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

Alice Meldrum's memoir

Experiences of Life on a Hospital Ship in Wartime� Alice Meldrum's memoir

Application to join QAIMNS

Alice Meldrum's application to join QAIMNS

Alice Meldrum

Alice Meldrum VAD

Royal Red Cross

Alice Meldrum's Royal Red Cross

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

Margaret Dorothy Roberts

Margaret Dorothy Roberts

Mary R Jones

Service: Nurse, QAIMNS reserve / Wrth gefn yn y QAIMNS

Notes: Mary’s name appears at no 21 on the Roll of honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London. She must have been a trained nurse working in London, but nothing is known of her.

Reference: WaW0199

Roll of Honour

Roll of honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London

Mary Jones’s name on Roll of Honour

Mary R Jones’s name on Roll of honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London

Margaret Ann (Peggy) Lyons

Place of birth: Tregaron

Service: Staff nurse, QAIMNSR, 1915 - 1919

Notes: Peggy Lyons was born in Tregaron in 1875. She trained at Carmarthen Infirmary, and in 1900 moved to London where she worked in two hospitals, and with private patients. She applied to join QAIMNS in January 1915, and served in British military hospital for 18 months. In June 1916 she was posted via Bombay to Mesopotamia where she remained until she was invalided home in September 1919 suffering from malaria. After treatment she was demobilised with excellent references on 29th September 1919. She may subsequently have moved to work in South Africa. Peggy was awarded the Royal red Cross in June 1916. Her sister Kate Phyllis Davies [qv] worked as a sister at Aberystwyth Red Cross hospital.

Sources: National Archives WO 399_5063

Reference: WaW0280

Newspaper artcle and photograph

Photograph and report of Peggy Lyons’s receipt of the Royal Red Cross. Cambrian News 23rd June 1916.

Newspaper article

First part of a letter home from Peggy Lyons in Mesopotamia, published in the Cambrian News 24th August 1917.

Letter

Letter from Peggy Lyons concerning the treatment of her malaria, 21 September 1919 (1)

Letter

Letter from Peggy Lyons concerning the treatment of her malaria, 21 September 1919 (2)

Gladys Paynter-Williamson

Place of birth: Margam

Service: Nurse, QAIMNSR, 1914/08/05 - 1919/ 08/24

Death: 1936, Carcinoma

Notes: Gladys trained as a nurse at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. Her father was the Vicar of Margam. As a reservist, she was called up in August 1914. Initially she served in war hospitals in England, but in 1917 she was sent to France (Etaples), and after the Armistice to Bonn in Germany. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross in February 1917. She seems to have been a solitary person; she had to ask for financial assistance when she developed cancer in 1934, and on her death her record states ‘Miss Paynter-Williamson does not appear to have any relations with whom she had kept in touch’.

Reference: WaW0401

Newspaper report

Report of Gladys Paynter-Williamson’s award of the Royal Red Cross. Cambria Daily Leader 11th April 1917.

Medical report

Doctor’s letter passing Gladys Paynter-Williamson as fit for overseas service. 27th July 1917.

QAIMNS gratuity claim form

Gratuity claim form for Gladys Paynter-Williamson.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Thomas

Place of birth: Seven Sisters

Service: Nurse, QAIMNSR, 1915 - 1920

Death: 1921/09/27, Neath ?, Tuberculosis / Y dicléin

Memorial: Seven Sisters , Glamorgan

Notes: Born in 1890, Lizzie attended Neath County School and trained as a nurse at Swansea General and Eye Hospital. She volunteered for QAIMNS Reserve in 1915, and was sent to Salonika via Egypt in November. It is said that the troopship she was on was torpedoed, and that she spent some hours in the water. She returned home in December 1916, and in January 1917 was given a reception by the local community, including the presentation of a medal and the singingof an embarrassingly effusive poem in Welsh. She spent the rest of the War, until she was demobbed in October 1920, at Fort Pitt Military Hospital, Chatham. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross in April 1919. Lizzie returned home to nurse in Neath, but died less than a year later of TB. Her name appears on the Seven Sisters War Memorial

Sources: Jonathan Skidmore: Neath and Briton Ferry in the First World War

Reference: WaW0477

Elizabeth Thomas

Lizzie Thomas in uniform

Poem / song

The embarrassing song performed at the reception for Nurse Thomas in January 1917. ‘Composed by Mr R. D. Harris and sung by Messrs. D. T. Davies and John Hughes’. Llais Llafur 6th January 1917

Army Form W. 3538

Lizzie Thomas’s new posting to Fort Pitt Military Hospital, Chatham, 1st September 1917

Seven Sisters War Memorial

Photograph taken shortly after its opening 1920?

Esther Isaac

Place of birth: Mountain Ash

Service: Nurse, QAIMNSR, 1914 - 1920

Notes: Esther, born 1884, trained at Swansea General and Eye Hospital. She joined the QA nursing reserve in 1914, and was posted to Cambridge Military Hospital in 1915, during which time she was awarded the Royal Red Cross. In March 1917 she was sent to Bombay for 15th months, followed by a transfer to Baghdad Isolation Hospital where she was promoted to Sister. After the war she served for many years as Matron at Llwynpia Hospital. Esther remained on the QAIMNS Reserve list until 1937.

Reference: WaW0485

Esther Isaac

Newspaper photograph of Esther Isaac wearing her Royal Red Cross. Aberdare Leader 24th June 1916.

Army Form B103

‘Casualty Form’ listing Esther Isaac’s service at home and abroad.

Roll of Honour

Name of ‘Nurse Esther Isaac India’ on the roll of honour, Henrietta Street Independent Chapel, Swansea.

Caroline Maud Edwards

Place of birth: Newport

Service: Nursing Sister, QARNNS

Death: 1915/12/30, HMS Natal, Cromart, Explosion/Ffrwydrad

Memorial: Chatham Naval Memorial, Chatham, Kent

Notes: Sister Edwards was serving on HMHS Drina, but was visiting HMS Natal with others to see a Christmas film. She died with at least 400 others in an unexplained explosion.

Sources: http://www.northern-times.co.uk/Opinion/Stones-Throw/The-little-known-tragedy-of-HMS-Natal-07112012.htm

Reference: WaW0091

Caroline Edwards's name on Chatham Naval Memorial

Name of Caroline Edwards, QARNNS, on Chatham Naval Memorial..

Maud Edwards

Maud Edwards in QARNNS uniform

Mildred Lloyd Hughes

Place of birth: Lampeter

Service: Nurse, QARNNS

Death: 1962, Wirral, Cause not known

Notes: Mildred Hughes was a professional nurse, born in 1879. She was already a QARNNS sister in 1911, and at the outbreak of war was Superintending Sister at the Royal Naval Hospital, Gibraltar, where she had been since 1912. In 1916 she became Head Sister (i.e. Matron) of Plymouth Naval Hospital, from where she wrote a letter to the parents of VAD Maggie Evans on Maggie’s death [qv]. She remained at Plymouth until she was appointed head of QARNNS in 1929. She retired in 1934. She received the Royal Red Cross in 1916, and a second award in 1919.

Sources: http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/158399-mildred-lloyd-hughes-qarnns/

Reference: WaW0252

Letter

Letter from Mildred Hughes to the parents of Maggie Evans. Yr Udgorn 7 August 1917

Citation

Presentation of bar to Royal Red Cross by King George V, British Journal of Nursing 6th December 1919