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
Roll of Honour
Roll of Honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London
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
Annie Elizabeth (Nancy) Brewer (Mistrick)
Place of birth: Newport
Service: Nurse, Fondation Baye
Death: 1921/01/30, Newport, Brights disease
Notes: Annie Brewer, also known as Nancy, was born in 1874. Her father worked in the Dos Road Nail factory. She qualified in ‘the nursing and attendance of insane persons’ in 1899. After a few years working in hospitals she seems to have become a nurse/companion, travelling to many parts of Europe. At the outbreak of War she joined a private French hospital and ambulance organisation, the Fondation Baye, and worked as part of the Fondation in many war zones of France. She was wounded when her ambulance was bombed, and also suffered serious illness. She remained in France in the Army of Occupation until late 1920. She was decorated several times by the French government, including two awards of the Croix de Guerre and also the Legion d’Honnour. During her time in France she also married a young ambulance driver, Daniel Mistrick. She returned to Newport early in 1921 to nurse her mother, but died very shortly afterwards. Annie took many photographs of her time in France, and was also frequently photographed by others. A selection can be seen below.
Photograph of Annie (Nancy) taken in Torquay, 13 . 3 . 15
Annie Brewer and ambulance
Annie Brewer beside an ambulance possibly driven by Daniel Mistrick
Annie in the operating theatre
Annie Brewer giving an anaesthetic in a camp operating theatre.
Announcement of award of Croix de Guerre
Announcement in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Français, 17th December 1917: Miss BREWER (Nancy), voluntary nurse in the de Baye unit, at the hospital at Dugny: a highly skilled nurse whose moral strength and devotion have been conspicuously shown on many occasions, notably 18 August 1917 during the shelling of her ambulance. Gave on that day a magnificent example of coolness and of absolute disregard for danger, lavishing her care on the wounded while under enemy artillery fire.
Nurses looking at a zeppelin
Photograph by AB of a group of nurses looking up at a zeppelin flying over.
Young man bathing
AB’s photograph of a young man, possibly Daniel Mistrick, bathing in a river.
Annie Brewer
Annie Brewer in a snow covered dugout
Announcement of award of Medaille de la Reconaissance français
Announcement in the Journal Officiel de la Republique Français 22nd October 1920: Miss Brewer (Annie Elizabeth, Nancy), British, senior nurse in the unit of Mlle de Baye: has been with this at the Front since 1915, at Vitry-le-François, at Deuxnouds, before Beauzée, at Souilly, at Dugny; since the Armistice has been attached to the Army of Occupation, notably at Saarbrücken; taken ill in April 1918, has had to undergo a long period in hospital; scarcely able to return to duty, daily imposing on herself new tasks way beyond her strength; at present undergoing treatment in rnhospital in a condition that her doctors describe as extremely serious.
Dorothea Margaret Seagrave Pryse-Rice (Evans)
Place of birth: London, 1894
Service: Nurse, VAD, 1914 – 1919?
Death: 1921/12/5, Cricket St Thomas, Devon, Influenza / Yffliw
Memorial: St Dingats Church, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire
Notes: Dorothea and her sister Nest were daughters of Margaret Pryse Rice, President of the Carmarthenshire Red Cross. Dorothea’s record card has not survived, but she probably served as a VAD most of the war. She married a war hero, Brigadier-General Lewis Pugh Evans VC, in October 1918, had a son in 1920, and died of influenza aged in 1921 aged 27.
Memorial plaque commemorating Dorothea and Nest Pryse-Rice, St Dingat’s, Llandovery
Grave of Dorothea Pryse Rice
Grave of Dorothea Pugh, née Pryse Rice, St Dingat’s, Llandovery
Lewis Pugh Evans VC
Dorothea’s husband, Lewis Pugh Evans VC
Newspaper report
Report of the wedding in London of Dorothea Pryse Rice and Lewis Pugh Evans, October 1918
Carine Evelyn Nest Pryse-Rice
Place of birth: London
Service: Nurse, VAD, 1914 – 1919
Death: 1921, Forden, Montgomeryshire, Not known / Anhysbys
Memorial: St Dingats Church, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire
Notes: Nest and her sister Dorothea were daughters of Margaret Pryse-Rice, President of the Carmarthenshire Red Cross. She served through the whole war, mostly at the Llandovery Auxiliary Hospital but 1918 - 1919 at the Nannau Hospital for Officers, Dolgellau. She died aged 25
Hannah’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.
Letter
Letter to the Secretary of the Women’s Committee from Hannah’s brother, Lieut David Mark, November 16th 1918
Newspaper notice
Notice of Hannah’s death, Glamorgan Gazette, 11th October 1918.
Memorial notice
Notice commemorating Hannah’s death, Glamorgan Gazette 10th October 1919
Florence Missouri Caton
Place of birth: ‘at sea’ off Cuba
Service: Nurse, SWH, September 1915 – July 1917 /
Death: 1917/7/15, Salonika, Appendicitis / Llid y pendics
Notes: Florence Missouri Caton was born on board ship (possibly the source of her middle name, though no evidence has yet been found) in about 1876, to parents from Wrexham. A trained nurse, she worked in Lancashire before joining the Scottish Women’s Hospitals in 1915. She had two periods of work in the Balkans. Shortly after her arrival in 1915 her unit was captured by the Austrians, and released in December. In August she returned to Serbia, working in various hospitals and dressing stations until she died of appendicitis in July 1917. She is buried In Lembet Road Military Cemetery, Salonika.
Report of death of Florence Caton, Y Brython, 30 August 1917. Translation: ‘Laying the nurse to rest. In faraway Serbia the remains of Nurse Caton of Wrexham were laid to rest. She had endeared herself to the wretched people of that country through her untiring labour of love in their midst. There is talk of erecting a white marble cross on her small grave.’
Gladys Maud Jones
Place of birth: Cambridge
Service: Nurse, VAD
Death: 1917/08/21, Salonika, Malaria
Notes: Gladys Maud Jones’s name appears on the Welsh book of Remembrance, and her photograph is in the Imperial War Museum’s collection. Unfortunately, despite her name, she appears to have no connection with Wales. Both her parents were from Lincolnshire.
Gladys Maud Jones’s name in the Welsh Book of Remembrance
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.