Unusually virtuous nurses died, though not at first (5)
I believe the answer is:
oddly
'unusually' is the definition.
(both can mean strangely)
'died though not at first' is the wordplay.
'died' becomes 'd' (abbreviation next to the year of someone's death).
'though' becomes 'dly' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'not' becomes 'o' (I've seen this in other clues).
'at first' says to put letters next to each other.
'd'+'dly'='ddly'
'ddly' after 'o' is 'ODDLY'.
'virtuous nurses' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for oddly that I've seen before include "In a peculiar way" , "Unusually" , "Strangely, curiously" , "This clue [32A] is not numbered so" , "in a curious way" .)