Annie Matthews (Cousins)

Place of birth: Treboeth, Swansea

Service: Munitions worker

Notes: Annie Matthews was a munitions worker at Pembrey. Though she was working on two occasions when there was an explosion, she was unharmed. After the War she married Arthur Cousins whom she met while waiting for her train to Pembrey from Swansea.

Reference: WaW0165

Annie Matthews

Annie Matthews in the uniform of the NEF, Pembrey

Annie Matthews

Annie Matthews in soldier's uniform, cap of the Welsh Regiment

Annie Matthews and Arthur Cousins

Annie Matthews and Arthur Cousins, who were married after the War.

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.

May McIndoe

Place of birth: not known

Service: Munitions worker, NEF Pembrey / Pen-bre

Notes: May McIndoe, aged 53, was taken to court in August 1918 for having a sealed tin of tobacco with her, to deliver to a man. The case was dismissed, as she was apprehended taking it to the mess room, where such things were deposited. This was within the rules about inflammatory materials at the munitions works.

Reference: WaW0381

Newspaper report

Report of the failed case against May McIndoe. Cambrian Daily Leader 22nd August 1918

Phyllis Violet McKie

Place of birth: Bangor

Service: Scientist, Research chemist

Notes: Phyllis, born July 1893, was the daughter of a clerk at the Penrhyn Quarries. She entered University College Bangor in 1912, and in 1916 was awarded an MSc, as well as a BSc, in recognition of her war work. She developed a new method of producing the explosive tetranitromethane as well as methods of making saccharine and artificial vanilla. She went on to have a distinguished career at several universities.

Sources: Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneer British Women Chemists 1880 – 1949. Marelene Rayner-Canham & Geoff Rayner-Canham Imperial College Press 2008

Reference: WaW0233

Dr Phyllis Mckie

Phyllis Mckie in doctoral robes, painted by Patrick Phillips 1957.

Margaret Sara Meggitt (née ?)

Place of birth: Grantham

Service: Teacher, trade unionist

Notes: Margaret Meggitt moved to Newport, Mon, in 1906 with her husband. They had previously lived in Mansfield, where she had been involved in the Suffrage movement. She joined the Labour Party in 1913, and formed the Newport Branch of the National Federation of Women Workers, serving as secretary for four years. She was the first woman to sit on the Newport Trades and Labour Council, and was an assessor on the Munitions tribunal of Monmouthshire, with particular emphasis on the working conditions of girls and women. She was also an executive member of the Monmouthshire Committee of the National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, and supported the defence appeal for Gladys May Snell [qv].

Sources: Who’s Who in Newport 1920

Reference: WaW0363

Margaret Merritt

Photograph of Margaret Meggitt from Who’s Who in Newport, 1920.

National Union of Women Workers badge

Badge of the National Federation of Women Workers, possibly from Monmouthshire. Thanks to Pete Strong.

Alice Meldrum

Place of birth: Trevor Llangollen, 1880

Service: Staff Nurse, QAIMNS Reserve / Wrth gefn, 1914 - 1920

Notes: Alice Meldrum survived the sinking of the Hospital Ship HMHS Anglia 17th November 1915. The ship was carrying wounded men from Boulogne to Folkestone when it struck a mine. Alice's account reads:“We carried as many as possible on deck, and those that could threw themselves into the sea; others were let down in the lifeboat, but unfortunately it was only possible to lower one boat, as the ship was sinking so rapidly. The patients kept their heads wonderfully, there was no panic whatever, and when one realises that in the vast majority of cases they were suffering from fractured limbs, severe wounds, and amputations, it speaks volumes for their spirit, their grit and real bravery for they must have suffered agonies of pain. After we had satisfied ourselves that there was no possible chance of getting any more patients out, for by that time our bows had quite gone under, and only the ship’s stern was above water, with the propellers going at a terrific rate and blinding us with spray, we then got down onto the rudder and jumped into the sea……”. Three hundred wounded and crew were saved by naval and other ships in the area. She wrote 'there was a humourous side to it, for we must have looked very weird in the different garments that had been so kindly supplied to us by the officers and men of the destroyers, who did everything in their power for our welfare……..I would remind you that 40 minutes in the water in November is not the kind of sea-bathing that many would indulge in from choice …….After a good meal on the Ambulance Train, we were soon on our journey to London.”. Alice Meldrum was awarded the Royal Red Cross, and also wrote a short account of her experiences. She spent the remainder of the War working at field hospitals in France.

Sources: http://greatwarnurses.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/sinking-of-hospital-ship-anglia.html

Reference: WaW0101

Alice Meldrum's memoir

Experiences of Life on a Hospital Ship in Wartime� Alice Meldrum's memoir

Application to join QAIMNS

Alice Meldrum's application to join QAIMNS

Alice Meldrum

Alice Meldrum VAD

Royal Red Cross

Alice Meldrum's Royal Red Cross

Margaret Jane Meredith

Place of birth: Erwood

Service: Farm servant

Death: 1916/02/23, Grugwyllt Farm, Margam, Poisoning / Gwenwyno

Notes: Margaret Meredith had been a farm servant at Grugwyllt Farm, Margam for ‘about a year’. She was 27 or 28. On the evening of February 23rd 1916 she ate yew leaves in an attempt to procure an abortion, and died of poisoning. She had a soldier lover, but had not seen him for a year. She was also said to be seeing a man from Cwmafon. A longer account of the inquest in the Brecon County Times shows that the coroner questioned her employer, Caradoc Jones, a widower, about her condition. He denied responsibility. The verdict was ‘death was due to poisoning by taking yew leaves while temporarily insane’.

Reference: WaW0298

Newspaper headline

Headline to the report of the inquest of Margaret Jane Meredith. Cambria Daily Leader 25th February 1916.

Newspaper report

First part of the report of the inquest into Margaret Meredith’s death. The full report can be found in the Cambria Daily Leader, 25th February 1916, p.6.

Kate (Anna Catherine) Miller

Place of birth: Grangetown Cardiff

Service: Worker, QMAAC, 1918 - 1920

Death: 1920-07-29, St Pol-sur-Ternoise cemetery,France, Pneumonia / Niwmonia

Notes: aged 27. Buried St Pol-sur-Ternoise cemetery

Sources: http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=11&sort=name&order=asc; folder

Reference: WaW0038

Anna Catherine Miller

Anna Catherine (Kate) Miller, QMAAC

Augusta Minshull

Place of birth: Atherstone

Service: Nurse, St John’s Ambulance, Scottish Women’s Hospital

Death: 1915/03/21, Kraguievatz, Typhus fever / Haint teiffws

Memorial: Chela Kula Military Cemetery, Nĭs, Nĭs, Serbia

Notes: Augusta Minshull was born in 1861 in Atherstone, near Manchester, but was brought up in Denbigh where her parents ran the Crown Hotel. She seems to have trained as a nurse after her mother’s death. She had extensive experience in hospitals in England and Dublin. In 1914 she seems to have travelled first to Belgium, and then to Kraguievatz, Serbia early in 1915. She died there in the epidemic of typhus, aged 53 or 54.

Reference: WaW0468

Augusta Minshull

Augusta’s photograph was collected by the Women’s Subcommittee as part of its collection of women who died during the war.

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of Augusta Minshull’s death in Serbia. Denbighshire Free Press 17th April 1915.

Obituary

Obituary of Augusta Minshull in the British Journal of Nursing, detailing her career.

Roll of honour

Roll of honour of members of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals who died overseas.

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.