Rosa Cliff Ward

Place of birth: India

Service: Girl Guide Leader, 1912 - 1943

Death: 1984, Corscombe, Dorset, Cause not known

Notes: Rosa was born in India in 1893. Her father was a Brigadier General. In 1912 she founded the first Girl Guides company in North Wales, in Denbigh. The first was in Carmarthen (1910). Although she still under 21 she was soon appointed County Commissioner for Denbighshire. Rosa Ward seems to have introduced camping to the Guides; what was probably the first camp in Wales was set up by her at Segrwyd in 1916, and by 1931 she was the Guide Commissioner for Camping. Between 1939 ad 1944 she was Chief Commissioner for Wales She died in 1984 aged 101.

Reference: WaW0413

Rosa Ward

Photograph of Rosa Ward as Chief Commissioner in Wales.

Newspaper report

Report of the Guide camp at Segrwyd. Denbighshire Free Press 26th August 1916

Grave of Rosa Ward

Headstone of Rosa Ward’s grave, Corscombe, Dorset.

Gladys Mina Watkins

Place of birth: Abergavenny

Service: Staff nurse, QAIMNS

Notes: Gladys Watkins, born about 1882, joined QAIMNS in April 1909, and was sent to France very shortly after the outbreak of war. She was invalided home in September 1917, suffering from ’neurasthenia’; she seems to have had a complete mental breakdown. She spent much of the next two years in hospital, nursing homes, or staying with her sister Edith who was also a nurse. She faced numerous army medical boards, most of which declared her fit for home or sedentary service. Letters from Gladys herself, her sister and various doctors survive in her records in the National Archives. They describe her agoraphobia, suicidal tendencies and night terrors ‘associated with bursting shells’. She tendered her resignation from QAIMNS in the summer of 1918, though this was deferred and later withdrawn. By summer 1919 her health was improving: ‘I have been doing outdoor work, poultry etc, for the last three months and now feel much stronger’. She was passed fit ‘for home service’ in October 1919, and continued her career at Netley Military Hospital. The last record of her is summer 1923, when her file says ‘Warn for tour of foreign service’.Gladys was awarded the Royal Red Cross on her return from France in 1917.

Sources: National Archives WO 399_8743

Reference: WaW0279

Newspaper report

Report of the award of Royal Red Cross to Gladys Mina Watkins. Abergavenny Chronicle 26th January 1917

Letter

Letter from Gladys’s doctor in Ross on Wye describing her condition.

Letter

Letter from Gladys’s doctor in Ross on Wye describing her condition, continued.

Letter

Part of letter from Matron in Chief, QAIMNS, suggesting Gladys should be demobilised.

Official record

Record of Gladys’s medical boards.

Dorothy Mary Watson

Service: Munitions Worker

Death: 1917:07:31 , NEF Pembrey, Explosion / Ffyrwydrad

Memorial: Cenotaph, Swansea, Glamorgan

Notes: aged 19. Died in an 'unexplained' explosion with Mildred Owen and two male workers.

Sources: Funeral / Angladd South Wales Daily Post 11 August / Awst 1917; Inquest/Cwest The Carmarthen Journal and South Wales Weekly Advertiser 24th August / Awst 1917

Reference: WaW0062

Swansea Cenotaph

Name of Dorothy Mary Watson on Swansea Cenotaph

Grave of Dorothy Mary Watson

Grave of Dorathy Mary Watson Dan-y-Graig Cemetery, Swansea

Newspaper report

Report of the funeral of Dorothy Mary Watson and Mildred Owen.

Newspaper Report

Report of inquest into the deaths of Dorothy Mary Watson and Mildred Owen.

Dorothy Mary Watson

Mary’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.

Margaret Watts

Place of birth: Llanelli

Service: Child

Notes: In September 1915 11 year old Margaret Watts held a bazaar at home, selling ‘all her toys and little ornaments’ over two days. She raised half a guinea (10/6d) towards the cost of the Llanelly Motor Ambulance

Reference: WaW0234

Newspaper report

Report of Margaret Watts’s bazaar. Llanelly Star 25th September 1915.

Gabrielle (Bobby) West

Place of birth: Bournemouth

Service: Cook / Policewomen, VAD, 1916 - 1917

Death: 1990, Cause not known

Notes: Gabrielle (Bobby) West was the youngest of five children of a clergyman. Initially she volunteered as a VAD cook, but could not afford to continue to work unpaid, so began paid work at a munitions canteen in London. When police women began to be recruited to work in munitions factories she and her friend Miss Buckpitt joined. After a brief posting to Queensferry NEF they were promoted to Pembrey in January 1917. Her account of her time at Pembrey paints a very full picture of what life was like for the workers there. See her account of Mary Morgan [qv] and her fits. In May 1917 she was transferred to the Royal Ordnance factory, Rotherwas Hereford. When she was 89 years old Bobby was recorded for the Imperial War Museum’s oral archives.

Sources: ed Avalon Richards Menus Munitions and Keeping the Peace: The Home Front Diaries of Gabrielle West 1914 -1917. Pen&Sword 2016https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80008574

Reference: WaW0308

Gabrielle West

Gabrielle (Bobby) West in police uniform. She is back row, second from left.

Pembrey

Gabrielle’s drawing of the danger buildings at Pembrey. ‘.. where the most dangerous work is done, the sheds are actually inside the hills.'

Mary Ann Whaley

Place of birth: Cardiff ?

Service: Store hand, WFC [Womens Forage Corps]

Death: 1918, Influenza / Y Fliw

Notes: Mary Ann was a store hand in the Women’s Forage Corps, which sourced and processed feed for the Army’s horses. Over one million horses and mules were used by the British Army during the War, mostly for haulage and transport. Mary Ann was 39 when she died; her next of kin was her father Thomas Whaley of Cardiff.

Sources: Femina Patriae Defensor Paris 1934

Reference: WaW0221

Nominal Roll

Mary Ann’s name on Nominal Roll of Officials and Member[s] who have died while serving in the W.F.C

Florence Wheeler

Service: Pub licencee

Notes: Florence Wheeler applied to the Llanelly Police Court for the right to hold a licence for the Swan Inn, Llanelly. There was some doubt that a women could hold a licence, but she was successful. She had already managed the Greyhound, ‘the largest house in the town’.

Reference: WaW0327

Newspaper report

Report of Florence Wheeler’s successful application for a licence for the Swan public house, Llanelly.

Oliver Annie Wheeler

Place of birth: Brecon

Service: Educationalist and pscychologist

Death: 1963, Cause not known

Notes: Olive Wheeler was born in Brecon in 1885 and attended the County Girls School there. Obviously a prized old girl of the school, she gave a speech at the 21st anniversary celebrations of the headmistress, Miss Davies, in 1917. Olive was a student at University College, Aberystwyth gaining her BSc in 1907 and MSc in 1911, and serving as President of the Student Representative Council. She then left for Bedford College London where she gained her doctorate. She did not return to Wales until the early ‘20s. She succeeded Millicent MacKenzie [qv] as Labour Candidate for the Welsh Universities in the 1922 election, and became Professor of Education at Cardiff in 1925. In 1949 Olive was made a Dame for Services to education in Wales.

Sources: https://biography.wales/article/s2-WHEE-ANN-1886\\r\\nhttps://blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/cuarm/inspirational-people-1-dame-olive-wheeler

Reference: WaW0452

Olive Wheeler

Photograph of Olive Wheeler, probably taken when she was an MSc student at Aberystwyth.

Newspaper report

Report of Olive Wheeler’s attendance at Brecon County School celebrations. Brecon and Radnor Express 2nd August 1917.

Dame Olive Wheeler

Photograph of Dame Olive Wheeler, 1950.

Amy Laura Whitcombe

Place of birth: Hengoed

Service: Worker, QMAAC

Death: 1918-11-03, S C Convalescent Hospital, Plymouth, Influenza / Y Ffliw

Memorial: War memorial, Ystrad Mynach and Hengoed, Glamorgan

Notes: aged 24.

Reference: WaW0063

Ystrad Mynach War Memorial

Name of Amy Whitcombe on Ystrad Mynach War Memorial

Grave record

Grave record for Amy Whitcombe

Alice A White

Place of birth: Pontardulais

Service: Teacher, Commandant, VAD, 1916/09/01 – 1919/05/10

Notes: Alice White was the head teacher of Wood Green Infants School Cardiff. She was also the Commandant of Samuel House Auxiliary Hospital in Cardiff, and received the Royal Red Cross for her service in April 1919.rnRoedd Alice White yn brifathrawes Ysgol y Babanod Wood Green, Caerdydd. Roedd hi’n Benswyddog Ysbyty Atodol Samuel House Caerdydd hefyd a derbyniodd y Groes Goch Frenhinol am ei gwasanaeth ym mis Awst 1919. rn

Reference: WaW0469

Newspaper report

Report of Alice White’s award of the Royal Red Cross. Cambria Daily Leader 7th April 1919.

London Gazette

Alice White’s award listed in the London Gazette, April 1919.

Wood Street Infants

Photograph of children at Wood Street Infants School, 1925. Wood Street, also known as Temperance Town, was a densely packed area adjacent to Cardiff Station.