Phyllis May Hughes, Lady (née Edisbury )

Place of birth: Denbighshire ?

Service: Commandant, committee woman, Munitions, 1914 - 1918

Notes: Lady Hughes was from a North Wales family, and married to Sir Thomas Hughes, a Cardiff-based politician. During the War she was a committee member of the Women’s Emergency Corps, the Soldiers, Sailors and Families Association, the District Nursing Association and other bodies. She was also Commandant of the Grangetown, Cardiff, Munitions Canteen, for which she was awarded an OBE in 1918.

Reference: WaW0330

Newspaper report

Report of Phyllis Hughes’s achievement at the end of a report of her husband’s knighthood. Glamorgan Gazette 7th January 1916

Citation

Citation for award of OBE to Lady Hughes. The London Gazette, 7 June, 1918.

Annie Richards

Place of birth: not known

Service: Munitions worker, NEF Pembrey

Notes: Annie was being shown the process of disassembling shells by Mary Thomas [qv], when Mary collapsed and subsequently died. She gave testimony at the inquest. Annie’s address was given as The Girls Club, Alexandra Rd, Swansea, a hostel for working girls.

Reference: WaW0300

Newspaper report

Report of the inquest of Mary Thomas, Annie Richards gave evidence.

Mary Elizabeth Thomas (née ?)

Service: Munitions worker, NEF Pembrey, 1917 - 1918

Death: 1918/12/16, NEF Pembrey, Pulmonary oedema / Oedema ysgyfeiniol

Notes: Mary, aged 33, had been working at Pembrey for about a year. On 16th December she was demonstrating a process, how to disassemble shells, to a fellow worker. Suddenly she collapsed, and died soon afterwards. According to her husband she had suffered from bad headaches for 12 months, though she was well when she left for work that morning.

Reference: WaW0299

Newspaper report

Report of the inquest into Mary Thomas’s death, Llanelly Star 21st December 1918.

Mabel Elsie Davies

Place of birth: Fforestfach

Service: Canteen worker, NEF Pembrey

Notes: Mabel was the eldest daughter of Eliza [qv] and Huw Davies. Fourteen when her father died, she started munitions work at Pembrey. When her age was discovered, she was transferred to work in the canteen.

Sources: People’s Collection Wales

Reference: WaW0322

Mabel Elsie Davies

Studio photograph of Mabel Davies. Owner Mrs Dorothy Jones.

Eliza Davies (née Belton)

Place of birth: Norfolk

Service: Supervisor, munitions, NEF Pembrey

Notes: Originally from Norforlk, Eliza was in service in Builth when she met her husband Huw Davies and they moved to Fforest Fach. Huw died in 1916 and Eliza began work at Pembrey, being promoted to supervisor. In 1920 she was awarded the MoBE ‘for courage and presence of mind in removing a burning fuze from a box of components, thus obviating what might have been a very serious explosion’. Her eldest daughter Mabel Elsie [qv] also worked at Pembrey.

Sources: Peoples Collection Wales

Reference: WaW0321

Eliza Davies and family

Eliza Davies and her family, probably taken in 1916 while they were still in mourning for Huw. Mrs Dorothy Jones 2018.

London Gazette

Notice of Eliza Davies’s award of the MoBE, London Gazette 7th July 1920.

Letter

Letting inviting Eliza Davies to her award of the MoBE, 23rd September 1920. Mrs Dorothy Jones 2018.

Catherine Fraser

Place of birth: Not known

Service: Doctor, NEF Pembrey / Pen-bre, June 1918 -

Notes: Dr Catherine Fraser, previously assistant medical officer for Bradford, was appointed medical officer at the National Explosives Factory, Pembrey, in June 1918.

Reference: WaW0361

Newspaper report

Article reporting Dr Fraser’s appointment to NEF Pembrey.

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

Nellie Prosser

Place of birth: Govilon

Service: Forewoman, munitions worker, NFF Rotherwas

Notes: Nellie Prosser was charged in the autumn of 1919 with dishonestly obtaining £15.10s in unemployment pay when she was in fact working as a servant for Mrs Solly-Flood [qv], a leading figure in society locally. She had been laid off from Rotherwas shell filling factory with all the other women workers at the end of the war, but claimed to the Labour Exchange in Abergavenny that she was waiting for the factory to re-open. According to the Rector of Govilon, who knew the family well, Nellie had progressed to forewoman at the factory despite suffering from TNT poisoning and resulting fits. She was also one of the elder sisters of May Prosser [qv]. Nellie Prosser was fined £25, or three months hard labour.

Reference: WaW0382

Newspaper report

Report of the Abergavenny Police Court proceedings against Nellie Prosser. Abergavenny Chronicle 3rd Oct 1919.

Agnes Hughes (Dennis)

Place of birth: Abercynon ?

Service: Teacher, activist, No Conscription Fellowship

Notes: Agnes Hughes and her family became friends of Keir Hardie, the Independent Labour Party MP for Merthyr Tydfil. Her brother Emrys, later an MP too, married Hardie’s daughter. The family were pacifist, and Agnes was a member of the No Conscription Fellowship. After Emrys was arrested as a Conscientious Objector she published an account of his experiences in the Pioneer newspaper. She was a leading figure in the local NCF, which was a social as well as political group. She later married Hedley Dennis.

Reference: WaW0239

Newspaper report

Report of Agnes Hughes's visit to Devizes prison (1).

Newspaper report

Report of Agnes Hughes's visit to Devizes prison I2)

Newpaper report

Report of an NCF outing.

A M Davies

Place of birth: Llanharan

Service: Nurse, Not known / anhysbys, 1915 - 1918 ?

Notes: Miss Davies, a professional nurse spent 18 months early in the war at Lady Hadfield’s Hospital at Wimereux, France (later No 5 British Red Cross Hospital). She later worked at the Welsh Hospital, Netley. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross in January 1918.

Reference: WaW0393

Newspaper report

Report of Nurse A M Davies’s award of the Royal Red Cross. Glamorgan Gazette 18th January 1918.