Catherine Dorothy Thomas

Place of birth: Crai, Sennybridge

Service: Girl

Death: 1918-11-28, Influenza / Y Ffliw

Notes: Dorothy was the second to youngest of 8 children. Her mother died in 1912. The story goes that the family were struck by the great flu after WWI. Dorothy who was 21 years old at the time she looked after the family and nursed them back to health but in 1918 she succumbed and died that year on the 28th of November.' Catrin Edwards

Reference: WaW0105

Catherine Dorothy Thomas c.1912

Catherine Dorothy ‘Dollis’ Thomas, aged about 14. She seems to be wearing mourning, so it may have been taken in 1912 when her mother died.

Celia Janet (standing) and Polly Thomas, c.1912

Celia Janet (‘Sis’) Thomas and her older sister Polly. They seem to be wearing mourning, so it may have been taken in 1912 when their mother died.

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

Olive Jenkins

Place of birth: Pontnewynydd

Service: Nursing Sister, VAD, 1916-07-04 - 1918-12-02

Death: 1918-12-02, Caerleon Infirmary, Influenza / Y Ffliw

Memorial: War Memorial Gates, Pontypool, Monmouthshire

Notes: Died aged 28.

Sources: http://www.gwentarchives.gov.uk/media/38358/ww1-newsletter-13082014-compressed.pdf;http://www.redcross.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/History-and-origin/First-World-War/Search?fname=Olive&sname=Jenkins&hosp=Pontypool

Reference: WaW0088

Olive Jenkins

Name of Olive Jenkins VAD on Pontypool Memorial Gates.

Red Cross record of Olive Jenkins (1)

Red Cross Record of Olive Jenkins (2)

Annie Roberts

Place of birth: Holyhead

Service: Member, WRAF, 14/05/1918 - d.

Death: 1918-12-12, Pneumonia / Niwmonia

Memorial: War memorial, Holyhead, Anglesey

Notes: aged 20. Served in Chester area. Buried Holyhead (Maeshyfred) cemetery

Reference: WaW0053

Holyhead War Memorial

Name of Annie Roberts, WRAF, on Holyhead War Memorial

Jean Roberts

Place of birth: Blaenau Ffestiniog

Service: Worker, WAAC, 1917/11/08 – 1918/01/05

Death: 1918/01/05, Bangor Military Hospital, Spotted fever / Teiffws

Notes: Jean, who was 18 when she died, was the eldest of six children of a widowed mother. In November 1919 her case was raised in Parliament by Haydn Jones, MP for Merioneth. Jean had been the chief support of the family, but her mother was not entitled to any form of compensation and was forced to ask for parochial relief. The matter was ‘considered’ by the Financial Secretary to the War Office, but we do not know the outcome. Jean Roberts’s name appears in the Welsh National Book of Remembrance.

Reference: WaW0260

Grave Register

Details of Jean Roberts in the War Graves Register

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of parliamentary question about Jean Roberts. North Wales Chronicle 14th November 1919.

Welsh Book of Remembrance

Jean Roberts’s name in the Welsh National Book of Remembrance.

War Memorial plaque

Jean Roberts’s name on the War Memorial in St David’s Church, Blaenau Ffestiniog. It was obviously added after WW2, hence the mistake WAAF for QMAAC.rn. rn

Florence Valentine Johnstone

Place of birth: Newport

Service: Munitions worker, 1916 - 1918

Death: 1918/02/05, Coventry, explosion / ffrwydrad

Memorial: St Woolos Cemetery, Newport, Monmouthshire

Notes: Florence Johnstone was born in 1893 shortly after her parents had moved from Scotland to Newport. In 1916 she moved to Coventry to work in one of the munitions factories there. In January 1918 she was promoted to charge hand, but on 5th February a fuse exploded in her hand and she was killed. Her body was brought back to Newport, where her gravestone has recently been discovered in St Woolos cemetery. Thanks to Pete Strong and Sylvia Mason.

Reference: WaW0375

Gravestone

Recently discovered gravestone including the name of Florence Johnstone ‘killed on war service’.

Edith Frances Barker

Place of birth: Liverpool

Service: Nurse, VAD, February/Chwefror 1915 – Apr

Death: 1918/04/03, St Omer, France, Illness / Salwch

Memorial: St Collen\'s Church, Llangollen, Denbighshire

Notes: Born 1869, the daughter of a Liverpool Brewer, Edith lived with two brother in Pen-y-Bryn Hall, Llangollen for a number of years from 1901. She nursed in Malta and France where she died aged 49. She is buried in Longueness (St Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, and her name appears on Llangollen War Memorial.

Sources: https://grangehill1922.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/edith-frances-barker/

Reference: WaW0174

Imperial War Graves Document

Document giving instruction for inscriptions on headstones in Souvenir Cem Longueness. Edith Barker’s age is given as 49.

Red Cross Record Card (reverse)

Red Cross record for Edith Frances Barker (reverse).

Red Cross Record card

Red Cross record for Edith Frances Barker. This gives her age as 37.

War Memorial

War memorial, Llangollen. Edith’s name is near the top of the second column from the left.

Alida Gunst (née Demoine)

Place of birth: Belgium

Service: Housekeeper, refugee

Death: 1918/04/03, Llangwyfan sanatorium , Tuberculosis / Diciau

Notes: Alida arrived in London as a refugee from Belgium in October 1914. She was married to Arsène Dunst in Devon in January 1915. He was serving in the Belgian army, and had been wounded. They seem to have moved to Newport, where she may have worked as a housekeeper. She contracted TB, and was sent in December 1917 by Monmouthshire to Llangwyfan Sanatorium, Denbigh, where she died in April 1918. There was a dispute between the authorities in Newport and Denbigh as to who should pay for the burial.

Sources: https://refugeesinrhyl.wordpress.com/gunst/

Reference: WaW0433

Grave

Grave of Alida Gunst, Ystrad Road Cemetery, Denbigh.

Register for Aliens

Registration papers for Alida Dunst showing move from Newport to Llangwyfan 1917

Newspaper report

Report of Denbigh Town Council’s refusal to waive the fee for Alida’s burial.

Lily Vinnicombe (née ?)

Service: Munitions worker

Death: 1918/05/22, Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport , Sepsis following abortion / Madredd yn dilyn erthyliad

Notes: Lily Vinnicombe was a 29 year old widow. She died as a result of a self-administered abortion.

Reference: WaW0356

Death Certificate

Death certificate for Lily Vinnicombe.

Elsie Lavinia Gibbs

Place of birth: Grangetown, Cardiff

Service: Munitions worker

Death: 1918/07/01, National Shell Factory, Chilwell, Nottingham, Explosion / Ffrwydrad

Memorial: Saltmead Gospel Hall, Grangetown, Cardiff, Glamorgan

Notes: Elsie was born in 1901, and lied about her age to work in munitions (minimum age was 18). She was posted to the National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell in Nottingham, where she died in the explosion that killed 133 others, the worst civilian tragedy during the War. Her body was never identified, and she was buried in a mass grave with 101 other unidentified victims.

Sources: www.grangetownwar.co.uk

Reference: WaW0211

Munitions workers

Group of munitions workers. Elsie is to the right of the man with the moustache, collar and tie, middle row. Presumably taken at Chilwell.

After the explosion

Part of Chilwell Factory after the explosion of 1st July, 1918

Death certificate

Copy of Elsie’s death certificate, giving cause of death ‘presumed killed as result of explosion – Deceased know[n] to have been in works at time and since missing’. It gives her age, erroneously, as 19, and describes her as a ‘powder worker, daughter of Albert Gibbs’ with a Nottingham address. Her father was Albert Gibbs, but he lived in Dorset St, Grangetown, Cardiff.

Memorial

Elsie Gibbs’s name on the War Memorial, Saltmead Gospel Hall, Grangetown, Cardiff