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Megan Davies

Place of birth: Aberdare

Service: Singer, bank clerk

Death: 1919/03/25, Aberdare, Influenza / y ffliw

Notes: Megan Davies was a well-known contralto soloist in the Aberdare area, and performed in several War Heroes concerts. She worked in Barclay’s Bank, Merthyr.

Reference: WaW0421

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of a War Heroes Concert, naming Megan Davies. Aberdare Leader 5th January 1918.

Newspaper report

Report of the death from influenza of Megan Davies, aged 29. Aberdare Leader 29th March 1919

Edith Richards

Service: Sister

Notes: Mother, Mimmi (Sarah) and sister, Edith, to her left, at Tom’s graveside, c.1920; Gunner Thomas Sidney Richards,‘killed in action’, Armentieres, France, 14 March 1918, aged 20 in northern France, c. 1920

Reference: WaW0080

Edith and Mimmi (Sarah) Richards

Photograph of Edith and Mimmi (Sarah) Richards, Mother and sister of Gunner Thomas Sidney Richards, at his grave in France, c.1920; Tom Richards was ‘killed in action’, Armentieres,France

Thomas Richards

Tom Richards was ‘killed in action’, Armentieres, France

Gwenllian Elizabeth Roberts

Place of birth: Llangynidr

Service: Sister, QAIMNS Reserve

Notes: Gwenllian Roberts was awarded the Royal Red Cross for her services at the Central Military Hospital, Chatham, Kent.

Reference: WaW0115

Gwenllian Elizabeth Roberts

Sister Gwenllian Elizabeth Roberts QAIMNSR wearing her Royal Red Cross medal

Gwenllian Roberts’s Royal Red Cross

Sister Gwenllian Roberts’s Royal Red Cross, awarded August 5th 1919.

Edinburgh Gazette listing Sister Roberts’s award

Edinburgh Gazette listing Sister Roberts’s award, August 5th 1919 (8th in the right hand column).

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of Sister Roberts’s award, Llais Llafur25th October 1919.

Hannah Davies

Place of birth: Glog, Pembrokeshire

Service: Sister

Death: 1918 ?, Glog, Pembrokeshire, Influenza / Ffliw

Notes: Hannah was the sister of two soldiers, William and John, both serving overseas. John, the younger, was killed and is buried in Jerusalem. William survived, but brought home Spanish flu. He survived that too, but Hannah caught it nursing him, and died. Letters from both brothers, in Welsh and English, survive.

Reference: WaW0243

Letter

Letter in English from William to Hannah Davies, written on YMCA paper, on January 21st, 1918.

Letter (reverse)

Reverse of letter in English from William to Hannah Davies, written on YMCA paper, on January 21st, 1918.

Letter

Letter in Welsh from William to Hannah Davies, written on Church Army Recreation Hut paper. Winter 1917-18

Letter (reverse)

Letter in Welsh from William to Hannah Davies, written on Church Army Recreation Hut paper. Winter 1917-18 (reverse)rn

Gladys Butler

Place of birth: Valleys, 1914

Service: Small child

Notes: Gladys Butler had vivid memories of being dressed in a miniature soldier's uniform (c.1916/17) and being stood on a table. When admired as a 'smart soldier boy', she insisted 'I'm not a boy, I'm a girl!' (CF November 2014)

Reference: WaW0090

Arvona (Fona) Powell Jones

Place of birth: Gorseinon July 10th, 1913

Service: Small child

Notes: Fona confirmed her address and date of birth: July 10th, 1913. She recalled a story about her mother during the First World War asking her, because her father had received call-up papers, ‘You don’t want your father to go to war do you? She replied’ ‘Oh! Yes!’, because she had seen her uncle, who was at sea, in a uniform with a whistle around his neck. She thought therefore that her father would have a uniform and a whistle too. So she was delighted at the prospect of her father dressed in a uniform and whistle. But she remembers her mother’s face falling. ‘Oh! She was terribly disappointed that I had said that I wanted my father to go to war.’ But her father worked in the steelworks and since steel was required during the war he worked there for the duration of the war. Her parent’s names were Mary Ann Powell and Richard Jones; her father came from Cydweli and her mother was local to Gorseinon area. Her father had worked in the steelworks in Cydweli too. She also talks of her uncle, Brynmor, who was in the navy and who hated the war. At the end of the war he gave his navy clothes to her mother and told her to do what she wanted with them. She made Fona a dress from the bell-bottoms – they were of serge and added flowers etc onto it. She wore it all the time – to chapel and all. This was when she was about 5-6 years old. She remembers wearing it and swinging of a tree branch in it. Her mother’s brother (Tom in 1915 according to the family’s family tree)) died of typhoid in Crystal Palace during the war and she has a photograph of a wedding during the war with the men dressed in black in memory of him. Another of her mother’s brothers (Baden) was called up but when he arrived at the mess plates were being thrown all over the place. The Armistice – peace agreement had just been signed. And that’s all he saw of the war. Fona also recalled how, for the duration of the war, her mother removed a model of an eagle which was on top of the family’s grandfather clock and stored it away in a drawer, because it was a reminder and symbol of Germany. After the war it was restored to its place on top of the clock! ‘Memory is a strange thing isn’t it.

Sources: fona_jones_gorseinon.wave_sound

Reference: WaW0075

Fona Jones bottom left (blurred) at family wedding.

A family wedding showing a blurred Fona Jones, bottom left. The women were all dressed in mourning for Fona's uncle Tom, who had died in 1915.

Mary Anne Jones née Powell c.1905

Fona Jones's mother Mary Anne Jones née Powell as a young woman.

Margaret Evans Thomas

Place of birth: Pwllheli

Service: Staff Nurse, TFNS, 1914 - 1918

Death: 1918-11-08, 1st London General Hospital, Pneumonia

Memorial: War Memorial; Nurses Memorial; St Bartholomew's Hospital, Pwllheli; St Asaph, Caernarfon; Flintshire; London

Notes: Margaret, from a Welsh-speaking family, was brought up in Pwllheli from the age of 9 by her aunt and uncle. She probably trained as a nurse in London, perhaps at St Bartholemew’s Hospital which became the 1st London General Hospital. During the war she served as a Staff Nurse there until her death from flu at the age of 28; she was described as ‘cheerful and willing’. The War Office paid her funeral expenses of £20 2s 0d. Her gravestone in Pwllheli cemetery is set with the commemorative plaque (dead man’s penny’) sent to her relations after the war. Her name also appears on the Nurses’ Memorial in St Asaph’s cathedral. Thanks to Wayne Bywater.

Sources: http://www.flintshirewarmemorials.com/memorials/st-asaph-memorial/st-asaph-cathedral-welsh-nurses-ww1/thomas-margaret-evans WO-399-14971

Reference: WaW0017

Pwllheli War Memorial

Name of M E Thomas on Pwllheli War Memorial

Letter

Letter from Miss Sidney Brown to Agnes Conway of the Womens Section of the Imperial War Museum listing Margaret’s name as having died of pneumonia.

Grave of Margaret Evans Thomas

Margaret Evans Thomas’s grave in Pwllheli cemetery, set with her ‘dead man’s penny’. Thanks to Veronica Ruth.

War Memorial

Name of Margaret Evans Thomas on 1st London General Hospital memorial

Nurses memorial St Asaphs Cathedral

Name of Margaret Evans Thomas on the Nurses' Memorial, St Asaph's Cathedral

Letter

Letter from Margaret’s aunt Mrs Summers, explaining the differing names on her funeral payments.

Letter

Letter from Mrs Summers’s son in law, explaining the differing names on Margaret’s funeral payments.

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

Gertrude Madley

Place of birth: Llanelli, 1892

Service: Staff Nurse, QAIMNS Reserve / Wrth gefn, September 1916 - May 1920

Notes: Gertrude Madley was the daughter of a tinplate rollerman, and worked as a tinplate hand before training as a nurse in Swansea in 1913. She joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve as a Staff Nurse in September 1916. At just twenty-three years of age she was one of the youngest nurses to serve with the Reserve during the Great War. She served initally in Malta, and then, 1918 - 1920, in France

Sources: http://greatwarnurses.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/from-small-acorns-mighty-oaks-grow.html

Reference: WaW0098

Gertrude Madley in France 1919

Staff Nurse Gertrude Madley QAIMNS in France 1919

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