Betty Morris

Place of birth: Haverfordwest

Service: Nurse, VAD, 1915/05/27 – 1918/07/12.

Notes: Betty Morris joined the VAD in May 1915, working originally in Cottesmore Auxiliary Hospital, Haverfordwest. In November she was posted to France, initially to Boulogne but was soon promoted to ‘a larger hospital’, where at 20, she was the youngest nurse. She was a fluent French speaker, and remained with the VAD until July 1918. Excerpts from some of her letters home were published in the Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph.

Reference: WaW0478

Newspaper photograph Llun papur newydd

Photograph of Betty Morris in outdoor VAD uniform. Haverfordwest and Milton Haven Telegraph 16th February 1916

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of Betty Morris’s departure to France. Haverfordwest and Milton Haven Telegraph 10th November 1915rn rn

Newspaper report

Report of Betty Morris’s Christmas in France. Haverfordwest and Milton Haven Telegraph 16th February 1916

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

Mary Andrews

Place of birth: Briton Ferry

Service: Nurse, VAD ?

Notes: Mary Andrews was awarded the Royal Red Cross in May 1919. She served at Oswestry Military Hospital.

Reference: WaW0272

Marjorie Wagstaff

Place of birth: Newport ?

Service: ‘Shaving lady’, VAD ?

Notes: Marjorie Wagstaff was a volunteer from Newport who would go in to the Newport Section of the 3rd Western General Military Hospital twice a week to shave the patients. By the end of the war she had performed over 2,000 shaves. Her picture featured in the Daily Mirror as well as the South Wales Argus.

Reference: WaW0336

Marjorie Wagstaff

Marjorie Wagstaff, pictured in the South Wales Argus. Thanks to Peter Strong.

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

Hilda Campbell Vaughan (Morgan)

Place of birth: Builth Wells

Service: Cook, agricultural organiser, novelist, VAD, WLA, 1915 - 1919

Death: 1985, Cause not known

Notes: Hilda Vaughan, born 1892, was the daughter of a solicitor prominent in Brecknockshire and Radnorshire. Early in the war she joined the VAD as a cook at the Red Cross hospital in Builth but in 1917 left ‘to take up Land work with a salary’. During the time that she worked as a VAD, she took the lead in organising a free library for the town; it opened in November 1915. Hilda was already involved in encouraging women on to the land, and farmers to accept them. Her new position was organising secretary of the WLA in Breconshire and Radnorshire. After the war Hilda moved to London, married the novelist Charles Morgan, and began to write herself. Her work was much influenced by her experiences of meeting women of all backgrounds in the WLA.

Sources: https://www.southwales.ac.uk/study/subjects/history/worldwarone/jayne-bowden/

Reference: WaW0383

Hilda Vaughan

Hilda Vaughan as a young woman.

Red Cross record card

Record of service of Hilda Vaughan.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Record of service of Hilda Vaughan [reverse]

Newspaper report

First part of a report on the new Free Library in Builth. Brecon County Times 25th November 1915

Newspaper report

Report of an open-air meeting in Brecon, publicising women and farm work. Brecon and Radnor Express 5th April 1917

Newspaper report

Report of open-air meeting in Rhayadyr, commenting on Miss Vaughan’s ‘pleasing and persuasive …manner’. Brecon and Radnor Express 31st May 1917

Novel

Dustjacket of Hilda Vaughan’s novel ‘The Soldier and the Gentlewoman’, 1932.

Ellen Catherine Clay (née Williams)

Place of birth: Penrhos

Service: Nurse (Commandant), Chairman WLA Holyhead, VAD, WLA/Byddin Dir y Merched

Notes: Born a farmer’s daughter in about 1866, Ellen Williams married a local doctor, Thomas William Clay, in 1898. At the outbreak of War she became Assistant Commandant of Holyhead VAD. She worked in Holborn Red Cross Hospital as well as in Anglesey; additionally she helped run the Red Cross Canteen at Holyhead Railway Station. Mrs Clay also chaired the recruitment committee for the Women’s Land Army. She died in 1935.

Sources: Holyhead and Anglesey Mail 7 May / Mai 2014

Reference: WaW0153

Ellen Catherine Clay

Ellen Catherine Clay VAD

Beatrice Olivette (Olive) White

Place of birth: Newport

Service: Signaller telegraphist, WAAC, November 1917 - August 1918 /

Death: 1918-11-29, Newport, Pneumonia following influenza / Niwmonia yn dilyn y ffliw

Memorial: St Julians Methodist Church, Newport, Monmouthshire

Notes: Olive, born 1886, joined the Post Office in Newport as a learner in 1903. She later worked in Totnes and Pontypool. In November 1917 she joined the WAAC as a signaller-telegraphist, and was sent to Abbeville in northern France, later transferring to Calais. Whilst home on leave in May 1918 she became ill, and was medically discharged from the WAAC in August. Though she returned to civilian work, she died of the complications of Spanish Flu. Her name appears on the memorial plaque in St Julian’s Methodist Church, Newport, and she is buried in Christchurch cemetery.

Sources: Sylvia Mason: Every Woman Remembered, Daughters of Newport in the Great War. Saron publishers 2018

Reference: WaW0107

Death notice of Olive White

Death notice of Olive White, South Wales Argus

Alice Prosser

Place of birth: Builth Wells

Service: Waitress then Cook, WAAC, 1918/05/O7– 1918/08/05/

Notes: Alice, aged 23, served first as a waitress, then as a cook during her brief career in WAAC/QMAAC. She was discharged on medical grounds.

Reference: WaW0133

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.