page_title: Constance Watney
section_title: Missionary work in Uganda
hierarchical_section_title: Constance Watney / Missionary work in Uganda
caption_attribution_description: English: The MBE awarded in 1918 to Jerome Bernhard Murphy, manager of Cunard Line's office in Queenstown, Ireland (present-day Cobh), during the sinking of the Lusitania by a German submarine.
context_page_description: Constance Watney, MBE, COC, SRN, MBCN, was a British born missionary nurse in Uganda.
context_section_description: In 1908 Constance was accepted by the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S.) and sent out to Kampala, Uganda, where she worked in the Mengo Hospital, under Dr Sir Albert Ruskin Cook. In 1917 Mengo hospital, in addition to its missionary work, served as a base hospital for the fighting in East Africa, and for her share of the very heavy work, "Sister Connie", as she was called, received the MBE in 1918. 
  For nursing an official of the Belgian Government, Sister Connie was awarded the very rare honour of Croix de l’Ordre de la Couronne (Order of the Crown (Seventh Class).
  In May 1921, Watney joined Dr Algernon Stanley Smith (who had been brought up by Constance's maiden aunts, Alice and Emily Watney in South Croydon after the death of his mother when he was only one year old) and Dr Len Sharp at Kabale, southwest Uganda, where they a new beginning was made for missionary work into Ruanda, in Belgian territory.  She helped to start a hospital at a place called Kabira, where she was the first matron, under very difficult conditions and they were able to receive the first patient in June 1922.  The first building had 12 beds but then expanded to 50 when the hospital was officially opened in 1922. In 1923 there were 73 beds for men, 40 for women; in that year they had 705 inpatients and conducted 181 operations.
caption: In 1918 Mengo hospital, in addition to its missionary work, served as a base hospital for the fighting in East Africa, and for her share of the very heavy work “ Sister Connie,” as she was called, received the MBE
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "DSC-HX100V", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "PaintShop Photo Pro 13,00", "Image DateTime": "2012:04:05 21:30:52", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "986", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7328", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:03:21 15:10:59", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:03:21 15:10:59", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "-407/320", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "24/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1667", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3610", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "844", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}