Nancy Roberts

Service: Nurse, VAD ?

Notes: Nothing is known of Nancy Roberts. Her name appears at no 60 on the Roll of Honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London.

Reference: WaW0201

Roll of Honour

Roll of Honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London

Nancy Roberts’s name on Roll of Honour

Nancy Roberts’s name on Roll of Honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London

Annie Elizabeth (Nancy) Brewer (Mistrick)

Place of birth: Newport

Service: Nurse, Fondation Baye

Death: 1921/01/30, Newport, Brights disease

Notes: Annie Brewer, also known as Nancy, was born in 1874. Her father worked in the Dos Road Nail factory. She qualified in ‘the nursing and attendance of insane persons’ in 1899. After a few years working in hospitals she seems to have become a nurse/companion, travelling to many parts of Europe. At the outbreak of War she joined a private French hospital and ambulance organisation, the Fondation Baye, and worked as part of the Fondation in many war zones of France. She was wounded when her ambulance was bombed, and also suffered serious illness. She remained in France in the Army of Occupation until late 1920. She was decorated several times by the French government, including two awards of the Croix de Guerre and also the Legion d’Honnour. During her time in France she also married a young ambulance driver, Daniel Mistrick. She returned to Newport early in 1921 to nurse her mother, but died very shortly afterwards. Annie took many photographs of her time in France, and was also frequently photographed by others. A selection can be seen below.

Sources: www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/authors/88112f9c-1724-34e3-8c65-6d48968dc06b22cb34378481r_date%22%20and%20%28gallica%20all%20%22nancy%20Brewer%22%29

Reference: WaW0187

Annie (Nancy) Brewer

Photograph of Annie (Nancy) taken in Torquay, 13 . 3 . 15

Annie Brewer and ambulance

Annie Brewer beside an ambulance possibly driven by Daniel Mistrick

Annie in the operating theatre

Annie Brewer giving an anaesthetic in a camp operating theatre.

Announcement of award of Croix de Guerre

Announcement in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Français, 17th December 1917: Miss BREWER (Nancy), voluntary nurse in the de Baye unit, at the hospital at Dugny: a highly skilled nurse whose moral strength and devotion have been conspicuously shown on many occasions, notably 18 August 1917 during the shelling of her ambulance. Gave on that day a magnificent example of coolness and of absolute disregard for danger, lavishing her care on the wounded while under enemy artillery fire.

Nurses looking at a zeppelin

Photograph by AB of a group of nurses looking up at a zeppelin flying over.

Young man bathing

AB’s photograph of a young man, possibly Daniel Mistrick, bathing in a river.

Annie Brewer

Annie Brewer in a snow covered dugout

Announcement of award of Medaille de la Reconaissance français

Announcement in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Français 22nd October 1920: Miss Brewer (Annie Elizabeth, Nancy), British, senior nurse in the unit of Mlle de Baye: has been with this at the Front since 1915, at Vitry-le-François, at Deuxnouds, before Beauzée, at Souilly, at Dugny; since the Armistice has been attached to the Army of Occupation, notably at Saarbrücken; taken ill in April 1918, has had to undergo a long period in hospital; scarcely able to return to duty, daily imposing on herself new tasks way beyond her strength; at present undergoing treatment in rnhospital in a condition that her doctors describe as extremely serious.

Dorothea Margaret Seagrave Pryse-Rice (Evans)

Place of birth: London, 1894

Service: Nurse, VAD, 1914 – 1919?

Death: 1921/12/5, Cricket St Thomas, Devon, Influenza / Yffliw

Memorial: St Dingats Church, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire

Notes: Dorothea and her sister Nest were daughters of Margaret Pryse Rice, President of the Carmarthenshire Red Cross. Dorothea’s record card has not survived, but she probably served as a VAD most of the war. She married a war hero, Brigadier-General Lewis Pugh Evans VC, in October 1918, had a son in 1920, and died of influenza aged in 1921 aged 27.

Sources: http://www.wwwmp.co.uk/carmarthenshire-war-memorials/llandovery-carmarthenshire-red-cross-memorial/

Reference: WaW0203

Memorial Plaque

Memorial plaque commemorating Dorothea and Nest Pryse-Rice, St Dingat’s, Llandovery

Grave of Dorothea Pryse Rice

Grave of Dorothea Pugh, née Pryse Rice, St Dingat’s, Llandovery

Lewis Pugh Evans VC

Dorothea’s husband, Lewis Pugh Evans VC

Newspaper report

Report of the wedding in London of Dorothea Pryse Rice and Lewis Pugh Evans, October 1918

Carine Evelyn Nest Pryse-Rice

Place of birth: London

Service: Nurse, VAD, 1914 – 1919

Death: 1921, Forden, Montgomeryshire, Not known / Anhysbys

Memorial: St Dingats Church, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire

Notes: Nest and her sister Dorothea were daughters of Margaret Pryse-Rice, President of the Carmarthenshire Red Cross. She served through the whole war, mostly at the Llandovery Auxiliary Hospital but 1918 - 1919 at the Nannau Hospital for Officers, Dolgellau. She died aged 25

Sources: http://www.wwwmp.co.uk/carmarthenshire-war-memorials/llandovery-carmarthenshire-red-cross-memorial/

Reference: WaW0204

Memorial plaque

Memorial plaque commemorating Dorothea and Nest Pryse-Rice, St Dingat’s, Llandovery

Grave of Nest Pryse-Rice

Grave of Nest Pryse-Rice, St Dingat’s Church, Llandovery

Red Cross record

Red Cross record card for Nest Pryse-Rice

Flossie Hamer Lewis

Place of birth: St Asaph

Service: Nurse, VAD

Death: 1917/03/22, St Asaph, ‘strain and overwork’ / ’straen a gorweithio’

Notes: Flossie Hamer Lewis worked at the Red Cross Hospital, Rhyl, from its opening. Her father was the St Asaph diocesan inspector of schools.

Reference: WaW0207

Flossie Hamer Lewis

Photograph of Flossie Hamer Lewis, part of the collection ‘Deaths: Nurses Deaths 1919-1920’ at the Imperial War Museum

Letter

Letter from Flossie’s father, the Rev J Hamer Lewis to the secretary of the Women Collections, Imperial War Museum, June 29th 1918

Letter (r)

Letter from Flossie’s father, the Rev J Hamer Lewis to the secretary of the Women Collections, Imperial War Museum, June 29th 1918 (reverse).

Newspaper report

Report of the death of Flossie Hamer Lewis, Denbighshire Free Press 31st March 1917

Newspaper report

Nursing award for Flossie Hamer Lewis, Denbighshire Free Press 16th March 1918

Ryda Rees

Place of birth: New Quay, Cardiganshire

Service: Nurse, VAD, 1915 - 1919

Death: 1919/11/16, illness / salwych

Notes: Ryda, who was 29 when she died, served at the 3rd Western Hospital, Cardiff ‘until her health broke down’.

Reference: WaW0206

Ryda Rees

Ryda’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.

Letter

Letter to the Secretary of the Women’s Committee from Ryda’s mother Mary Rees 16th March 1920.

Red Cross record card

Red Cross Record card for Ryda Rees

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Red Cross Record card for Ryda Rees (reverse)

Hannah Dunlop Mark

Place of birth: Bridgend

Service: Nurse, TFNS

Death: 1918/10/10, No 1 General Hospital, Fazackerley, Liverpool, Pneumonia following influenza / Niwmonia yn dilyn y ffliw

Notes: Hannah, a trained nurse, seems to have been a victim of Spanish Flu. She was 23 when she died, and is buried at Bridgend Cemetery.

Sources: http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=1

Reference: WaW0208

Hannah Dunlop Mark

Hannah’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.

Letter

Letter to the Secretary of the Women’s Committee from Hannah’s brother, Lieut David Mark, November 16th 1918

Newspaper notice

Notice of Hannah’s death, Glamorgan Gazette, 11th October 1918.

Memorial notice

Notice commemorating Hannah’s death, Glamorgan Gazette 10th October 1919

Florence Missouri Caton

Place of birth: ‘at sea’ off Cuba

Service: Nurse, SWH, September 1915 – July 1917 /

Death: 1917/7/15, Salonika, Appendicitis / Llid y pendics

Notes: Florence Missouri Caton was born on board ship (possibly the source of her middle name, though no evidence has yet been found) in about 1876, to parents from Wrexham. A trained nurse, she worked in Lancashire before joining the Scottish Women’s Hospitals in 1915. She had two periods of work in the Balkans. Shortly after her arrival in 1915 her unit was captured by the Austrians, and released in December. In August she returned to Serbia, working in various hospitals and dressing stations until she died of appendicitis in July 1917. She is buried In Lembet Road Military Cemetery, Salonika.

Sources: http://scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk/

Reference: WaW0212

Florence Caton

Florence Caton Scottish Women's Hospitals

Grave Registration

Entry in Salonika (Lambert Road) grave register.

Newspaper report

Report of death of Florence Caton, Y Brython, 30 August 1917. Translation: ‘Laying the nurse to rest. In faraway Serbia the remains of Nurse Caton of Wrexham were laid to rest. She had endeared herself to the wretched people of that country through her untiring labour of love in their midst. There is talk of erecting a white marble cross on her small grave.’

Gladys Maud Jones

Place of birth: Cambridge

Service: Nurse, VAD

Death: 1917/08/21, Salonika, Malaria

Notes: Gladys Maud Jones’s name appears on the Welsh book of Remembrance, and her photograph is in the Imperial War Museum’s collection. Unfortunately, despite her name, she appears to have no connection with Wales. Both her parents were from Lincolnshire.

Sources: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~macculloch/p79.htm#i4559

Reference: WaW0213

Welsh Book of Remembrance

Gladys Maud Jones’s name in the Welsh Book of Remembrance

Gwynedd Violet Llewellyn

Place of birth: Bewdley, Worcestershire

Service: Nurse, VAD

Death: 1918/11/03, Rouen, France, Influenza / Y Ffliw

Notes: Gwynedd Violet Llewellyn’s name appears on the Welsh book of Remembrance. Unfortunately, despite her name, she appears to have no connection with Wales. Her family connections were with Worcestershire and Somerset

Reference: WaW0214

Welsh Book of Remembrance

Gwynedd Violet Llewellyn’s name in the Welsh Book of Remembrance.