War Office, as they did not believe in his theory that really serious wounds could be cured without the trauma of amputation, given the right environmental conditions and care.
Reportedly, Mond took only two minutes to give the idea his assent and financial backing, and the Queen Alexandra's Hospital for Officers at Highgate was established. The hospital received nine hundred of the worst cases, and “its reputation and record were both noble and happy. Original surgical treatments were evolved and many officers owe the full use of their limbs to ... the care in convalescence at Melchet [sic] Court.”
Violet Mond had turned her country home into a sixty-bed convalescent hospital (for which she was awarded a DBE), and opened her London home to Belgian refugees.
She died in 1945.
