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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
Newspaper report
Newspaper report of parliamentary question about Jean Roberts. North Wales Chronicle 14th November 1919.
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
M Roberts
Place of birth: Ton Pentre
Service: Munitions worker
Memorial: Jerusalem C M Chapel, Ton Pentre, Glamorgan
Notes: Nothing is known of Miss M Roberts whose name appears on the Roll of Honour in Jerusalem Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Ton Pentre.
Reference: WaW0159
Roll of Honour
Miss M Roberts, Munitions’ name on the Roll of Honour in Jerusalem Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, Ton Pentre
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
Mary Frances Roberts
Place of birth: Wrexham
Service: Child
Death: 1916/03/09, Moss, Wrexham, Explosion / Ffrwydrad
Memorial: Holy Trinity Church, Gwersyllt, Wrexham, Denbighshire
Notes: Mary, aged four, died when a souvenir shell brought home by her uncle exploded, killing her sister and fatally injuring her and her two cousins. Her uncle Private John Bagnall was seriously injured as well as her mother Sarah Roberts and her aunt Mary Bagnall. The children were buried in two graves in Holy Trinity Churchyard, Gwersyllt, where a memorial to the four girls was dedicated in March 2016.
Sources: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/wrexham-remembers-four-children-killed-11027982
Reference: WaW0219
Newspaper report
Report of the shell explosion that killed four girls and injured three adults, North Wales Chronicle 10th March 1916
Newspaper report
Report of the explosion giving the names of the victims. Abergavenny Chronicle 17 March 1916
Newspaper report
Memorial to Sarah Bagnall, Ethel Roberts, Mary Roberts and Violet Williams at Holy Trinity Churchyard, Gwersyllt, dedicated March 2016.
Nancy Roberts
Service: Nurse, VAD ?
Notes: Nothing is known of Nancy Roberts. Her name appears at no 60 on the Roll of Honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London.
Reference: WaW0201
Nancy Roberts’s name on Roll of Honour
Nancy Roberts’s name on Roll of Honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London
Sarah Roberts
Place of birth: Wrexham ?
Service: Mother
Notes: Sarah lost both legs in the shell explosion at Moss, Wrexham, on 9th March 1916. Her daughter Ethel was killed instantly and her daughter Mary and two other little girls fatally injured. See Mary Bagnall.Sarah’s account was quoted in the report of the inquest, Canbrian Times 18th March 1916.
Sources: http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/wrexham-remembers-four-children-killed-11027982
Reference: WaW0216
newspaper report
Report of the shell explosion that killed four girls and injured three adults, North Wales Chronicle 10th March 1916
Gertrude Rosewarne
Place of birth: Ebbw Vale
Service: Nurse, VAD
Notes: Gertrude Rosewarne was working as a pupil teacher in 1911. She joined the VAD early in the War, first in Abergavenny and then in Ebbw Vale. She collected entries by many of her patients in her autograph album.
Reference: WaW0100
Gwladys Rowlands
Place of birth: Talywain
Service: Assistant Cook, WAAC/QMAAC, 1917/09 - 1919/10
Notes: Gwladys joined the WAAC in September 1917 when she was working as a housemaid in Pontypool Hospital. Her WAAC papers survive in the National Archives, including a letter to Lady Mackworth (Margaret Haig Thomas) in August 1917, enquiring about the possibility of joining a women’s army corps. She served as an assistant cook, first at Bisley near London, then at Catterick Camp in Yorkshire. Gwladys was discharged from the WAAC on compassionate grounds in October 1919.
Sources: National Archives WO-398-193-26
Reference: WaW0291
Helena May Rowlands
Place of birth: Llangefni
Service: Nurse, Territorial Nursing Service/Gwasanaeth Nyrsio Tiri
Death: 1919-05-10, Military Fever Hospital Liverpool, Influenza
Memorial: Nurses memorial, Llanelwy, Flintshire
Notes: aged 24/25. Buried in Mynydd Seion Chapel, Abergele. Her body was taken by train from Liverpool to Abergele, and straight to the cemetery to avoid infection.
Reference: WaW0054
Nurse Helena May Rowlands's name on the Nurses' Memorial, St Asaph
Helena May Rowlands's name on the Nurses' Memorial, St Asaph
Nurses' Memorial, Liverpool Cathedral
The Nurses’ Memorial in the Lady Chapel, Liverpool Cathedral, listing names of nurses who died in the War and had worked in Liverpool. Ethel Saxon is also recorded here.
Nurses' Memorial Liverpool Cathedral
Name of Helena Rowlands on the Nurses Memorial, Liverpool Cathedral
G(w)ladys Sails
Place of birth: Swansea
Service: Nurse, VAD
Death: 1917/12/15, Mumbles, meningitis
Notes: Gladys (or Gwladys, both spellings occur) worked as a VAD at Danycoed Red Cross Hospital, Swansea, where she contracted the illness that became meningitis. She was 28 when she died, and was well-known in Swansea for swimming in the ladies’ water polo team.
Reference: WaW0287
Newspaper report
Report of names, including Gladys’s, for Swansea Ladies’ Water Polo Team. Evening Express 12th October 1907.