Etheldreda Morris

Place of birth: Penbryn

Service: Chief Lady Welfare Superintendent , NEF Pembrey

Notes: Etheldreda, the daughter of the Welsh poet Lewis Morris, was awarded the MBE for her work at Pembrey, in a letter signed by Winston Churchill, who was Minister for Munitions 1917 – 1919.

Reference: WaW0147

Etheldreda Morris

Etheldreda Morris (reverse)

Letter

Letter signed by Winston Churchill awarding Etheldreda Morris the MBE. May 1918.

Gwenllian Morris

Place of birth: Aberystwyth ?

Service: Nurse, TFNS, 1914 - 1918

Notes: Gwenllian Morris was district nurse in Holywell, then Aberystwyth. She was posted to a military hospital in St Malo with the French Red Cross in October 1914. She contracted diphtheria while there, but recovered and volunteered to join the Serbian Relief Fund Hospital in 1915. Her unit worked in Malta and the Dardanelles before arriving in Serbia. They were captured in the winter of 1915/16 by the Austrian/Bulgarian army , but continued to work mainly with typhus patients. It is not known when she came back to Britain, but she received her war medals in 1921 (on the card, she is described as being a Sister with the 2nd British Farmers Unit – a mystery.*)
*The mystery about the British Farmers Unit has been solved by Nigel Callaghan, to whom many thanks. ‘I've sort-of explained the comment about Gwenllian Morris's record referring to her as British Farmers Unit. It really existed. There were at least two, and were funded by money raised by farmers (British Farmers Red Cross Fund), and were in Serbia in 1915.’

Reference: WaW0258

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Gwenllian Morris.

Newspaper article

Article about Gwenllian Morris’s work in France. Flintshire Observer 19 November 1914.

Newspaper article

Article about Gwenllian Morris’s work with the Serbian relief Fund. Flintshire Observer 19th August 1915.

Newspaper article and photograph

Illustrated report of Gwenllian Morris’s time in Serbia including her captivity. Cambrian News 11th February 1916.

Medal card

Medal card for Gwenllian Morris, giving her unit as 2nd British Farmers Unit.

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

Gweneth Kate Moy Evans

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Clerk, Sandycroft, NEF Queensferry, 1916 - 1918

Notes: Gweneth was appointed a clerk at the Labour Exchange attached to the National Explosives Factory, Queensferry, without having to sit the usual Civil Service examination. She had previously worked in the Labour Exchange in Neath. Gweneth was awarded the MBE in June 1918.rnrn

Reference: WaW0366

Edinburgh Gazette

Notice of Gweneth Moy Evans’s appointment as clerk. The Edinburgh Gazette, September 12, 1916.

Newspaper report

Report of Gweneth Moy Evans’s award of MBE. Amman Valley Chronicle 13th June 1918.

Edinburgh Gazette

Announcement of Gweneth Moy Evans’s award of MBE. The Edinburgh Gazette June 19th 1918.

Mary Edith Nepean (née Bellis)

Place of birth: Llandudno

Service: Novelist, artist, columnist, VAD Commandant, VAD, 1914 - 1919

Death: 1960, Llandudno ?, Cause not known

Memorial: St Tudnos Church, Llandudno, Caernarfon

Notes: Edith Nepean was born in 1876; her father John Bellis was Overseer of the Poor in Llandudno. She was a talented artist, winning a silver medal at the National Eisteddfod in Caernarfon, 1894, as well as painting and literary prizes at local eisteddfodau. She married Molyneux Edward Nepean in 1899 and moved to SE England. In 1914 she was appointed Commandant of the Folkestone Detachment of the Red Cross, a post she held until 1919. She published her first romantic novel, ‘Gwyneth of the Welsh Hills’ in 1917. This was turned into a silent film in 1921. This was followed by ‘Welsh Love’ and many other similar titles. She also wrote for contemporary film magazines.

Sources: https://womenandsilentbritishcinema.wordpress.com/the-women/edith-nepean\r\n http://historypoints.org/index.php?page=grave-of-mary-edith-nepean

Reference: WaW0269

Edith Nepean

Edith Nepean c 1930

Newspaper report

Report of Edith Bellis’s success in the 1894 Eisteddfod. The Weekly News and Visitors Chronicle 20th July 1894

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card detailing Edith Nepean’s service.

Gwyneth of the Welsh Hills

Edith’s first novel, Gwyneth of the Welsh Hills. Lloyd George is said to have encouraged her writing.

Newspaper publicity

Publicity for Edith’s novel Welsh Love. Cambria Daily Leader 17 September 1919.

Picture Show Annual 1932

Some of Edith Nepean’s writing about film, 1932.

Ethel Nicholas

Place of birth: not known

Service: Landgirl

Notes: Ethel received a Distinguished Service Bar of the Land Army for her quick thinking in saving the leg, and probably life, of a farmer caught in farm machinery.

Reference: WaW0343

Ethel Nicholas

Photograph of Ethel Nicholas. Landswoman February 1919

Newspaper report

Report – ‘A Plucky Land Girl’. Cambrian News 10th January 1919. An identical report appeared in the Abergavenny Chronicle.

Not knowm / Anhysbys

Place of birth: South Wales

Service: Brickmaker

Notes: This young woman moulding silica clay bricks was photographed for the Employment of Women collection at the newly established Imperial War Museum, c 1917.

Reference: WaW0184

Brickmaker

Young woman moulding bricks

Not known / Anhysbys

Service: Munitions worker

Notes: The identity of this young munitions worker in uniform is unknown.

Reference: WaW0177

Munitions worker

Unknown young munitions worker

Not known / Anhysbys

Place of birth: South Wales

Service: Brickmaker

Notes: This young woman puddling silica clay was photographed for the Employment of Women collection at the newly established Imperial War Museum, c.1917.

Reference: WaW0182

Brickmaker

Young woman puddling clay

Not known / Anhysbys

Place of birth: South Wales

Service: Brickmaker

Notes: This young woman puddling silica clay was photographed for the Employment of Women collection at the newly established Imperial War Museum, c 1917.

Reference: WaW0183

Brickmaker

Young women puddling clay