Tributes to a much-loved Horsham midwife

Ann O’Donoghue died at Worthing Hospital - where her nursing career first started - on November 13.

She first came to Horsham in 1971 and worked at Horsham Maternity Unit, running it until it closed in 1985.

She then became a community midwife in the town - delivering hundreds of babies - until she retired in 2001.

Fondly referred to as Sister O’D, Ann carried on working after retirement and was a bank nurse at Park Surgery, mainly doing flu clinics and dementia reviews, until a couple of years ago.

Even then, she carried on working looking after an elderly lady until January this year.

Daughter Claire said: “She was a well known figure in the Horsham area and was always stopped by former patients when she was out, which she loved.”

Ann was born on January 21 1941 at the Windmill Inn, LIttleworth, and at the age of 11 moved to her uncle’s farm in Bines Common.

She attended Steyning Grammar school where she became head girl.

Ann decided she wanted to be a nurse and went to Worthing Hospital to do her training. She started as a cadet nurse in 1956, finally qualifying in 1960.

In 1962 she decided she wanted to be a midwife, doing her part 1 training in Taplow and her Part 2 in Cuckfield, later moving to Horsham’s Maternity Unit.

Ann was known for her sense of mischief and loved playing tricks on the fathers as they awaited the births of their children.

On one occasion in 1977 during a foot and mouth outbreak, she placed buckets of Dettol outside the wards and made the expectant dads take off their shoes and socks and put their feet in the buckets.

At Christmas she was known for dressing up, anything from Po to Lady Godiva, raising money for St Catherine’s Hospice along the way.

as well as daughter Claire, Ann leaves son Simon and grandchildren Holly and James.