Sally Constant

Place of birth: Rhondda

Service: Nurse (Sister), 1914 - 1918

Death: 1949, Cause not known

Notes: Sister Sally Constant nursed at Llwynypia Hospital, Rhondda, throughout the War. She may have trained in Cardiff before the War. Like many nurses, she had an album (dating back to 1907), which includes many entries from soldier patients. She worked up until WW2.

Reference: WaW0148

Sister Constant

Sister Sally Constant (1930s)

Album page

Album page with comic postcard, signed Driver Whiteside, 1918

Album Page

Album page signed Roger Fuller DCM, 1917

Album page

Album page ‘The lost cord’ signed Sapper W H Carey 1918

Album Page

Album page: drawing with aeroplanes and crest, signed S Shaddick

Album Page

Album page signed Gunner H Tyllyer 1916. Wounded three times ‘Nil Desperandum’

Janet Parry

Place of birth: Newtown

Service: Nurse (Sister), TFNS, 1914 - 1919

Notes: Before the War Nurse Parry worked at Heswall Hospital, Wirral. After a spell working in the First Western General Hospital (Fazackerly Hospital), Liverpool, she served on HMHS Mauretania, sailing to and from Egypt several times. On arrival in Egypt the second time, she wrote home “I can't say that I am in any way struck with Egyptian life, and the food, oh dear! I suppose you get used to it. ... ‘. She later served in France and was awarded the Royal Red Cross in January 1919.

Sources: Montgomeryshire Express, Montgomeryshire County Times

Reference: WaW0149

Sister Hopkins

Service: Nurse (Sister), QARNNS ?

Notes: Nothing is known of Sister Hopkins except that her name on the Roll of Honour in Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London has ‘RN Hospital’ against it.

Reference: WaW0197

Roll of Honour

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

Sister Hopkins’s name on Roll of Honour

Sister Hopkins’s name on Roll of honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London

Kate Phyllis Davies (Lyons)

Service: Nurse, Commandant

Notes: Phyllis Davies was Commandant of the Cardigan 4 Brigade of the VAD, and also sister and Assistant Commandant of Hospitals in Aberystwyth. She is said to have volunteered with the American Red Cross in the Spanish American War of 1898. Her sister was Margaret (Peggy) Lyons, [qv].

Reference: WaW0281

Red Cross record card

Record of Kate Phyllis Davies’s work with the Red Cross

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Record of Kate Phyllis Davies’s work with the Red Cross.

Newspaper report

Report of work of Mrs Davies and Sister Lyons. Carmarthen Journal 30th June 1916.

Etta J O Booker

Place of birth: Southerndown ?

Service: Nurse, Commandant, VAD, FANY, 1909 - 1919

Notes: Etta Booker served as Commandant of the Glamorgan [22] detachment when it was founded in 1909. In November 1914, she was part of a group of six nurses from Glamorgan sent to the French Base Hospital at Saumur for 6 months. After her return to Southerndown she worked for a while in the Tuscar House hospital, but then relinquished her rank as Commandant to go to Calais with the FANY. After a breakdown of health she was moved to Nice to work in the Officers’ Hospital, then back to northern France where she worked in several hospitals, ending as a charge nurse in the Anglo Belge Hospital in Rouen in 1919. She was nearly 40 years old by this time, and had had only short breaks at home, when she worked with her sisters [Booker qv] at Tuscar House. Etta seems to have remained a member of the Red Cross, as her medals include a Silver Jubilee medal (1935) as well as French and Belgian decorations.

Reference: WaW0471

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Etta Booker, heavily annotated.

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Reverse of Etta Booker’s Red Cross card, with details of her service (presumably written by her sister Ethel [qv].

Newspaper report

Report of Etta’s departure for France. Glamorgan Gazette 6th November 1914

Etta Booker’s medals

Etta Booker’s medals, which were sold at Bonhams, London for £1440 in 2013. They include the Medal of Queen Elizabeth; Belgium and the France, Ministry of the Interior, silver medal

Medal card

Record of medals awarded to Etta Booker. There are two separate cards in the National Archives, this one listing her as a Trooper then Nurse in the FANY

Medal card

Record of medals awarded to Etta Booker. There are two separate cards in the National Archives, this one listing her as VAD, French Red Cross and FANY

Hylda Salathiel

Place of birth: Pencoed

Service: Nurse, hockey player, South Wales Nursing Association

Death: 1918/11/06, Cardiff, Influenza / Ffliw

Notes: Hylda Salathiel, who was one of seven sisters, was educated at Bridgend High School, and trained at Merthyr General Hospital. For a while she was an international hockey player, playing for Bridgend Ladies and South Wales Ladies. She nursed for a while in Bournemouth, but returned to South Wales, where she caught influenza from a patient she was nursing and died four days later. The patient recovered and sent flowers to Hylda’s funeral.

Reference: WaW0301

Newspaper report

Report of an international hockey match between South Wales and Monmouthshire Ladies and Munster Ladies. Glamorgan Gazette 12th February 1909.

Newspaper report

Report of the death and funeral of Hylda Salathiel. Glamorgan Gazette 15th November 1918

Dorothy Caroline Edmondes (née Nicholl)

Place of birth: Usk

Service: Nurse, masseur, VAD

Death: 1963, Cause not known

Notes: Dorothy was born in 1871, daughter of a landowning family in Merthyr Mawr. Her husband, Major Charles Edmondes, died in 1911. She joined the VAD in 1915 as a nurse, but had at some stage trained in massage (physiotherapy). In 1917 she set up an outpatient orthopaedic clinic at the Red Cross Hospital in Bridgend, at which she was head masseuse, a post she held until 1922. She was awarded an OBE in that year ‘for work among the wounded and ex-service men in Bridgend’. Dorothy Edmondes stood as a Conservative candidate for Ogmore in the 1922 general election.

Reference: WaW0296

Dorothy Edmondes

Dorothy Edmondes in nurse’s uniform

Red Cross record card

Record card for Mrs Dorothy Edmondes

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Red Cross card for Mrs Dorothy Edmondes (reverse)

OBE citation

OBE citation for Dorothy Edmondes, London Gazette 2 January 1922

Queenie Parry

Place of birth: Ebbw Vale ?

Service: Nurse, Munitions worker, VAD, March 1915 – May 1918 Mawrth

Notes: Queenie was originally a member of Ebbw Vale VAD, but transferred to Maindiff Court Hospital Abergavenny. She worked there as a night nurse on £20 p.a. She then moved to work in munitions at Rotherwas, Hereford. She offered to come back to Maindiff Court if needed.rn

Reference: WaW0424

Red Cross record card

Record of Queenie Parry’s VAD work.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Reverse of Queenie Parry’s card with details of her move to munitions.

Ethel Anna Booker

Place of birth: Southerndown ?

Service: Nurse, Quartermaster, Commandant, VAD, 1915/04/01 – 1919/04/30

Notes: Ethel Booker began her service at Tuscar House as a voluntary kitchen-maid, but became an efficient quartermaster in August 1915. She became Commandant of the hospital following the death of her sister Nellie [qv] in 1917. Her record of service (filled out by her mother Caroline [qv]) says she lived at the hospital and took no leave for the last 18 months of her time there. Ethel and her sister Dulcie [qv] were the prime organisers of events both for fundraising and for amusing the patients at the hospital.rn

Reference: WaW0474

Red Cross record card

Red Cross record for Ethel Booker

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Reverse of Ethel Booker’s Card, detailing her service, and written by her mother. Caroline Booker.

Tuscar House

Tuscar House Red Cross Hospital, Southerndown. The house was used as a hospital in WW2 as well.

Newspaper report

Report of a Grand Matinée given at Bridgend Cinema by the soldiers of Tuscar House (and others). Glamorgan Gazette 29th November 1918

Newspaper report

Report of a presentation to Ethel and Dulcie Booker when Tuscar House hospital closed in April 1919. Glamorgan Gazette 4th April 1919

Dulcie Booker

Place of birth: Southerndown ?

Service: Nurse, Sister-in-charge, Treasurer, Financial Secretary, VAD, 1914/10/01 – 1919/04/30

Notes: Dulcie Booker managed the finances involved in setting up Tuscar House Hospital as well as its day-to-day running costs. From 1917 she also acted as Sister in Charge of the hospital. She took a main part, together with her sister Mabel [qv] in arranging entertainments for the patients, including leading the Tuscar Red Cross Hospital Band. She was a sought-after local accompanist.

Reference: WaW0475

Red Cross record card

Red Cross record for Dulcie Booker.

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Reverse of Red Cross record for Dulcie Booker, showing her service at Tuscar Hospital.

Newspaper report

Report of a ‘welcome home’ reception which included a performance by the Tuscar Hospital Band. Glamorgan Gazette 19th July 1918

Newspaper report

Report of a Grand Matinée given at Bridgend Cinema by the soldiers of Tuscar House (and others). Glamorgan Gazette 29th November 1918

Newspaper report

Report of a presentation to Dulcie and Ethel Booker when Tuscar House hospital closed in April 1919. Glamorgan Gazette 4th April 1919