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

Edith Mary Tonkin

Place of birth: Sandford Devon

Service: Ward maid, VAD, 1917/11/06 – 1918/10/13

Death: 1918-10-13, 3rd General Hospital Le Treport, Pneumonia / Niwmonia

Memorial: War memorial, Llandaff, Glamorgan

Notes: Edith was born on a farm in Devonshire in 1892. She moved to Cardiff when her father inherited a pub from his uncle. She worked as a ward maid at the 3rd General hospital in Tréport, France, where she died aged 26. Her name appears on Llandaff war memorial with that of her younger brother William John (Jack), who died at the battle of Loos in 1915.

Reference: WaW0061

Llandaff War Memorial

Edith Mary Tonkin, VAD,'s name on Llandaff War Memorial

War Graves Register

Register for Mont Huon cemetery, Tréport, with entry for Edith Tonkin.

Edith Tonkin

Edith Tonkin in VAD uniform. Thanks to Maureen Roberts, Western Australia.

headstone

Headstone commemorating Edith Mary Tonkin, Mount Huon Military Cemetery Normandy. Courtesy Peter Bennett Dewberry Yorkshire

Red Cross record card

Red Cross record for Edith Mary Tonkin

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Record card for Edith Mary Tonkin (reverse)rnrn

Tonkin family

Photograph of the Tonkin family on the family farm in Devon, c 1910. Courtesy Maureen Roberts, Western Australiarn

Maud Williams

Place of birth: Llanharry ?

Service: Nurse

Memorial: Penuel Chapel , Llanharry, Glamorgan

Notes: Nothing is known of Nurse Maud Williams , whose name appears on the Roll of Honour in Penuel Chapel, Llanharry

Reference: WaW0171

Roll of Honour

Nurse Maud Williams named on Penuel Chapel Roll of Honour, Llanharry, Glamorganshire

Eva Martha Davies

Place of birth: Llantwit Major ?

Service: Nurse, VAD, Aug / Awst-1914 - 1918

Death: 1918-06-16, Newport, Septic poisoning contracted on duty. Gwenwyno septig a gafwyd tra ar ddyletswydd

Memorial: War memorial, Llantwit Major, Glamorgan

Notes: Worked at Newport Hospital. Eva’s photograph was collected by the Women’s Subcommittee of the Imperial War museum as part of its collection of women who died during the War. Two of Eva’s brothers were killed in France. Daughter of Mary Davies (WaW0172),

Reference: WaW0008

Llantwit Major War Memorial

Name of Eva Martha Davies, VAD, on Llantwit Major War Memorial

Newspaper report

Report of Funeral of Eva Martha Davies

Eva Martha Davies

Eva’s photograph was collected by the Women’s Subcommittee of the Imperial War museum as part of its collection of women who died during the War.

C A Howell

Place of birth: Neath ?

Service: Nurse, ‘Red Cross Nurse’ (VAD) ‘Nyrs y Groes Gochï¿

Death: January 1918 / Ionaw, Cause not known

Memorial: Soar Maes-yr-haf Chapel,, Neeath, Glamorgan

Notes: C A Howell’s name appears on the Roll of Honour in Soar Maes-yr-haf Chapel, Neath. She is described as a Red Cross Nurse.

Reference: WaW0138

Roll of Honour, Soar Maes-yr-haf Chapel

Name of Miss C A Howell Red Cross Nurse on Roll of Honour, Soar Maes-yr-haf Chapel, Neath

Emily Ada Pickford (née Pearn)

Place of birth: Penarth

Service: Entertainer

Death: -1919-07.02, River Somme, Drowning / Boddi

Memorial: War memorial, Penarth, Glamorgan

Notes: aged 37. A member of one of Lena Ashwell's Concert Parties, she died when the car in which she was a passenger skidded into the River Somme on the way back from a concert. Buried Abbeville Community Cemetery Extension Plot V, Row G, Grave 23

Reference: WaW0043

Penarth War Memorial

Name of Emily Pickford on Penarth War Memorial. She was a singer who drowned in an accident in the Somme January 1919

Florence Gwendolin Howard

Place of birth: Pontypridd ?

Service: Staff Nurse, Territorial Nursing Service/Gwasanaeth Nyrsio Tiri

Death: 1914-11-18, Not known, Septic poisoning / Gwenwyno septig

Memorial: St Catherines Church, grave Glyntaff Cemetery, Pontypridd, Glamorgan

Notes: Nothing is currently known of Florence Howard.

Sources: http://twgpp.org/information.php?id=2257521; http://www.qaranc.co.uk/war_graves_memorials_Nurse/Nyrss.php

Reference: WaW0026

St Catherine’s Church, Pontypridd

Name of Florence Howard on war memorial plaque in St Catherine’s Church, Pontypridd

Florence Howard

Florence Howard in uniform

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Thomas

Place of birth: Seven Sisters

Service: Nurse, QAIMNSR, 1915 - 1920

Death: 1921/09/27, Neath ?, Tuberculosis / Y dicléin

Memorial: Seven Sisters , Glamorgan

Notes: Born in 1890, Lizzie attended Neath County School and trained as a nurse at Swansea General and Eye Hospital. She volunteered for QAIMNS Reserve in 1915, and was sent to Salonika via Egypt in November. It is said that the troopship she was on was torpedoed, and that she spent some hours in the water. She returned home in December 1916, and in January 1917 was given a reception by the local community, including the presentation of a medal and the singingof an embarrassingly effusive poem in Welsh. She spent the rest of the War, until she was demobbed in October 1920, at Fort Pitt Military Hospital, Chatham. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross in April 1919. Lizzie returned home to nurse in Neath, but died less than a year later of TB. Her name appears on the Seven Sisters War Memorial

Sources: Jonathan Skidmore: Neath and Briton Ferry in the First World War

Reference: WaW0477

Elizabeth Thomas

Lizzie Thomas in uniform

Poem / song

The embarrassing song performed at the reception for Nurse Thomas in January 1917. ‘Composed by Mr R. D. Harris and sung by Messrs. D. T. Davies and John Hughes’. Llais Llafur 6th January 1917

Army Form W. 3538

Lizzie Thomas’s new posting to Fort Pitt Military Hospital, Chatham, 1st September 1917

Seven Sisters War Memorial

Photograph taken shortly after its opening 1920?

Edith E Copham

Service: Munitions Worker

Death: 1918-11-18, NEF Pembrey, Ffrwydrad

Memorial: Cenotaph, Swansea, Glamorgan

Notes: aged 19. She was killed in the same explosion as Mary Fitzmaurice and Jane Jenkins; MF and EEC shared a public funeral.

Sources: Explosion report Herald of Wales 14th December 1914; Funeral report South Wales Weekly Post 30 Nov 1918 / Adroddiad am y ffrwydrad Herald of Wales 14eg Rhagfyr 1914; Adroddiad am yr angladd South Wales Weekly Post 30ain Tachwedd 1918

Reference: WaW0002

Swansea Cenotaph

Name of Edith E Copham on Swansea Cenotaph

Newspaper report

Report of Funeral of Edith E Copham and Mary Fitzmaurice

Newspaper report

Explosion report Herald of Wales 14th December 1918

Mary D Davies

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Unknown, ATS

Memorial: Cenotaph, Swansea, Glamorgan

Notes: Nothing is currently known of Mary D Davies, who worked, perhaps as a WAAC, in the Army Transport Service.

Reference: WaW0119

Swansea Cenotaph

Name of Mary D Davies on Swansea Cenotaph