Ethel Hodgens

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Nurse, VAD, November 1914 – May 1919 / T

Notes: After an initial few months as a part-time volunteer, Ethel worked, paid, in military hospitals: one year at Oxford, then from May 1916 in Camiers, Tréport and Rouen, all in France. She worked until June 1919, and was mentioned in despatches in January 1918. She was 24 when she joined the Red Cross.

Reference: WaW039

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Ethel Hodgens.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Red Cross card for Ethel Hodgens, showing her service in England and France [reverse].

Newspaper report

Brief report of Ethel Hodgens’s mention in despatches. Cambria Daily Leader 5th January 1918.

Marie Beckers

Place of birth: Belgium

Service: Teacher, refugee

Notes: Marie Becker was one of the Belgian refugees hosted in Holywell, and seems to have been a spokeswomen for the group. Her appointment to teach the Belgian children at Holywell County School was reported in the English and Welsh press.

Reference: WaW0399

Newspaper report

Report of Marie Becker’s appointment at Holywell County School. Flintshire Observer 21st January 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of Marie Beckers's appointment at Holywell County School. Y Brython 21st January 1915.

Lilian Eva Rees

Place of birth: Cardiff

Service: Rugby player, munitions worker

Notes: Lilian played rugby for Cardiff Ladies, a team mate of Maria Eley [qv] and probably a co-worker.

Sources: https://cardiffrugbymuseum.org/articles/earliest-photograph-women%E2%80%99s-team

Reference: WaW0397

Lilian Eva Rees

Lilian is sitting between Maria Eley (middle row seated left) and the Captain E Kitson (holding ball). The photograph was almost certainly taken on 15th December 1917.

Newspaper report

Advertisement for the match between Newport Ladies and Cardiff Ladies, 15th December 1917. Western Morning News.

Newspaper report

Cutting giving the score of the match played on 15th December 1917. Source not known.

E Kitson

Place of birth: Cardiff

Service: Munitions worker and rugby player

Notes: E Kitson captained Cardiff Ladies. She was a team mate of Lilian Rees [qv] and Maria Eley [qv] and probably a co-worker.

Sources: https://cardiffrugbymuseum.org/articles/earliest-photograph-women%E2%80%99s-team

Reference: WaW0398

E Kitson

E Kitson is sitting in the middle of the photograph holding the ball.

Newspaper report

Advertisement for the match between Newport Ladies and Cardiff Ladies, December 1917

Press cutting

Cutting giving the score of the match between Newport Ladies and Cardiff Ladies, December 1917. Source not known.

Fannie A Jones

Place of birth: Anglesey

Service: Nurse, VAD

Notes: Fannie’s VAD record is rather peculiar. According to her card (which has had the initial changed from F to E), she joined the VAD in January 1916 and worked for 1 hour. However it does say she has worked at Fazackerley War Hospital in Liverpool, and the North Wales Chronicle for 23rd March 1917 records her award of the Royal Red Cross.

Reference: WaW0403

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Fannie Jones, showing the change of F to E.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

‘No more information’

Newspaper report

Report of award of Royal Red Cross to Fannie Jones. North Wales Chronicle 23rd March 1917

Sarah Annie Evans (later Kyght)

Place of birth: Carmarthen

Service: Nurse, TFNS, 1914 - 1919

Notes: Annie, both of whose parents worked for the Carmarthen Poor Law Union, became a pupil teacher at 13. She later trained as a nurse at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and joined the TFNS. At the outbreak of war, Bristol RI became a military hospital. Annie was posted to Egypt in October 1915, and was then transferred to HMHS Braemar Castle in April 1916, where she remained until it was struck by a mine in the Aegean Sea on 23rd November. No lives were lost, but she spent some time in the sea. She spent the rest of the war in France, where she rose to the rank of Sister. She was discharged from the TFNS, with glowing references, in 1919, and returned to Bristol Royal Infirmary – they would be ‘very pleased to have her back again’. She gave up nursing and the TFNS when she married Bert Kyght in 1923.

Reference: WaW0394

Newspaper report

Report of Sarah’s departure for Egypt. Carmarthen Journal 29th October 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of Sarah’s career, published when she was home on leave. Carmarthen Journal 29th November 1918.

Letter

Letter from Sarah Annie Evans claiming her right to the 1914-1915 star, written in 1920.

Ethel Vaughan Owen

Place of birth: Llanidloes

Service: Nurse, VAD

Notes: Ethel, a doctor’s daughter, joined the VAD in 1915. Her service included postings to the Hospital Ship Britannia and to Valletta Hospital, Malta, where she became seriously ill with dysentery, but recovered. Many did not. rn

Reference: WaW0402

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Red cross card for Ethel Vaughan Owen, showing her overseas service.rn

Report of Ethel Vaughan Owen’s award of a Red Cross stripe.

Red Cross record card

Red cross card for Ethel Vaughan Owen.

Alice M Bale

Service: Teacher

Notes: Alice Bale was the first head of the Infants Department of Marlborough Road School when it opened in 1900. She retired in 1924. In 1918 she was elected as one of the three headteacher members of the Welsh University Court.

Reference: WaW0407

Newspaper report

Report of Alice Bale’s election to the Welsh University Court. Llangollen Advertiser 15th March 1918rn

Marlborough Road School

Architect’s drawing of the new Marlborough Road School. Western Mail 12th January 1900.

Sarah Jenkins

Place of birth: Pwll y Glaw, Cwmavon

Service: Cook, WAAC, 1918/01/15 – 1919/11/12

Notes: Sarah was 22 when she joined the WAAC. She may at some time have worked as a tin-plate worker though her WAAC records say she was a baker. Sarah spent most of her service as Assistant Cook, later Cook, at the Shirehampton Remount Depot, Bristol. The Depot handled thousands of horses and mules. Each animal was kept for two or three weeks and tested for disease. The aim was to get the animals clean and fit, ready for training and service. Of the 339,601 horses and mules that went through the Depot, only 13,811 came back after the war. Thanks to Bev Gulley.

Sources: National Archives

Reference: WaW0405

Elsie Chamberlain (née Cooil)

Place of birth: Liverpool

Service: Teacher, mother, local politician

Notes: Elsie with her family moved from Liverpool to Bangor when she was five. After finishing school, she became a teacher in local schools. Charlotte Price White [qv], the well-known local suffragist, told her ‘You have the ability to do public work and it is your duty to serve the citizens of Bangor’. She became involved in many war-time committees, and stood, unsuccessfully, in the municipal elections of 1919, finally becoming a councillor in 1930 and the first woman mayor of Bangor between 1941 and 1943. Elsie was the mother of the artist and writer Brenda Chamberlain, and died in 1972.

Sources: Jill Percy: Brenda Chamberlain, Artist and Writer (Parthian Books 2013)

Reference: WaW0409

Elsie Chamberlain

Elsie Chamberlain as first woman Mayor of Bangor, 1941 - 3

Newspaper article

Report of a housing exhibition organised by the Bangor branch of the National Council of Women, including Mrs Chamberlain. North Wales Chronicle 15th August 1919

Newspaper report

Report of the municipal elections in Bangor. North Wales Chronicle 24th October 1919