Ida Williams

Place of birth: Llangammarch Wells

Service: Teachers

Death: August / 1918 / Awst, Llangammarch Wells, Influenza / y ffliw

Notes: Ida Williams was a graduate of University College, Aberystwyth. She taught at intermediate schools in Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Bargoed and finally London, where her health broke down about a year before her death. She seems to have been musical, and to have written for publications including Y Cymro.

Reference: WaW0422

Newspaper report

Report of the death and funeral of Miss Ida Williams BA. Brecon County Times 8th August 1918.

Irene (Ivy) Ace

Place of birth: Tenby

Service: Technical Administrator , WAAC, 1917 - 19

Notes: Ivy, born 1892, joined the WAAC in June 1917, and was posted to France as an administrator. Her WAAC records do not survive, but from her photograph it seems she was an ‘official’, ie an officer in the WAAC. She served in France for a year. After the War she became an agricultural student. She is recorded as having been given a flight in an aeroplane for her 21st birthday, despite this she does not seem to have transferred to the WRAF when it was formed in 1918.

Sources: Narbeth Museum/Amgueddfa Arberth https://woww.narberthmuseum.co.uk

Reference: WaW0483

Irene ‘Ivy’ Ace

Ivy Ace in WAAC Official’s outdoor uniform.

Irene \'Ivy\' Ace

Place of birth: Tenby

Service: Technical Administrator , WAAC, 1917 - 19

Notes: Ivy, born 1892, joined the WAAC in June 1917, and was posted to France as an administrator. Her WAAC records do not survive, but from her photograph it seems she was an ‘official’, ie an officer in the WAAC. She served in France for a year. After the War she became an agricultural student. She is recorded as having been given a flight in an aeroplane for her 21st birthday, despite this she does not seem to have transferred to the WRAF when it was formed in 1918.

Sources: Narbeth Museum/Amgueddfa Arberth https://woww.narberthmuseum.co.uk\r\n\r\n\r\n

Reference: WaW0483

Irene ‘Ivy’ Ace

Ivy Ace in WAAC Official’s outdoor uniform.

Violet Annie Davies

Place of birth: Llanelli

Service: Telephonist

Notes: Aged 15. Received the Medal of the Order of the British Empire 'For courage in remaining at her post at the telephone during a severe explosion'.

Sources: The Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser;

Reference: WaW0006

Newspaper report

report of presentation in The Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser 19th April 1918

Newspaper report

Report of presentation Cambrian Leader 30 April 1918

Violet Davies (reverse)

Reverse of photograph showing Violet Annie Davies's handwriting

Violet Annie Davies

Violet was 15-year-old telephonist at a munitions factory, awarded the MOBE for staying at her post during an explosion

Beatrice [B] Picton Turbervill (Picton Warlow)

Place of birth: Fownhope, Herefordshire

Service: Temperance and welfare worker, munitions hostel warden, H M Factories, before/cyn 1916 - 1918

Death: 1958, Cause not known

Memorial: Ewenny Priory, Ewenny, Vale of Glamorgan

Notes: Beatrice was the twin sister of Edith Turbervill [qv]. As a young woman she kept to her original surname of Picton-Warlow; her father changed the name when he inherited Ewenny Priory in 1891. Before the war she was a keen promoter of temperance, and was the Chair of the Cardiff branch of the British Women’s Temperance Association. In 1916 she was appointed head of one of the new munitions workers’ hostels in Woolwich. A year later she moved to Coventry as Warden of the Housing Colony for Women Munitions Workers, a large undertaking with a staff of 200, and some very unruly young workers. The ‘wild Irish-Welsh inmates … flung food and china and table furnishings at the waitresses, at each other, and through the windows’. However the Welsh Miss Picton Turbervill and her colleague the Irish Miss MacNaughton sorted the establishment out. At the end of the war she was on a lecture tour in the united states, speaking about Welfare Work in Britain. For many years after the war she was involved with Dr Barnardos.

Sources: Monthly Labor Review Volume 7 Issue 6 [US]

Reference: WaW0443

Newspaper report

Report of the AGM of the Cardiff branch of the British Women’s Temperance Association, Beatrice Picton Warlow in the chair. Evening Express 18th January 1901.

Monthly Labor Review

A report of the work of Beatrice Picton Turbervill (and her colleague Miss MacNaughton) appeared in the American journal the Monthly Labor Review.

Memorial

Memorial to Beatrice Picton Turbervill, Ewenny Priory.

Elisabeth De Saedeleer

Place of birth: Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium

Service: Textile artist, painter

Death: 1972, Belgium, Cause not known

Notes: Elisabeth, born 1902, was the second of five daughters of the Belgian artist Valerius de Saedeleer. He was among a group of artists encouraged by Gwendoline and Margaret Davies [qv] to come to Wales as refugees in 1914. The family settled in Aberystwyth, with strong ties to University College, Aberystwyth. Elisabeth and her older sister Marie became interested in weaving and tapestries (encouraged by a meeting with William Morris’s daughter May); both taught in the newly formed Arts and Crafts department of the college, together with their father. On her return to Belgium in 1921 Elisabeth became noted as a designer and weaver of textiles and tapestries. She set up a workshop, besides writing several books on the craft and undertaking many public commissions.

Sources: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1177&context=tsaconf\r\nhttps://www.aber.ac.uk/en/media/departmental/informationservices/pdf/specialcollections/the-davies-family-and-belgian-refugee-artists-and-musicians-in-wales.pdf\r\nArt in Exile: Flanders, Wales and the First World War. 2002\r\n

Reference: WaW0331

Elisabeth De Saedeleer

Elisabeth De Saedeleer at her loom. Early 1920s.

Newspaper report

Report of an exhibition fundraising for a students’ union building, a memorial to the war dead of University College, Aberystwyth. Cambrian News 25th April 1919

Carpet

Carpet woven by Elisabeth to a design by Edgard Tytgat, c 1925.

Gertrude Morgan

Place of birth: Bridgend ?

Service: Ticket cillector, GWR

Notes: Gertrude, a ticket collector at Bridgend railway station, was subject to an assault by Lewis Davies, who kicked her in the thigh. He and another collier had been attempting to travel without a ticket. The magistrate said that ‘there was far too much of this hooliganism’ at Bridgend and Davies was fined £2.

Reference: WaW0458

Newspaper report

Report of the fracas at Bridgend Railway Station. Glamorgan Gazette 13th September 1918

Emmy (Mary Emily) Harvey ((Harries yn ddiweddarach))

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Ticket Conductor, 1914 - 1918

Notes: recorded by Swansea/Abertawe Women's History Group 08/08/1983. File provided by Jen Wilson

Reference: WaW0024

Account of Emmy Harvey

Account of Emmy Harvey, Ticket Collector

Mary D Davies

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Unknown, ATS

Memorial: Cenotaph, Swansea, Glamorgan

Notes: Nothing is currently known of Mary D Davies, who worked, perhaps as a WAAC, in the Army Transport Service.

Reference: WaW0119

Swansea Cenotaph

Name of Mary D Davies on Swansea Cenotaph

Mabel Booker

Place of birth: Southerndown ?

Service: VAD, VAD, May 1915 – May 1917

Notes: Mabel Booker was not so involved with Tuscar House Hospital as her sisters [Etta, Nellie, Ethel and Dulcie qv], though she was ‘ready to help when required’, and clocked up 500 hours service.

Reference: WaW0473

Red Cross record card

Red Cross record for Mabel Booker

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Reverse of Red Cross card for Mabel Booker, showing her activity.