Gwynedd Violet Llewellyn

Place of birth: Bewdley, Worcestershire

Service: Nurse, VAD

Death: 1918/11/03, Rouen, France, Influenza / Y Ffliw

Notes: Gwynedd Violet Llewellyn’s name appears on the Welsh book of Remembrance. Unfortunately, despite her name, she appears to have no connection with Wales. Her family connections were with Worcestershire and Somerset

Reference: WaW0214

Welsh Book of Remembrance

Gwynedd Violet Llewellyn’s name in the Welsh Book of Remembrance.

Amy Curtis (née Chamberlain)

Place of birth: Wolverhampton

Service: Nurse, VAD, July – November 1918 / Gorff

Death: 1918/11/06, Auxiliary Hospital Wallasey, Pneumonia / Niwmonia

Memorial: Gwersyllt, Denbighshire

Notes: Amy’s father was a railwayman who moved the family around the English midlands before setting in Gwersyllt. She married James Chamberlain in 1909 and had a daughter Lilly in 1910. James was killed in action in December 1917, and Amy joined the VAD in July 1918. She was 31 when she died; her name appears in the Welsh Book of Remembrance.

Sources: http://www.clwydfhs.org.uk/cofadeiladau/gwersyllt_wm.htm

Reference: WaW0231

Red Cross record card

Red Cross record of Amy Curtis’s service.

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Red Cross record of Amy Curtis’s service. (reverse)

Welsh Book of Remembrance

Mrs Amy Curtis’s name in the Welsh Book of Remembrance.

Hylda Salathiel

Place of birth: Pencoed

Service: Nurse, hockey player, South Wales Nursing Association

Death: 1918/11/06, Cardiff, Influenza / Ffliw

Notes: Hylda Salathiel, who was one of seven sisters, was educated at Bridgend High School, and trained at Merthyr General Hospital. For a while she was an international hockey player, playing for Bridgend Ladies and South Wales Ladies. She nursed for a while in Bournemouth, but returned to South Wales, where she caught influenza from a patient she was nursing and died four days later. The patient recovered and sent flowers to Hylda’s funeral.

Reference: WaW0301

Newspaper report

Report of an international hockey match between South Wales and Monmouthshire Ladies and Munster Ladies. Glamorgan Gazette 12th February 1909.

Newspaper report

Report of the death and funeral of Hylda Salathiel. Glamorgan Gazette 15th November 1918

Aldwyth Katrin Williams

Place of birth: Llanbedr-y-Cennin

Service: Nurse, VAD, 1914 - 1918

Death: 1918/11/08, Llanbedr-y-Cennin, Influenza / Ffliw

Memorial: St Tudnos Churchyard, Llandudno, Caernarfonshire

Notes: Aldwyth was the only daughter of the Rector of Llanbedr-y-Cennin. She joined the VAD early in the war, and worked for three days a week in the Red Cross hospitals in Llandudno, cooking and cleaning as well as nursing. She was 26 when she died.

Sources: http://historypoints.org/index.php?page=great-orme-grave-aldwyth-williams

Reference: WaW0262

Grave of Aldwyth Williams

Grave of Aldwyth Katrin Williams, St Tudno’s Church, Great Orme, Llandudno. Photo courtesy of Laurence Manton

Newspaper report

Report of the funeral of Aldwyth Katrin Williams, Y Clorianydd, 27th November 1918, Identical reports were published in Y Cymro and Y Dydd.rn

Lily Jenkins

Place of birth: Coity ?

Service: Nurse

Death: 1918/11/28, Esat Hampstead, Influenza / Y Ffliw

Notes: Little is known of Lily Jenkins, who had been a nurse at Bracknell Infirmary, East Hampstead, for four years. She was 21 when she died.

Reference: WaW0348

Newspaper report

Report of the death and funeral of Nurse Lily Jenkins. Glamorgan Gazette 20th December 1918.

Mary Daniel

Place of birth: Nantgaredig

Service: Kindergarten teacher

Death: 1918/12/01, Kimbolton, Pneumonia following influenza / Niwmonia yn dilyn ffliw

Notes: Mary Daniel had been teaching in the junior department of Kimbolton Grammar School for less than a term when she died of complications of Spanish Flu. She had been a pupil of the County Girls School in Carmarthen and trained for her Froebel education certificate in London.

Reference: WaW0459

Newspaper photograph

Press photograph of Mary Daniel. Carmarthen Journal 13th December 1918

Newspaper report

Report of the life and death of Mary Daniel. Carmarthen Journal 13th December 1918.

Ada Doris Maud Lesser (Radcliffe)

Place of birth: Nova Scotia

Service: Worker, QMAAC

Death: 1918/12/04, Tidsworth Military Hospital, Wiltshire, Influenza / y ffliw

Memorial: Danygraig, Swansea, Glamorgan

Notes: Born c.1879, Ada moved with her parents to Swansea. She married Arthur Charles Lesser in December 1899. The inscription on her grave says she was 36 when she died, but she was probably older. Thanks to Diana Morgan

Reference: WaW0190

Grave of Ada Lesser

Grave with the name of Ada Lesser, QMAAC

Mary Elizabeth Thomas (née ?)

Service: Munitions worker, NEF Pembrey, 1917 - 1918

Death: 1918/12/16, NEF Pembrey, Pulmonary oedema / Oedema ysgyfeiniol

Notes: Mary, aged 33, had been working at Pembrey for about a year. On 16th December she was demonstrating a process, how to disassemble shells, to a fellow worker. Suddenly she collapsed, and died soon afterwards. According to her husband she had suffered from bad headaches for 12 months, though she was well when she left for work that morning.

Reference: WaW0299

Newspaper report

Report of the inquest into Mary Thomas’s death, Llanelly Star 21st December 1918.

Eleanor (or Sarah Jane) Thomas

Place of birth: Cwmbwrla

Service: Munitions Worker

Death: 1919-01-08, NEF Pembrey, Explosion/Ffrwydrad

Memorial: Cenotaph, Swansea, Glamorgan

Notes: aged 20. 'Evidence showed that the explosion occurred when Gwenllian Williams was drilling out a screw from a shell. Eleanor Thomas was carrying in a shell at the time of the explosion.'

Sources: http://newspapers.library.wales/search?query=gwenllian&page=14; The Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser

Reference: WaW0059

Swansea Cenotaph

Name of Eleanor Thomas on Swansea Cenotaph

War memorial

Name of Eleanor Thomas on the war memorial at St Stephen's church Swansea.

Gwenllian (Gwendoline) Williams

Place of birth: Kidwelly

Service: Munitions worker

Death: 1919-01-08, Explosion/Ffrwydrad

Notes: aged 21. Evidence showed that the explosion occurred when Gwenllian Williams was drilling out a screw from a shell. Eleanor Thomas was carrying in a shell at the time of the explosion.'

Sources: http://newspapers.library.wales/search?query=gwenllian&page=14; The Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser

Reference: WaW0065

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of the death of Gwenllian (Gwendoline) Williams