Dame Katharine Furse, ( Symonds; 23 November 1875 – 25 November 1952) was a British nursing and military administrator. She led the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment force during the First World War, and served as the inaugural Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service (1917–19). Furse was also the first Director of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (1928–38). Early life and family Furse was born in Bristol, England, on 23 November 1875, the daughter of poet and critic John Addington Symonds and Janet Catherine North. Her aunt was the painter Marianne North. Educated by governesses and her mother, Furse spent most of her early life in Switzerland and Italy. In the last quarter of 1900, Furse married the painter Charles Wellington Furse at St George's, Hanover Square, London; her husband died in October 1904 aged 36, leaving her with two young sons: Peter Reynolds Furse, b. Farnham, Q4 1904 and Paul Furse, b. Farnham, Q4 1904. Military career In 1909 Furse joined the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment attached to the Territorial Army. In 1911, she was lodging with Lucy Cane and family at 66 Elm Park Gardens, Chelsea. On the outbreak of the First World War she was chosen to head the first Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) unit to be sent to France. Furse realised that the existing number of nurses would prove totally inadequate to deal with the enormous amount of work which might be expected, and in September 1914 she proceeded to France with a number of assistants, these forming the nucleus of the VAD force. In January 1915 she returned to England, and the VAD work was then officially recognised as a department of the Red Cross organisation and she was placed in charge of the VAD Department in London. She received the Royal Red Cross and was named a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1916, and was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in June 1917. Although she considered it a great success being head of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, Furse was unhappy about her lack of power to introduce reforms. In November 1917, she and several of her senior colleagues resigned due to a dispute over the living conditions of the VAD volunteers and the Red Cross refusal to co-ordinate with the Woman's Army