Flossie Hamer Lewis

Place of birth: St Asaph

Service: Nurse, VAD

Death: 1917/03/22, St Asaph, ‘strain and overwork’ / ’straen a gorweithio’

Notes: Flossie Hamer Lewis worked at the Red Cross Hospital, Rhyl, from its opening. Her father was the St Asaph diocesan inspector of schools.

Reference: WaW0207

Flossie Hamer Lewis

Photograph of Flossie Hamer Lewis, part of the collection ‘Deaths: Nurses Deaths 1919-1920’ at the Imperial War Museum

Letter

Letter from Flossie’s father, the Rev J Hamer Lewis to the secretary of the Women Collections, Imperial War Museum, June 29th 1918

Letter (r)

Letter from Flossie’s father, the Rev J Hamer Lewis to the secretary of the Women Collections, Imperial War Museum, June 29th 1918 (reverse).

Newspaper report

Report of the death of Flossie Hamer Lewis, Denbighshire Free Press 31st March 1917

Newspaper report

Nursing award for Flossie Hamer Lewis, Denbighshire Free Press 16th March 1918

Daphne Elizabeth Powell

Place of birth: Talgarth ?

Service: Worker, WAAC/QMAAC, Novermber 1917 - April 1919 /

Death: 1919/04/11, The Old Vicarage Talgarth , brief illness / salwch byr

Memorial: St Gwendolines Church, Talgarth, Breconshire

Notes: Daphne Powell served with the WAAC/QMAAC at Swanage, where she proved ‘a very efficient worker’. She was 21 years old when she died, possibly of Spanish flu.

Reference: WaW0194

Grave of Daphne Powell

Grave of Daphne Powell, St Gwendolines Church, Talgarth, Her grave is on the right; her brother Charles Baden Powell, who died in 1921, is on the left.

St Gwendolines Grave Register

Grave register showing the entries for Daphne Powell and her brother Charles. Both graves were originally grassy mounds; the headstones were erected recently by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Newspaper report

Report of the funeral of Daphne Powell. Brecon County Times 1st May 1919

Annie Elizabeth (Nancy) Brewer (Mistrick)

Place of birth: Newport

Service: Nurse, Fondation Baye

Death: 1921/01/30, Newport, Brights disease

Notes: Annie Brewer, also known as Nancy, was born in 1874. Her father worked in the Dos Road Nail factory. She qualified in ‘the nursing and attendance of insane persons’ in 1899. After a few years working in hospitals she seems to have become a nurse/companion, travelling to many parts of Europe. At the outbreak of War she joined a private French hospital and ambulance organisation, the Fondation Baye, and worked as part of the Fondation in many war zones of France. She was wounded when her ambulance was bombed, and also suffered serious illness. She remained in France in the Army of Occupation until late 1920. She was decorated several times by the French government, including two awards of the Croix de Guerre and also the Legion d’Honnour. During her time in France she also married a young ambulance driver, Daniel Mistrick. She returned to Newport early in 1921 to nurse her mother, but died very shortly afterwards. Annie took many photographs of her time in France, and was also frequently photographed by others. A selection can be seen below.

Sources: www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/authors/88112f9c-1724-34e3-8c65-6d48968dc06b22cb34378481r_date%22%20and%20%28gallica%20all%20%22nancy%20Brewer%22%29

Reference: WaW0187

Annie (Nancy) Brewer

Photograph of Annie (Nancy) taken in Torquay, 13 . 3 . 15

Annie Brewer and ambulance

Annie Brewer beside an ambulance possibly driven by Daniel Mistrick

Annie in the operating theatre

Annie Brewer giving an anaesthetic in a camp operating theatre.

Announcement of award of Croix de Guerre

Announcement in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Français, 17th December 1917: Miss BREWER (Nancy), voluntary nurse in the de Baye unit, at the hospital at Dugny: a highly skilled nurse whose moral strength and devotion have been conspicuously shown on many occasions, notably 18 August 1917 during the shelling of her ambulance. Gave on that day a magnificent example of coolness and of absolute disregard for danger, lavishing her care on the wounded while under enemy artillery fire.

Nurses looking at a zeppelin

Photograph by AB of a group of nurses looking up at a zeppelin flying over.

Young man bathing

AB’s photograph of a young man, possibly Daniel Mistrick, bathing in a river.

Annie Brewer

Annie Brewer in a snow covered dugout

Announcement of award of Medaille de la Reconaissance français

Announcement in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Français 22nd October 1920: Miss Brewer (Annie Elizabeth, Nancy), British, senior nurse in the unit of Mlle de Baye: has been with this at the Front since 1915, at Vitry-le-François, at Deuxnouds, before Beauzée, at Souilly, at Dugny; since the Armistice has been attached to the Army of Occupation, notably at Saarbrücken; taken ill in April 1918, has had to undergo a long period in hospital; scarcely able to return to duty, daily imposing on herself new tasks way beyond her strength; at present undergoing treatment in rnhospital in a condition that her doctors describe as extremely serious.

Ezzelina Samuel

Place of birth: Pontardulais

Service: Nurse, 1916 - 1919

Death: February 1919 , Kemptown hospital, Brighton, Bronchitis following influenza / Broncitis yn dilyn ffliw

Notes: Ezzelina was one of eight children of Thomas Samuel, superintendent of the Clayton Tin Plate Works, Pontardulais. She was sitting her final exams after three year’s training as a nurse in Brighton when she fell ill and died, aged 24.

Reference: WaW0278

Newspaper article and phoograph

Short article noting Ezzelina’s death, with a photograph. Herald of Wales 1st March 1919rnrn

newspaper report

Report of the death of Ezzelina Samuel in Brighton. Carmarthen Journal 7th March 1919rnrn

Mabel Sybil (May) Leslie (Burr)

Place of birth: Woodlesford near Leeds

Service: Scientist, Chemist, HM Factory Penrhyndeudraeth, 1915 - 1918

Death: 1937/07/03, Bardsey, Leeds, Cancer / canser

Notes: May Leslie was born 1887, the daughter of a miner. Her father was very interested in education and self-improvement, for himself and his children. May won scholarships to High School and to Leeds University, where she gained First Class Honours in Chemistry in 1908, followed by a three year scholarship to study with Marie Curie in Paris. In 1914 she obtained an assistant lecturer’s post at University College Bangor, and in 1915 was called on to start work in the Explosive Factory in Litherland. She was promoted to Chemist in Charge of a Laboratory, a very rare position for a woman, and then moved into the same role at H M Factory Penrhyndeudraeth, working on explosives. This job ended with the War, and she returned to academic life in England.

Sources: https://newwoodlesford.xyz/schools/may-sybil-leslie/ Devotion to Their Science: Pioneer Women of Radioactivity, Rayner-Canham Marelene and Geoffrey

Reference: WaW0438

Photograph

May Sybil Leslie while at University College Bangor

Photograph

May Sybil Leslie, Leeds University, c.1920

Helena Susanna Adam

Place of birth: Belgium

Service: Refugee

Death: December 1916, School House, Pantycaws, Carbon monoxide poisoning / Gwenwyno gan garbon monocsid

Notes: Helena Adam was a 51 year-old Belgian refugee living with her family near Carmarthen. They arrived from Ostend in November 1914. Her death was caused by fumes from a fire warming their bedroom. The fire was made partly of culm, coal dust mixed with clay and other materials, which was much used at this time owing to the high price of coal. Helena’s husband Jacobus was also affected but later recovered.

Reference: WaW0388

Newspaper report

Report on the inquest on Helena Susanna Adam. Herald of Wales 11th December 1915

Newspaper report

Another report on the inquest on Helena Susanna Adam. South Wales Weekly Post 11th December 1915.

Gladys Paynter-Williamson

Place of birth: Margam

Service: Nurse, QAIMNSR, 1914/08/05 - 1919/ 08/24

Death: 1936, Carcinoma

Notes: Gladys trained as a nurse at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. Her father was the Vicar of Margam. As a reservist, she was called up in August 1914. Initially she served in war hospitals in England, but in 1917 she was sent to France (Etaples), and after the Armistice to Bonn in Germany. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross in February 1917. She seems to have been a solitary person; she had to ask for financial assistance when she developed cancer in 1934, and on her death her record states ‘Miss Paynter-Williamson does not appear to have any relations with whom she had kept in touch’.

Reference: WaW0401

Newspaper report

Report of Gladys Paynter-Williamson’s award of the Royal Red Cross. Cambria Daily Leader 11th April 1917.

Medical report

Doctor’s letter passing Gladys Paynter-Williamson as fit for overseas service. 27th July 1917.

QAIMNS gratuity claim form

Gratuity claim form for Gladys Paynter-Williamson.

Gwyneth Marjorie Bebb (Thomson)

Place of birth: Oxford

Service: Lawyer

Death: 1921, Edgbaston, Birmingham, Complications of childbirth / Cymhlethdodau esgor

Notes: Gwyneth Bebb moved to Wales when her father, Llewellyn John Montford Bebb, was appointed Principal of St David’s College Lampeter in 1898. She attended Lampeter Girls School for a while (and was an enthusiastic hockey-player). She studied law at St Hugh’s College, the 6th woman to study law at Oxford, and was the first to gain first-class marks in her finals, though she was not allowed to graduate. In 1913 she and three other women started an unsuccessful legal action, known as Bebb vs. the Law Society, to enable women to enter the legal profession. There was considerable support in the Welsh press. By this date women could practise in all other professions except the law and the Church. The case failed, and it was not until the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act of 1919 that women were admitted to the legal profession. During the War Gwyneth worked at the Ministry for Food. As Head of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Food in the Midlands she used her legal skills to help prosecute black-marketeers. While there she met and married T W Thompson, a solicitor. Her first child was born the day after the Sex Discrimination (Removal) Act became law. Soon afterwards she was accepted to read for the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn. She would have become Britain’s first women barrister if she had not died, aged 31, following the disastrous birth of her second child.

Sources: https://www.st-hughs.ox.ac.uk/celebrating-the-life-of-legal-pioneer-gwyneth-bebb\r\nhttps://www.lincolnsinn.org.uk/library-archives/archive-of-the-month/february-2017-the-admission-of-gwyneth-bebb/

Reference: WaW0400

Gwyneth Bebb

Gwyneth Bebb, now Thomson with her baby daughter Diana, early 1920.

Newspaper photograph

Newspaper photograph and article ‘Are Lawyers Afraid of Women’s Brains?’ Daily Sketch, December 1913.

Newspaper report

Report of a hockey match between Lampeter Ladies’ Team and Lampeter Girls’ School. Gwyneth is the only Girls’ School member mentioned. Carmarthen Journal 27th June 1903.

Newspaper report

Report of Gwyneth Bebb’s evidence at the Appeal Court. Carmarthen Weekly Reporter 4th July 1913.

Newspaper report

Report of Gwyneth Bebb (Mrs Thomson)’s admittance to Lincoln’s Inn. Cambria Daily Leader 31st December 1919.

Margaret Dorothy Roberts

Place of birth: Dolgellau

Service: Staff Nurse, QAIMNS Reserve / Wrth gefn, 29/09/1915 - 31/12/1917

Death: 1917-12-31, SS Osmanieh, Drowning

Memorial: Cathedral Nurse, Llanelwy, Flintshire

Notes: aged 47. SS Osmanieh was sunk by a German mine off Alexandria, Egypt. Grave in Hadra War Memorial Cemetery, Alexandria, Egypt. Born in the Workhouse in Dolgellau, she spent many years in Australia before returning to Britain to join the QAIMNS Reserves.

Sources: http://www.flintshirewarmemorials.com/memorials/st-asaph-memorial/st-asaph-cathedral-welsh-nurses-ww1/roberts-margaret-dorothy/; http://emhs.org.au/person/roberts/margaret_dorothy

Reference: WaW0051

Nurse Margaret Dorothy Robert's name on the Nurses' Memorial, St Asaph

Margaret Dorothy Robert's name on the Nurses' Memorial, St Asaph

Margaret Dorothy Roberts

Margaret Dorothy Roberts

Ellen (Nellie) Crosby

Place of birth: Liverpool

Service: Passenger

Death: 1915-05-07, SS Lusitania, Drowning / Boddi

Memorial: War memorial, Bagillt, Flintshire

Notes: aged 40, drowned with her sister Annie in the sinking of the Lusitania

Sources: http://www.lintshirewarmemorials.com; www.rmslusitania.info/

Reference: WaW0004