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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.
Sources: http://scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk/
Reference: WaW0212
Newspaper report
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.’
Gwladys Jones
Place of birth: Carnarthen ?
Service: Nurse, SWH
Notes: Gwladys Jones was a professional nurse who had trained and worked in London, and also worked as a school nurse in Swansea. She volunteered for the Scottish Women’s Hospitals and went to Serbia in September 1915. She was among the group of nurses captured by the Austrians at Krushevatz. She managed to get a letter to her mother through one of the nurses who escaped the Austrian army through the mountains. Her letter arrived on Christmas Day 1915. She was a friend of Nora Tempest [qv].
Reference: WaW0387
Newspaper report
Report of the capture of Gwladys Jones and colleagues in Serbia. Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph 19th January 1916.
Emily Charlotte Hill (Panichelli)
Place of birth: Hawarden, Flintshire
Service: Nurse, SWH, April – December 1915
Death: 1970, Cause not known
Notes: Emily was a trained nurse, probably trained at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital in London. At the outbreak of war she may have nursed in France. She joined Mrs Stobart’s Unit of the Serbian Relief Fund, and nursed in the tented hospital at Kragujevac. Mrs Stobart’s Unit was caught up in the Serbian Retreat with the Serbian army and refugees. They fled over the mountains of Montenegro and Albania in the depths of winter to the coast where a boat took them to Brindisi in Italy. She was awarded the Serbian War Medal and the Order of Charity of Serbia. Later in the war she became a midwife, and during the 1930s seems to have trained as a doctor. Many thanks to Carol Coles.
Reference: WaW0425
Newspaper report
Report of Emily Hill’s service and award of the Serbian medal of the Order of Charity. Flintshire Observer 21st October 1915.
Stobart Hospital Staff List
Staff List for the Stobart Hospital in Kragujevac. Emily is listed under ‘Nursing Sisters’. Note Mabel Dearmer’s name [qv]. Thanks to Carol Coles.
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
Helena May Rowlands
Place of birth: Llangefni
Service: Nurse, Territorial Nursing Service/Gwasanaeth Nyrsio Tiri
Death: 1919-05-10, Military Fever Hospital Liverpool, Influenza
Memorial: Nurses memorial, Llanelwy, Flintshire
Notes: aged 24/25. Buried in Mynydd Seion Chapel, Abergele. Her body was taken by train from Liverpool to Abergele, and straight to the cemetery to avoid infection.
Reference: WaW0054
Nurse Helena May Rowlands's name on the Nurses' Memorial, St Asaph
Helena May Rowlands's name on the Nurses' Memorial, St Asaph
Nurses' Memorial, Liverpool Cathedral
The Nurses’ Memorial in the Lady Chapel, Liverpool Cathedral, listing names of nurses who died in the War and had worked in Liverpool. Ethel Saxon is also recorded here.
Nurses' Memorial Liverpool Cathedral
Name of Helena Rowlands on the Nurses Memorial, Liverpool Cathedral
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
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.
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.
Ethel Saxon
Place of birth: Abertillery
Service: Staff Nurse, TFNS
Death: 1917-09-03, Karachi, Appendicitis/Llid y pendics
Memorial: War Memorial; Nurses’ Memorial; Delhi Gate, Kingsland; Liverpool Cathedral; Delhi, Herefordshire; Lancashire; India
Notes: Born 1891, her father was a builder and joiner. She worked for some time in Liverpool before serving overseas. Her parents retired to Kingsland, Herefordshire where she is memorialised; her name also appears on the Nurses’ memorial in Liverpool Cathedral, the Nurses’ memorial in York Minster and the Indian war memorial the Great Gate at Delhi.
Reference: WaW0134
Roll of Honour, Kingsland Church
Name of Staff Nurse Ethel Saxon on the Roll of Honour, Kingsland Church
Janet Parry
Place of birth: Newtown
Service: Nurse (Sister), TFNS, 1914 - 1919
Notes: Before the War Nurse Parry worked at Heswall Hospital, Wirral. After a spell working in the First Western General Hospital (Fazackerly Hospital), Liverpool, she served on HMHS Mauretania, sailing to and from Egypt several times. On arrival in Egypt the second time, she wrote home “I can't say that I am in any way struck with Egyptian life, and the food, oh dear! I suppose you get used to it. ... ‘. She later served in France and was awarded the Royal Red Cross in January 1919.
Sources: Montgomeryshire Express, Montgomeryshire County Times
Reference: WaW0149
Hannah Dunlop Mark
Place of birth: Bridgend
Service: Nurse, TFNS
Death: 1918/10/10, No 1 General Hospital, Fazackerley, Liverpool, Pneumonia following influenza / Niwmonia yn dilyn y ffliw
Notes: Hannah, a trained nurse, seems to have been a victim of Spanish Flu. She was 23 when she died, and is buried at Bridgend Cemetery.
Sources: http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=1
Reference: WaW0208
Hannah Dunlop Mark
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
Gwenllian Morris
Place of birth: Aberystwyth ?
Service: Nurse, TFNS, 1914 - 1918
Notes: Gwenllian Morris was district nurse in Holywell, then Aberystwyth. She was posted to a military hospital in St Malo with the French Red Cross in October 1914. She contracted diphtheria while there, but recovered and volunteered to join the Serbian Relief Fund Hospital in 1915. Her unit worked in Malta and the Dardanelles before arriving in Serbia. They were captured in the winter of 1915/16 by the Austrian/Bulgarian army , but continued to work mainly with typhus patients. It is not known when she came back to Britain, but she received her war medals in 1921 (on the card, she is described as being a Sister with the 2nd British Farmers Unit – a mystery.*)
*The mystery about the British Farmers Unit has been solved by Nigel Callaghan, to whom many thanks. ‘I've sort-of explained the comment about Gwenllian Morris's record referring to her as British Farmers Unit. It really existed. There were at least two, and were funded by money raised by farmers (British Farmers Red Cross Fund), and were in Serbia in 1915.’
Reference: WaW0258
Newspaper article
Article about Gwenllian Morris’s work in France. Flintshire Observer 19 November 1914.
Newspaper article
Article about Gwenllian Morris’s work with the Serbian relief Fund. Flintshire Observer 19th August 1915.
Newspaper article and photograph
Illustrated report of Gwenllian Morris’s time in Serbia including her captivity. Cambrian News 11th February 1916.