Fannie Thomas

Place of birth: Dolgellau

Service: Teacher, Suffragette, Councillor

Notes: Born in 1868, one of six children of an accountant at the National Provincial Bank, Fannie Thomas was a teacher, suffragette, and from1895 Headmistress first of the Infants school and after 1908 Ffaldau Girls School Pontycymer, where she remained for 35 years. Her interest in women’s suffrage arose through her membership of the National Union of Teachers where women teachers were fighting for equality with male teachers. In 1906 she was one of those who formed the National Union of Women Teachers, of which she was President in 1912. She invited Adela Pankhurst to speak on suffrage at Pontycymer (to raise funds for the NSPCC) in April 1907, and herself spoke on numerous occasion, being described by the Glamorgan Gazette as ‘a doughty warrior in the women’s cause’. She was part of the Welsh contingent of the Women’s Coronation Procession of 1911. Her position at the school made her fully aware of the poverty in the area and in November 1914 she stood unsuccessfully for the Board of Guardians (being beaten by another women, Mrs Edmund Evans, by 32 votes.) Fannie did however stand successfully as a Labour candidate for Ogmore and Garw Urban District Council in 1919 and later became leader of the council. Fannie Thomas is said to be the first woman in the Garw Valley to wear breeches (her nickname locally was Fanny Bloomers) and the first to ride a motor-bike. rnWith many thanks to Ryland Wallacern

Sources: Ryland Wallace :‘A doughty warrior in the women’s cause’. Llafur 2018 volume 12 number 3

Reference: WaW0460

Newspaper report

Report of Adela Pankhurst’s talk in aid of the NSPCC organised by Fannie Thomas. Glamorgan Gazette 19th April 1907

Newspaper report

Report of a debate on women’s suffrage at the Ffaldau Institute; Fannie Thomas proposed the motion ‘should women have the vote’. Glamorgan Gazette 22nd January 1909

Newspaper report

Report of the contest for a seat on the Board of Guardians. Fannie Thomas lost. Glamorgan Gazette 13th November 1914

Newspaper report

Comment on Miss F M Thomas’s election to Ogmore and Garw Urban District Council. Glamorgan Gazette 11th April 1919.

Miss F M Thomas

Miss F M Thomas President of the NFWT 1912

Women’s Coronation Procession

Fannie Thomas second from right, with a basket. Rachel Barrett also appears extreme left. Women’s Coronation Procession June 1911

Ffaldau Girls School 1925

Girls and teachers of Ffaldau Girls School 1925. Fannie Thomas is second right.

Gertie Thomas

Place of birth: Carmarthen

Service: Dispenser

Notes: Gertie Thomas qualified as a dispenser certified by the Society of Apothecaries of London in August 1916. She had only just passed her 19th birthday, the minimum qualifying age.

Reference: WaW0307

Newspaper report

Report of Gertie Thomas’s success. Carmarthen Reporter 11th August 1916.

Margaret Haig Thomas (Mrs/Lady Mackworth, Lady Rhondda)

Place of birth: London

Service: Suffragette, business woman, Commissioner and Controller, editor and publisher, Women’s National Service Department, Ministry of

Death: 1958/07/20, London, Cause not known

Notes: Margaret Haig Thomas, born 1883, was the only child of D.A.Thomas MP, first Viscount Rhondda, and his wife Sybil. The family home was in Llanwern. The family were supporters of women’s suffrage, and Margaret joined the WSPU in Newport in 1909, becoming increasingly militant. In June 1913 she spent six days in Usk Gaol following an attempt to burn out a pillar box in Newport. She strongly supported the war, but did not follow Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst’s extreme jingoism. After working on behalf of Belgian refugees in the early months of the war, she was travelling to New York in the Lusitania, with her father, when it was hit by a German torpedo and sunk on 7th May 1915. Margaret and her father both survived, though she was unconscious in the water for over two hours. [click on the link for her account recorded in 1950 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02qvqwp ]. In 1916 she began work for the Ministry of National Service in Wales, and London, becoming Commissioner of Women’s National Service in Wales and Monmouthshire early in 1917, particularly charged with encouraging girls and women into agriculture. Soon she was also heavily recruiting young women for the WAAC, particularly those qualified to work as army clerks in France. Women were also needed for the newly formed WRNS and WRAF. In February 1918 she was appointed Chief Controller of the Women’s Section of the Ministry of National Service.rnOn the death of her father in 1918 Margaret inherited the title of Lady Rhondda. She continued in business and public life for many years after the war.rn

Sources: Angela V John Turning the Tide’, Parthian Books 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02qvqwp

Reference: WaW0257

Newspaper advertisement

Advertisement for a meeting in Brecon to be addressed by Lady Mackworth. Brecon County Times 12th April 1917

Newspaper report

First section of a long report of Lady Mackworth’s experiences in the sinking of the Lusitania. Cambrian Daily Leader 10th May 1915. For full account go to http://newspapers.library.wales/search?alt=full_text%3A%22Lady%22+AND+full_text%3A%22Mackworth%22&range%5Bmin%5D=1915-1-01T00%3A00%3A00Z&range%5Bmax%5D=1915-12-31T00%3A00%3A00Z&page=5

Newspaper report

Report of Mrs Mackworth’s release from Usk Gaol. Aberdare Leader 19th July 1913.

Photograph of WAAC clerks

Photograph of newly recruited WAAC clerks on the steps of the Law Courts, Cardiff, June 1917. They are about to leave for France. Margaret Mackworth is front right

Welsh Outlook

Margaret Mackworth’s article on National Service for Welsh women, in the periodical Welsh Outlook, vol 4, no 7, July 1917.

Newspaper advertisement

Advertisement for Women’s War Work Week exhibition, held at Howells department store, Cardiff, April 1918.

Mary Elizabeth Thomas (née ?)

Service: Munitions worker, NEF Pembrey, 1917 - 1918

Death: 1918/12/16, NEF Pembrey, Pulmonary oedema / Oedema ysgyfeiniol

Notes: Mary, aged 33, had been working at Pembrey for about a year. On 16th December she was demonstrating a process, how to disassemble shells, to a fellow worker. Suddenly she collapsed, and died soon afterwards. According to her husband she had suffered from bad headaches for 12 months, though she was well when she left for work that morning.

Reference: WaW0299

Newspaper report

Report of the inquest into Mary Thomas’s death, Llanelly Star 21st December 1918.

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

Edith Mary Tonkin

Place of birth: Sandford Devon

Service: Ward maid, VAD, 1917/11/06 – 1918/10/13

Death: 1918-10-13, 3rd General Hospital Le Treport, Pneumonia / Niwmonia

Memorial: War memorial, Llandaff, Glamorgan

Notes: Edith was born on a farm in Devonshire in 1892. She moved to Cardiff when her father inherited a pub from his uncle. She worked as a ward maid at the 3rd General hospital in Tréport, France, where she died aged 26. Her name appears on Llandaff war memorial with that of her younger brother William John (Jack), who died at the battle of Loos in 1915.

Reference: WaW0061

Llandaff War Memorial

Edith Mary Tonkin, VAD,'s name on Llandaff War Memorial

War Graves Register

Register for Mont Huon cemetery, Tréport, with entry for Edith Tonkin.

Edith Tonkin

Edith Tonkin in VAD uniform. Thanks to Maureen Roberts, Western Australia.

headstone

Headstone commemorating Edith Mary Tonkin, Mount Huon Military Cemetery Normandy. Courtesy Peter Bennett Dewberry Yorkshire

Red Cross record card

Red Cross record for Edith Mary Tonkin

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Record card for Edith Mary Tonkin (reverse)rnrn

Tonkin family

Photograph of the Tonkin family on the family farm in Devon, c 1910. Courtesy Maureen Roberts, Western Australiarn

Edith Townsend

Place of birth: Cardiff

Service: Waitress, QMAAC, 1918 -

Notes: Edith Townsend and her sister Gladys were associated with Roath Road Wesleyan Methodist Church, Cardiff. They described their early experiences in the Roath Roamer (Vol.44, p.6). After training they spent time near Woolwich (and experienced three air raids), before being sent north to Newcastle - 'very much like Cardiff'. Image and information courtesy of Glamorgan Archives (DWESA6).

Sources: https://archifaumorgannwg.wordpress.com/

Reference: WaW0120

Edith and Gladys Townsend, QMAAC

Sisters Edith and Gladys Townsend in QMAAC uniform, 1918.

Gladys Townsend

Place of birth: Cardiff

Service: Waitress, QMAAC, 1918 -

Notes: Gladys Townsend and her sister Edith were associated with Roath Road Wesleyan Methodist Church, Cardiff. They described their early experiences in the Roath Roamer (Vol.44, p.6). After training they spent time near Woolwich (and experienced three air raids), before being sent north to Newcastle - 'very much like Cardiff'. Image and information courtesy of Glamorgan Archives (DWESA6).

Sources: https://archifaumorgannwg.wordpress.com/

Reference: WaW0121

Edith and Gladys Townsend QMAAC

Sisters Edith and Gladys Townsend in QMAAC uniform, 1918

Nora Treadwell

Place of birth: Lancashire

Service: Worker, WAAC

Notes: Little is known about Nora Treadwell. She was brought up in Bryncoch, Glamorgan; her parents may have lived at Primrose Bank, Bryncoch.

Reference: WaW0192

Nora Treadwell

Nora Treadwell in WAAC uniform

Postcard

Women's Army Auxiliary Corps postcard, 18 June 1918. This postcard was sent by Nora to her great grandmother Mrs Treadwell, from Plymouth where she was working at a convalescent hospital.

Caroline Pearse Tremain

Place of birth: not known

Service: Lecturer, College warden, University College Aberystwyth, 1914 - 1919+

Notes: Caroline Pearse Tremain was warden of Alexandra Hall, the women’s hall of residence at University College Aberystwyth, throughout the War years. She trained at the Cambridge Training College for Women under Elizabeth Phillips Hughes [qv], receiving a diploma with distinction. After some years teaching, Caroline took a BA in English at Aberystwyth, graduating in 1898. She was appointed Assistant Lecturer in Education at Aberystwyth in 1899, and became warden of Alexandra Hall in 1914. At the Hall she promoted many fund-raising events, from lectures to exhibitions, and encouraged the girls to do war-work with the VAD or other organisations, and in raising money (nearly £200 was raised for War Loan Certificates in 1918, and ‘some enterprising students undertook stone-picking and weeding’ to raise funds for War Weapons Week. She also was a major organiser for the Summer Schools arranged at the College each year.

Reference: WaW0450

Alexandra Hall, University College Aberystwyth.

Caroline Pearse Tremain was Warden here throughout WWI.

Newspaper report

Report of Caroline’s appointment to the Department of Education. Cambrian News 2nd June 1899.

Newspaper report

Report of Caroline Pearse Tremain’s opening address at a sale in aid of the YWCA. Cambrian News 6th November 1914.

Newspaper report

Lecture on Combating Venereal Disease at Alexandra Hall. Caroline Pearse Tremain presided and over 400 women attended. Cambrian News 12 December 1919.