Miss Olive Dent

Olive Annie Dent was born on July 4, 1884, in Trimdon, County Durham, England, to Mary Anne and Abraham Dent, a chief engineer at a colliery. She had four sisters, Ethel Jane, Lydia Richardson, Laura Elizabeth, and Vera Dorothea. 

Before becoming a journalist, Dent was an elementary school teacher in the village of Kelloe, County Durham. She joined the Society of Women Journalists in July of 1913; she was proposed for membership by the editor of the Yorkshire Post. Following the outbreak of WWI, she enrolled in the British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment and was stationed at the No. 12 General B. E. F. Hospital in Rouen, France. In 1917, she published A V.A.D in France, a memoir of her experiences as a nurse at the Front. Portions of her memoir had previously appeared in the Daily Mail, Evening News, Yorkshire Evening Post, and The Lady. In recognition of her military service, Dent was awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.

After Dent returned to England, she worked as a journalist for the Associated Newspaper Company in London. She died on March 22, 1930, at the age of 45.