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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
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
Gladys Maud Feiling (née Norman)
Place of birth: Bleddfa, Radnorshire
Service: Official, WAAC / QMAAC, September 1917 - September 191
Death: 1958, Cause not known
Notes: Gladys Feiling, born in 1879, married Cecil Feiling, a London solicitor in 1906 but seems to have been childless and describes herself as ‘quite independent’ in her application to become a WAAC officer in 1917. The papers connected with her WAAC career survive, though damaged, in the National Archives. After a medical and training which she passed with only 69% she is described as having ‘very little experience of any kind’, but of being ‘the right type to go to France’. By 1919 she was a Deputy Controller of QMAAC, and was awarded the OBE in June 1919. She seems to have served in the ATS in WW2.
Sources: National Archives WO 398/75/6, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35017/supplement/7105/data.pdf
Reference: WaW0209
Gladys Maud Feiling
Photograph of Gladys Feiling collected by the Women’s Subcommittee of the Imperial War Museum.
reverse of photograph
Reverse of photograph of Gladys Feiling outlining her career In the WAAC/QMAAC. Photograph collected by the Women’s Subcommittee of the Imperial War Museum.
Emma May Inker (Stevens)
Place of birth: Penarth
Service: Cook, WAAC / WRAF, 1918/03/15 – 1918/12/31
Death: 1992, Cause not known
Notes: Emma, born 2nd May 1894, worked as a seamstress and in service before joining the WAAC in March 1918. Shortly afterwards she was transferred to the WRAF on its formation on 1st April 1918. She was discharged on compassionate grounds on 31st December as her father was ill. Her daughter Rita Spinola says ‘She never talked much about her time in WW1 as a cook, but she did mention that once whilst marching in London someone shouted out to her “you’re out of step!”.’
Reference: WaW0267
RAF Brigade sports
WRAFs at the RAF Brigade sports. Emma Inker can just be seen in the second row between the 6th and 7th people sitting on the ground. Thanks to Rita Spinola.
Emma May Inker
Close-up of Emma May Inker WRAF at the RAF Brigade Sports 1918. Thanks to Rita Spinola.
WRAF Discharge Certificate
WRAF discharge paper for Emma Inker on ‘compassionate grounds’. This shows her transfer from WAAC to WRAF.
Ethel Maud Lilian Richards
Place of birth: Cwmbran
Service: Waitress, WAAC then WRAF, 1918/03/10 – 1918/10/02
Death: 1918/10/02, Influenza ? / Ffliw ?
Memorial: Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, Shorncliffe, Kent
Notes: Ethel enlisted in the WAAC in Cardiff, and was posted to Winchester. She was transferred to the WRAF when it was established in April 1918. She was 26 when she died.
Reference: WaW0357
Blodwen Phillips (later Jones)
Place of birth: Landore
Service: Elocutionist, Clerk, WAAC, WFAF, 1917 0 1919
Notes: Blodwen Phillips was ‘the first lady from the area to volunteer for active service’. She was among the group of WAAC clerks to be sent to France in early summer 1917. She wrote to the Cambria Daily Leader about the WAACs’ reception in France, and about their activities. In 1918 she transferred to the WRAF. One of her WAAC officers was a Miss Ace, perhaps Ivy Ace [qv]. In December 1919 she married Mr H W Jones of Southport at Capel Gomer, Swansea.
Reference: WaW0488
Newspaper report
Report of Blodwen Phillips's impressions of WAAC life in France. The Cambria Daily Leader 14th May 1918.
Newspaper report
Report of Blodwen Phillips’s marriage to H W Jones. South Wales Daily Post December 24th 1919.
May Brooks
Place of birth: Cardiff
Service: Worker, WAAC/QMAAC, 1917 - 1919
Notes: May Brooks was a clerk in a confectionary firm before joining the WAAC. She served at various places in the south of England. She contracted influenza, spending a week in hospital, and was discharged on compassionate grounds in June 1919. Image and information courtesy of Glamorgan Archives (DWESA6).
Sources: https://archifaumorgannwg.wordpress.com/
Reference: WaW0117
May Brooks, WAAC/QMAAC. Image courtesy of Glamorgan Archives
May Brooks in the outdoor uniform of the WAAC/QMAAC. Image courtesy of Glamorgan Archives
Amy Goodwin
Place of birth: Cefn Mawr?
Service: Clerk, WAAC/QMAAC, 1917 - 1919
Notes: Amy Goodwin volunteered for the WAAC in 1917. After training at Kinmel Camp, Boddelwyddan, she was sent to Bourges in France to with the American Expeditionary Force as a book-keeper. Her collection of photographs from her time in France are deposited in West Glamorgan Archives.
Sources: http://www3.swansea.gov.uk/CalmView/Overview.aspx?s=Amy+Goodwin
Reference: WaW0123
Trenches tour 2
Amy and a friend on a tour of the trenches, Baillie Fields, Soissons. There is a German corpse in the foreground.
Violet Phillips
Place of birth: Newport
Service: Worker, WAAC/QMAAC, 1917 - 1919
Death: 1919-03-08, Chadderton Hostel, Cause not known
Memorial: St Woolos, Newport, Monmouthshire
Notes: Violet was the daughter of Mrs C.M.Phillips, 32 Barrack Hill, Newport, Mon.
Sources: http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/390079/PHILLIPS,%20V
Reference: WaW0118
Ladas May (Known as Gladys WAAC / in Gelwid yn Gl Powell ( later Pritchard)
Place of birth: Cwmaman
Service: Worker, WAAC/QMAAC, 24/05/1918 - 11/02/1920
Notes: Ladas Powell joined the WAAC underage. She served at Stonar Camp, near Sandwich, Kent. Ladas, or Gladys as she was known in the WAAC, kept an album with photographs and documents in it as well as entries by friends and colleagues.
Reference: WaW0044