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Alida Gunst (née Demoine)

Place of birth: Belgium

Service: Housekeeper, refugee

Death: 1918/04/03, Llangwyfan sanatorium , Tuberculosis / Diciau

Notes: Alida arrived in London as a refugee from Belgium in October 1914. She was married to Arsène Dunst in Devon in January 1915. He was serving in the Belgian army, and had been wounded. They seem to have moved to Newport, where she may have worked as a housekeeper. She contracted TB, and was sent in December 1917 by Monmouthshire to Llangwyfan Sanatorium, Denbigh, where she died in April 1918. There was a dispute between the authorities in Newport and Denbigh as to who should pay for the burial.

Sources: https://refugeesinrhyl.wordpress.com/gunst/

Reference: WaW0433

Grave

Grave of Alida Gunst, Ystrad Road Cemetery, Denbigh.

Registration papers for Alida Dunst showing move from Newport to Llangwyfan 1917

Newspaper report

Report of Denbigh Town Council’s refusal to waive the fee for Alida’s burial.

Margaret Morris

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Widow, Mother, Munitions Worker

Death: --, Tawe Lodge, Swansea, Tuberculosis / Y diciau

Notes: Margaret Morris began work at NEF Pembrey after her soldier husband was killed in August 1916. There she is said to have contracted the tuberculosis from which she died. She left children aged 12, 8 and 2 and a half.

Reference: WaW0096

Death of Margaret Morris

Account of death of Margaret Morris, Cambrian Daily Leader 30 April 1919

Catherine J James

Place of birth: Llanelli

Service: Nurse, St Johns Ambulance

Death: 1919/12/04, Llanelli, Tuberculosis / Y diciáu

Memorial: Tabernacle Chapel, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire

Notes: Catherine was a member of the St John’s Ambulance. She served throughout the War, first in Porthcawl and then in Stebonheath, Llanelli (where she may have contracted the TB that killed her aged 28.) Her name appears on the war memorial plaque in Tabernacl Chapel, Llanelli.

Sources: https://www.wwwmp.co.uk/carmarthenshire-memorials/llanelli-tabernacl-chapel-war-memorial

Reference: WaW0404

War Memorial

Catherine James’s name on the memorial plaque in Tabernacl Chapel, Llanelli.

Ethel Annie Llewelyn

Place of birth: Beaufort

Service: Nurse, 1914 - 1918

Death: 13/04/1921, Llangwyfan Welsh National Memorial Sanatorium, Tuberculosis/Twbercwlosis

Memorial: St David’s Church, Beaufort, Brecknockshire

Notes: Born 1895, Ethel was the daughter of the Vicar of Beaufort. She worked at the Welsh Hospital, Netley, Southampton. It may have been there that she contracted TB. She was buried in Llangwfan churchyard.

Sources: http://firstworldwar.gwentheritage.org.uk/content/catalogue_item/ethel-annie-llewelyn-memorial-plaque

Reference: WaW0161

Memorial, St David’s Church, Beaufort.

Memorial to Ethel Annie Llewelyn

Mabel Dearmer

Place of birth: Llanbleblig, 1872

Service: Volunteer, Red Cross/Y Groes Goch

Death: 1915-07-11, Serbia, Typhus/Pneumonia Teiffws/ Niwmonia

Notes: Mabel Dearmer, born 1872, was a successful writer, dramatist and illustrator of adult and children’s books. She and her husband the Rev Percy Dearmer were both pacifists and supporters of the Church League for Women’s Suffrage. When her husband accepted a post as chaplain to the British Red Cross in Serbia, she volunteered to go too, and died in July 1915. Her letters home were published posthumously as ‘Letters from a Field Hospital’.

Sources: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/untoldlives/2014/08/mabel-dearmer-in-serbia.html https://www.amazon.com/Letters-field-hospital-Mabel-Dearmer/dp/117677140X#reader_117677140X

Reference: WaW0092

Mabel Dearmer's grave, left.

Grave, on the left, of Mabel Dearmer, Kragujevac Central Cemetery, Serbia

Mabel Dearmer

Mabel’s photograph was collected by the Women’s Subcommittee of the Imperial War Museum as part of its collection of women who died during the War

Book illustration

One of Mabel Dearmer’s characteristic children’s book illustrations, 1901rnrn

Stobart Hospital Staff List

List of the staff of the Stobart Hospital, Kragujevac, Serbia. ‘Dearmer, Mrs Percy’ is listed under ‘Women Orderlies’ and her husband The Rev Dr P Dearmer is the Hon Chaplain. Emily Hill [qv] is listed under ‘Nursing Sisters.

Margaret (Maggie) Mary Evans

Place of birth: Pwllheli ?

Service: Nurse, VAD, March 1914 – July 1918 / Maw

Death: 1918/07/20, RN Hospital, Plymouth, Ubknown / Anysbys

Memorial: War Memorial, Pwllheli, Caernarvonshire

Notes: Maggie Evans volunteered part-time for the VAD until 1917, when she was posted to the RC Hospital Porthmadoc, and then in 1918 to the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth where she died. A letter about Maggie’s death from Mildred Lloyd Hughes [qv] the Sister in charge was published in Yr Udgorn 7th August 1918 (in English).

Reference: WaW0176