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Arvona (Fona) Powell Jones

Place of birth: Gorseinon July 10th, 1913

Service: Small child

Notes: Fona confirmed her address and date of birth: July 10th, 1913. She recalled a story about her mother during the First World War asking her, because her father had received call-up papers, ‘You don’t want your father to go to war do you? She replied’ ‘Oh! Yes!’, because she had seen her uncle, who was at sea, in a uniform with a whistle around his neck. She thought therefore that her father would have a uniform and a whistle too. So she was delighted at the prospect of her father dressed in a uniform and whistle. But she remembers her mother’s face falling. ‘Oh! She was terribly disappointed that I had said that I wanted my father to go to war.’ But her father worked in the steelworks and since steel was required during the war he worked there for the duration of the war. Her parent’s names were Mary Ann Powell and Richard Jones; her father came from Cydweli and her mother was local to Gorseinon area. Her father had worked in the steelworks in Cydweli too. She also talks of her uncle, Brynmor, who was in the navy and who hated the war. At the end of the war he gave his navy clothes to her mother and told her to do what she wanted with them. She made Fona a dress from the bell-bottoms – they were of serge and added flowers etc onto it. She wore it all the time – to chapel and all. This was when she was about 5-6 years old. She remembers wearing it and swinging of a tree branch in it. Her mother’s brother (Tom in 1915 according to the family’s family tree)) died of typhoid in Crystal Palace during the war and she has a photograph of a wedding during the war with the men dressed in black in memory of him. Another of her mother’s brothers (Baden) was called up but when he arrived at the mess plates were being thrown all over the place. The Armistice – peace agreement had just been signed. And that’s all he saw of the war. Fona also recalled how, for the duration of the war, her mother removed a model of an eagle which was on top of the family’s grandfather clock and stored it away in a drawer, because it was a reminder and symbol of Germany. After the war it was restored to its place on top of the clock! ‘Memory is a strange thing isn’t it.

Sources: fona_jones_gorseinon.wave_sound

Reference: WaW0075

Fona Jones bottom left (blurred) at family wedding.

A family wedding showing a blurred Fona Jones, bottom left. The women were all dressed in mourning for Fona's uncle Tom, who had died in 1915.

Mary Anne Jones née Powell c.1905

Fona Jones's mother Mary Anne Jones née Powell as a young woman.

Lily Tobias (Shepherd)

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Writer, activist, nationalist

Notes: Lily was the daughter of Russian Jewish parents who had fled Russia to avoid conscription, and settled first in Swansea and then in Ystalyfera; she was the first of their children to be born in Wales. She began writing for Lais Llafur at 14, and was heavily involved in suffrage, ILP and pacifist activities. Her brothers were conscientious objectors. She was described by the Labour politician Fenner Brockway as “an active and belligerent pacifist… showing great resourcefulness and courage in defying the authorities and assisting draft dodgers, and those in prison”. She later took up the cause of the establishment of a Jewish state, and wrote several novels.

Sources: Jasmine Donahaye The Greatest Need: The creative life and troubled times of Lily Tobias, a Welsh Jew in Palestine. Honno 2015 https://wciavoices.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/the-shepherd-family-of-ystalyfera-and-pontypridd-in-the-first-world-war

Reference: WaW0245

Lily Tobias

Lily Tobias, activist and author

Doris Quane

Place of birth: Isle of Man

Service: Worker, QMAAC

Memorial: War Grave, Boddelwyddan, Denbighshire

Notes: aged 28; buried St Michel's Ammanford

Sources: http://www.flintshirewarmemorials.com/memorials/bodelwyddan-memorial/canadians-2/quane-doris/

Reference: WaW0047

War grave of Doris Quane

War Grave of Doris Quane, QMAAC, surrounded by the graves of Canadian soldiers

Hannah Rees

Service: Nurse, VAD

Memorial: Capel y Garn Memorial Roll, Rhydypennau, Cardiganshire

Notes: seems to have served and survived

Reference: WaW0048

Capel y Garn

Name of Hannah Rees, VAD, Bronceiro, who served in the War. Capel y Garn

Rebecca Rees

Service: Nurse, VAD

Memorial: Capel y Garn Memorial Roll, Rhydypennau, Cardiganshire

Notes: seems to have served and survived

Reference: WaW0049

Capel y Garn

Name of Rebecca Rees, VAD, Bronceiro, who served in the War. Capel y Garn

Red Cross card

Red Cross record card for Rebecca Rees

Red Cross card (reverse)

Red Cross record card for Rebecca Rees

Mimmi (Sarah) Richards

Service: Mother

Notes: Mother, Mimmi (Sarah) and sister, Edith, to her left, at Tom’s graveside, c.1920; Gunner Thomas Sidney Richards,‘killed in action’, Armentieres, France, 14 March 1918, aged 20 in northern France, c. 1920

Reference: WaW0079

Sarah (Mimmi) and Edith Richards

Photograph of Mimmi (Sarah) and Edith Richards, Mother and sister of Gunner Thomas Sidney Richards, at his grave in France, c.1920; Tom Richards was ‘killed in action’, Armentieres, France

Thomas Richards

Tom Richards was ‘killed in action’, Armentieres, France

Edith Richards

Service: Sister

Reference: WaW0080

Edith and Mimmi (Sarah) Richards

Photograph of Edith and Mimmi (Sarah) Richards, Mother and sister of Gunner Thomas Sidney Richards, at his grave in France, c.1920; Tom Richards was ‘killed in action’, Armentieres,France

Thomas Richards

Tom Richards was ‘killed in action’, Armentieres, France

Charlotte Emma (Lottie) Roberts

Place of birth: Abergwyngregyn near Bangor, 1883

Service: Nurse, VAD, 1914 - 1919

Notes: Charlotte (Lottie) Roberts joined the VAD in August 1914. After a period nursing in Lincoln she was posted to Calais in June 1916. She was so proud of her uniform that she chose wear it for her wedding in London 1919 or 20. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross.

Reference: WaW0099

Lottie Roberts VAD

Lottie Roberts in VAD uniform

Lottie Roberts VAD

Lottie Roberts in outdoor VAD uniform

Lottie Roberts wedding

Lottie's Wedding to F W Baker 1919/20

Royal Red Cross medal

photograph of Lottie's Royal Red Cross medal

Gwenllian Elizabeth Roberts

Place of birth: Llangynidr

Service: Sister, QAIMNS Reserve

Notes: Gwenllian Roberts was awarded the Royal Red Cross for her services at the Central Military Hospital, Chatham, Kent.

Reference: WaW0115

Gwenllian Elizabeth Roberts

Sister Gwenllian Elizabeth Roberts QAIMNSR wearing her Royal Red Cross medal

Gwenllian Roberts’s Royal Red Cross

Sister Gwenllian Roberts’s Royal Red Cross, awarded August 5th 1919.

Edinburgh Gazette listing Sister Roberts’s award

Edinburgh Gazette listing Sister Roberts’s award, August 5th 1919 (8th in the right hand column).

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of Sister Roberts’s award, Llais Llafur25th October 1919.

Gertrude Rosewarne

Place of birth: Ebbw Vale

Service: Nurse, VAD

Notes: Gertrude Rosewarne was working as a pupil teacher in 1911. She joined the VAD early in the War, first in Abergavenny and then in Ebbw Vale. She collected entries by many of her patients in her autograph album.

Reference: WaW0100