Caroline Emily Booker (née Lindsay)

Place of birth: Glanafon, Glamorgan

Service: Vice president, VAD, 1909-1919

Notes: Mrs Booker was widowed in 1887. She became the founder of the local Glamorgan detachment of the VAD (22) in 1909. She seems to have instigated the use of Tuscar House, Southerndown, as a Red Cross Hospital in May 1915, and most of her 7 daughters played a greater or lesser role in the running of the hospital. [qv Etta,Ellen, Mabel, Ethel and Dulcie Booker]. Mrs Booker provided a car and the petrol to ferry patients to and from the station in Bridgend 5 miles away.

Reference: WaW0470

Record of Caroline Booker

Mrs Booker’s entry in The County Families of the United Kingdom, Edward Walford (this edition c 1920)

Red Cross record card

Red cross card for Caroline Emily Booker.

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Red Cross card for Caroline Booker showing her VAD activities.

Tuscar House

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

Mabel Dearmer

Place of birth: Llanbleblig, 1872

Service: Volunteer, Red Cross/Y Groes Goch

Death: 1915-07-11, Serbia, Typhus/Pneumonia Teiffws/ Niwmonia

Notes: Mabel Dearmer, born 1872, was a successful writer, dramatist and illustrator of adult and children’s books. She and her husband the Rev Percy Dearmer were both pacifists and supporters of the Church League for Women’s Suffrage. When her husband accepted a post as chaplain to the British Red Cross in Serbia, she volunteered to go too, and died in July 1915. Her letters home were published posthumously as ‘Letters from a Field Hospital’.

Sources: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/untoldlives/2014/08/mabel-dearmer-in-serbia.html https://www.amazon.com/Letters-field-hospital-Mabel-Dearmer/dp/117677140X#reader_117677140X

Reference: WaW0092

Mabel Dearmer's grave, left.

Grave, on the left, of Mabel Dearmer, Kragujevac Central Cemetery, Serbia

Mabel Dearmer

Mabel’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

Book illustration

One of Mabel Dearmer’s characteristic children’s book illustrations, 1901rnrn

Stobart Hospital Staff List

List of the staff of the Stobart Hospital, Kragujevac, Serbia. ‘Dearmer, Mrs Percy’ is listed under ‘Women Orderlies’ and her husband The Rev Dr P Dearmer is the Hon Chaplain. Emily Hill [qv] is listed under ‘Nursing Sisters.

Maud Starkie Bence

Place of birth: Suffolk

Service: Volunteer, 1914 - 1916

Death: 1916-06-01, Folkestone, Cause not known

Memorial: Memorial brass, St Brynach, Aberhonddu

Notes: Maud Starkie Bence was a former professional golfer, and friend of Lord Glanusk, Lord Lieutenant of Breconshire. At the outbreak of war she undertook registering all motor vehicles in the county for emergency use. Her first appeal was published 13th August 1914. By 20th August she had details of 552 vehicles, with 150 already offered. She went on to raise money for ‘comforts’ for the South Wales Borderers. When she died aged 48 in 1916 a plaque was erected in her memory by the South Wales Borderers.

Sources: The Brecon County Times Neath Gazette and General Advertiser for the Counties of Brecon Carmarthen Radnor Monmouth Glamorgan Cardigan Montgomery Hereford 10th September 1914; The Brecon County Times Neath Gazette and General Advertiser for the Counties of Brecon Carmarthen Radnor Monmouth Glamorgan Cardigan Montgomery Hereford 6th July 1916

Reference: WaW0057

Maud Starkie Bence

Maud Starkie Bence playing golf c 1890

St Brynach's Church, Llanfrynach

Plaque commemorating Maud Starkie Bence, St Brynach's Church, Llanfrynach

Janet Price Williams

Service: Volunteer

Notes: Mrs Janet Price Williams, of 87 Kimberley Rd, Cardiff, was awarded the MBE in January 1918. She seems to have been an indefatigable worker acting as Secretary or Treasurer to a number of bodies including the Cardiff Women’s Advisory Committee which she set up in 1914, and the London-based Soldiers’ Comforts Department.

Reference: WaW0249

Janet Price Williams

Mrs Janet Price Williams MBE

Janet Price Williams (reverse)

Reverse of photograph listing some of her occupations.

London Gazette

Janet Price Williams’s citation in the London Gazette, 7th January 1918.

Cissie Cripps

Place of birth: Brecon

Service: Volunteer, Womens Volunteer Reserve Corps, 1915 - ?

Death: 1956, Montreal, Canada, Cause not known

Notes: Cissie was a chauffeuse before the war. She had two brothers serving in the army, and joined the Women’s Volunteer Reserve Corps in Folkestone in August 1915. In 1920 she emigrated to Montreal Canada, where she later married George Elsdon Mears and had three daughters. Thanks to Ian Sumpter.

Reference: WaW0374

Cissie Cripps

Cissie Cripps of Brecon, looking ‘very smart’ in uniform. Brecon County Times 12th August 1915.

Dilys Herbert

Place of birth: Ammanford

Service: Volunteer, ambulance driver, Womens Legion

Notes: Dilys was one of the members of the Women’s Legion of Motor Drivers to be inspected by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in March 1918. She had been involved in voluntary work throughout the war, including being an enumerator in the National Registration ‘of all persons between the ages of 15 and 65’ in August 1915.

Reference: WaW0340

Newspaper report

Report of Womens Legion reception at Buckingham Palace.Cambria Daily Leader 21st March 1918

Newspaper report

Article naming Dilys Herbert as a volunteer enumerator. Herald of Wales and Monmouthshire Recorder 7th August 1915rn

Olwen Elizabeth Lloyd George (Carey Evans)

Place of birth: Criccieth

Service: Volunteer, assistant cook, 1914 - 1916

Death: 1990, Cause not known

Notes: Olwen, second daughter of David Lloyd George, began volunteering in the Red Cross hospital near Criccieth in 1914 when she was 22. She then moved to London (where Lloyd George was Chancellor of the Exchequer, living at 11 Downing Street), and assisted her mother with the Welsh Troops Comfort Fund. In May 1915 she volunteered as an orderly at Rest Stations in Boulogne and later Hesdigneul. She later wrote ‘I was what they called a cooklet and I also used to scrub the platform. I used to say to my friends: “If you see a patch which is cleaner than all the rest, that’s my bit.” I worked so hard on it that I really believe you could have eaten off the floor!’ After her return to London and her marriage to Captain Tom Carey Evans, as her Red Cross Card says, she was not able to work! There is a short Pathé news film of her wedding at the Welsh Baptist Chapel in Westminster, with crowds of onlookers.

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lze8jeBJKOo

Reference: WaW0430

Photograph

Olwen Lloyd George in a very new VAD uniform, summer 1915.

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Olwen Lloyd George. The dates of her service have been altered in pencil.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Reverse of Olwen Lloyd George’s record card giving details of her service.

Newspaper report

Report of Olwen’s departure for France. Llais Llafur 4th September 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of Olwen Lloyd George’s marriage to Capt Tom Carey Edwards. Herald of Wales 23rd June 1917.

Lucy Jane Saint,

Place of birth: Pontypool

Service: Waitress, QMAAC

Death: 1918-10-27, Royal Victoria Hospital Boscombe, Hampshire, Pneumonia / Niwmonia

Memorial: War Memorial gates; Grave St Michael, Pontypool, Monmouthshire

Notes: aged 23. Buried Llanfihangel Pontymoel churchyard, Pontypool.

Sources: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSob=c&GSsr=1&GScid=2532175&GRid=122596316&df=p&; http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/11559566.Female_war_casualty_from_Pont-y-p?l/Pontypool/Pont-y-p?l/Pont-y-p?l_to_be_commemorated/

Reference: WaW0055

Lucy Jane Saint

Lucy Jane Saint in QMAAC uniform, 1918

Pontypool Memorial Gates

Name of Lucy Saint on Pontypool Memorial Gates

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