Una McCarthy

Place of birth: Abertillery ?

Service: Nurse

Death: October/Hydref 1918, Cause not known

Notes: Nothing is currently known of Una McCarthy, whose photograph appears with others in a newspaper, possibly the Argus, headlined ‘Died on Service’.

Reference: WaW0390

Newspaper photograph

Photograph of Nurse Una McCarthy 19 Marlborough Road Abertillery.

Elizabeth Jane [Batchie] Griffiths

Place of birth: Llandovery

Service: Clerk, VAD, 1918/01/28 – 1919/02/27

Notes: Batchie left school soon after her 18th birthday to join the VAD. She had previously trained as a volunteer with the Carmarthen Reserves. She worked as a clerk in the quartermaster’s stores at Catterick Military Hospital in Yorkshire, where she seems to have had an active social life! Thanks to Alathea Anderssohn.

Reference: WaW0392

Batchie Griffiths

Batchie Griffiths with other members of the Quartermaster’s Stores. Batchie is seated on the right. The photograph was taken on 24th March 1918. Thanks to Alathea Anderssohn.

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Batchie Griffiths. Note she was registered using her nickname.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Record card for Batchie Griffiths giving details of her career.

Batchie Griffiths

Photograph of Batchie between her friends Biggsie [l] and Minnie [r]. Note that non-nursing VADs seem to have worn ties as part of their everyday uniform. Thanks to Alathea Anderssohn.

Discharge certificate

Discharge certificate for Batchie Griffiths, 29th February 1919.

Ethel Hodgens

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Nurse, VAD, November 1914 – May 1919 / T

Notes: After an initial few months as a part-time volunteer, Ethel worked, paid, in military hospitals: one year at Oxford, then from May 1916 in Camiers, Tréport and Rouen, all in France. She worked until June 1919, and was mentioned in despatches in January 1918. She was 24 when she joined the Red Cross.

Reference: WaW039

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Ethel Hodgens.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Red Cross card for Ethel Hodgens, showing her service in England and France [reverse].

Newspaper report

Brief report of Ethel Hodgens’s mention in despatches. Cambria Daily Leader 5th January 1918.

Isabella Lilian Mitchell

Place of birth: Cattistock, Dorset

Service: Canteen worker, ambulance driver, French Red Cross, 1915 - 1918 ?

Death: 1970, Kent, Cause not known

Notes: Isabella was the only daughter of a Scottish family settled in Brecon. Her father A A Mitchell was an Alderman and JP, and both her brothers volunteered as army officers. In September 1915 she was working in the French Red Cross Canteen at Creil Station north of Paris. She is said to have received the Croix de Guerre in the summer of 1918 ‘for three years motor ambulance service with the French Army, and especially for good work at Creil’. Thanks to Marianne Last.

Reference: WaW0395

Newspaper report

Report of Isabella’s canteen work in Creil, France. Brecon County Times 2nd September 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of Isabella’s award of the Croix de Guerre. Brecon County Times 1st August 1918.

Ambulance drivers

Photograph of British motor ambulance drivers, France 1917.

Lilias Stuart Mitchell (née Wilsone)

Place of birth: Straights Settlement

Service: Committee woman, mother.

Death: 1949, Kent, Cause not known

Notes: Lilias Mitchell was the wife of A A Mitchell, Alderman and JP in Brecon, and mother of Isabella Mitchell [qv] who drove ambulances in France. Her elder son was killed in Mesopotamia in 1917, and her younger son seriously wounded in France in 1918. She and her husband were noted local Conservatives; Lilias supported refugees and Penoyre Red Cross Hospital. She was also Secretary of the Brecon Hiring Fair Committee and was a member of the Mental Deficiency Act Committee. In June 1918 She was awarded the Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth for her work with Belgian refugees. She and her husband left the area in 1919.

Reference: WaW0396

Newspaper report

Report of Mrs Mitchell’s appointment to the Mental Deficiency Act Committee. Brecon County Times 5th August 1915.

Newspaper letter

Letter to the newspaper about provisions for girls at the Brecon Hiring Fair. Brecon County Times 26th April 1917.

Newspaper report

Report of Mrs Mitchell’s award of the Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth. Brecon & Radnor Express 27th June 1918.

Notice of auction

List of garden and stable items sold by the Mitchells before their departure from Brecon. Brecon County Times 21st August 1919.

Marie Beckers

Place of birth: Belgium

Service: Teacher, refugee

Notes: Marie Becker was one of the Belgian refugees hosted in Holywell, and seems to have been a spokeswomen for the group. Her appointment to teach the Belgian children at Holywell County School was reported in the English and Welsh press.

Reference: WaW0399

Newspaper report

Report of Marie Becker’s appointment at Holywell County School. Flintshire Observer 21st January 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of Marie Beckers's appointment at Holywell County School. Y Brython 21st January 1915.

Lilian Eva Rees

Place of birth: Cardiff

Service: Rugby player, munitions worker

Notes: Lilian played rugby for Cardiff Ladies, a team mate of Maria Eley [qv] and probably a co-worker.

Sources: https://cardiffrugbymuseum.org/articles/earliest-photograph-women%E2%80%99s-team

Reference: WaW0397

Lilian Eva Rees

Lilian is sitting between Maria Eley (middle row seated left) and the Captain E Kitson (holding ball). The photograph was almost certainly taken on 15th December 1917.

Newspaper report

Advertisement for the match between Newport Ladies and Cardiff Ladies, 15th December 1917. Western Morning News.

Newspaper report

Cutting giving the score of the match played on 15th December 1917. Source not known.

E Kitson

Place of birth: Cardiff

Service: Munitions worker and rugby player

Notes: E Kitson captained Cardiff Ladies. She was a team mate of Lilian Rees [qv] and Maria Eley [qv] and probably a co-worker.

Sources: https://cardiffrugbymuseum.org/articles/earliest-photograph-women%E2%80%99s-team

Reference: WaW0398

E Kitson

E Kitson is sitting in the middle of the photograph holding the ball.

Newspaper report

Advertisement for the match between Newport Ladies and Cardiff Ladies, December 1917

Press cutting

Cutting giving the score of the match between Newport Ladies and Cardiff Ladies, December 1917. Source not known.

Fannie A Jones

Place of birth: Anglesey

Service: Nurse, VAD

Notes: Fannie’s VAD record is rather peculiar. According to her card (which has had the initial changed from F to E), she joined the VAD in January 1916 and worked for 1 hour. However it does say she has worked at Fazackerley War Hospital in Liverpool, and the North Wales Chronicle for 23rd March 1917 records her award of the Royal Red Cross.

Reference: WaW0403

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Fannie Jones, showing the change of F to E.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

‘No more information’

Newspaper report

Report of award of Royal Red Cross to Fannie Jones. North Wales Chronicle 23rd March 1917

Sarah Annie Evans (later Kyght)

Place of birth: Carmarthen

Service: Nurse, TFNS, 1914 - 1919

Notes: Annie, both of whose parents worked for the Carmarthen Poor Law Union, became a pupil teacher at 13. She later trained as a nurse at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and joined the TFNS. At the outbreak of war, Bristol RI became a military hospital. Annie was posted to Egypt in October 1915, and was then transferred to HMHS Braemar Castle in April 1916, where she remained until it was struck by a mine in the Aegean Sea on 23rd November. No lives were lost, but she spent some time in the sea. She spent the rest of the war in France, where she rose to the rank of Sister. She was discharged from the TFNS, with glowing references, in 1919, and returned to Bristol Royal Infirmary – they would be ‘very pleased to have her back again’. She gave up nursing and the TFNS when she married Bert Kyght in 1923.

Reference: WaW0394

Newspaper report

Report of Sarah’s departure for Egypt. Carmarthen Journal 29th October 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of Sarah’s career, published when she was home on leave. Carmarthen Journal 29th November 1918.

Letter

Letter from Sarah Annie Evans claiming her right to the 1914-1915 star, written in 1920.