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Irene (Ivy) Ace

Place of birth: Tenby

Service: Technical Administrator , WAAC, 1917 - 19

Notes: Ivy, born 1892, joined the WAAC in June 1917, and was posted to France as an administrator. Her WAAC records do not survive, but from her photograph it seems she was an ‘official’, ie an officer in the WAAC. She served in France for a year. After the War she became an agricultural student. She is recorded as having been given a flight in an aeroplane for her 21st birthday, despite this she does not seem to have transferred to the WRAF when it was formed in 1918.

Sources: Narbeth Museum/Amgueddfa Arberth https://woww.narberthmuseum.co.uk

Reference: WaW0483

Irene ‘Ivy’ Ace

Ivy Ace in WAAC Official’s outdoor uniform.

Irene \'Ivy\' Ace

Place of birth: Tenby

Service: Technical Administrator , WAAC, 1917 - 19

Sources: Narbeth Museum/Amgueddfa Arberth https://woww.narberthmuseum.co.uk\r\n\r\n\r\n

Reference: WaW0483

Irene ‘Ivy’ Ace

Ivy Ace in WAAC Official’s outdoor uniform.

Gladys Maud Feiling (née Norman)

Place of birth: Bleddfa, Radnorshire

Service: Official, WAAC / QMAAC, September 1917 - September 191

Death: 1958, Cause not known

Notes: Gladys Feiling, born in 1879, married Cecil Feiling, a London solicitor in 1906 but seems to have been childless and describes herself as ‘quite independent’ in her application to become a WAAC officer in 1917. The papers connected with her WAAC career survive, though damaged, in the National Archives. After a medical and training which she passed with only 69% she is described as having ‘very little experience of any kind’, but of being ‘the right type to go to France’. By 1919 she was a Deputy Controller of QMAAC, and was awarded the OBE in June 1919. She seems to have served in the ATS in WW2.

Sources: National Archives WO 398/75/6, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35017/supplement/7105/data.pdf

Reference: WaW0209

Gladys Maud Feiling

Photograph of Gladys Feiling collected by the Women’s Subcommittee of the Imperial War Museum.

reverse of photograph

Reverse of photograph of Gladys Feiling outlining her career In the WAAC/QMAAC. Photograph collected by the Women’s Subcommittee of the Imperial War Museum.

Letter

Letter of application to join the WAAC, 17th September 1917.

Letter (2)

Letter of application to join the WAAC 17th September 1917. (page 2)

Official letter

Letter accepting a posting to France, November 1917

Emma May Inker (Stevens)

Place of birth: Penarth

Service: Cook, WAAC / WRAF, 1918/03/15 – 1918/12/31

Death: 1992, Cause not known

Notes: Emma, born 2nd May 1894, worked as a seamstress and in service before joining the WAAC in March 1918. Shortly afterwards she was transferred to the WRAF on its formation on 1st April 1918. She was discharged on compassionate grounds on 31st December as her father was ill. Her daughter Rita Spinola says ‘She never talked much about her time in WW1 as a cook, but she did mention that once whilst marching in London someone shouted out to her “you’re out of step!”.’

Reference: WaW0267

RAF Brigade sports

WRAFs at the RAF Brigade sports. Emma Inker can just be seen in the second row between the 6th and 7th people sitting on the ground. Thanks to Rita Spinola.

Emma May Inker

Close-up of Emma May Inker WRAF at the RAF Brigade Sports 1918. Thanks to Rita Spinola.

WRAF Discharge Certificate

WRAF discharge paper for Emma Inker on ‘compassionate grounds’. This shows her transfer from WAAC to WRAF.

Ethel Maud Lilian Richards

Place of birth: Cwmbran

Service: Waitress, WAAC then WRAF, 1918/03/10 – 1918/10/02

Death: 1918/10/02, Influenza ? / Ffliw ?

Memorial: Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, Shorncliffe, Kent

Notes: Ethel enlisted in the WAAC in Cardiff, and was posted to Winchester. She was transferred to the WRAF when it was established in April 1918. She was 26 when she died.

Reference: WaW0357

Grave record

Record of the grave of Ethel Richards, Shorncliffe Cemetery, Kent.

Register including the grave of Ethel Richards in Shorncliffe Cemetery, Kent.

Grave register

Blodwen Phillips (later Jones)

Place of birth: Landore

Service: Elocutionist, Clerk, WAAC, WFAF, 1917 0 1919

Notes: Blodwen Phillips was ‘the first lady from the area to volunteer for active service’. She was among the group of WAAC clerks to be sent to France in early summer 1917. She wrote to the Cambria Daily Leader about the WAACs’ reception in France, and about their activities. In 1918 she transferred to the WRAF. One of her WAAC officers was a Miss Ace, perhaps Ivy Ace [qv]. In December 1919 she married Mr H W Jones of Southport at Capel Gomer, Swansea.

Reference: WaW0488

Newspaper report

Report of Blodwen Phillips's impressions of WAAC life in France. The Cambria Daily Leader 14th May 1918.

Newspaper report

Report of Blodwen Phillips’s marriage to H W Jones. South Wales Daily Post December 24th 1919.

May Brooks

Place of birth: Cardiff

Service: Worker, WAAC/QMAAC, 1917 - 1919

Notes: May Brooks was a clerk in a confectionary firm before joining the WAAC. She served at various places in the south of England. She contracted influenza, spending a week in hospital, and was discharged on compassionate grounds in June 1919. Image and information courtesy of Glamorgan Archives (DWESA6).

Sources: https://archifaumorgannwg.wordpress.com/

Reference: WaW0117

May Brooks, WAAC/QMAAC. Image courtesy of Glamorgan Archives

May Brooks in the outdoor uniform of the WAAC/QMAAC. Image courtesy of Glamorgan Archives

Amy Goodwin

Place of birth: Cefn Mawr?

Service: Clerk, WAAC/QMAAC, 1917 - 1919

Notes: Amy Goodwin volunteered for the WAAC in 1917. After training at Kinmel Camp, Boddelwyddan, she was sent to Bourges in France to with the American Expeditionary Force as a book-keeper. Her collection of photographs from her time in France are deposited in West Glamorgan Archives.

Sources: http://www3.swansea.gov.uk/CalmView/Overview.aspx?s=Amy+Goodwin

Reference: WaW0123

Amy Goodwin

Amy Goodwin in France, 1919

Certificate

Certificate endorsing Amy Goodwin’s work at Bourges

Armbands

New WAACs showing off their armbands

QMAACs

‘Jeff and Billie’ doing Sunday chores

Fancy dress

QMAACs in fancy dress, France 1919

Marching

Group of WAACs/QMAACs probably in Bourges

WAAC Officers

WAAC Officers (‘Officials’) at Kinmel Camp, Bodelwyddan

QMAACs and GIs

Amy Goodwin (second left) and friends with American GIs.

Trenches tour 1

Amy and a friend on a tour of the trenches, Baillie Fields, Soissons

Trenches tour 2

Amy and a friend on a tour of the trenches, Baillie Fields, Soissons. There is a German corpse in the foreground.

Violet Phillips

Place of birth: Newport

Service: Worker, WAAC/QMAAC, 1917 - 1919

Death: 1919-03-08, Chadderton Hostel, Cause not known

Memorial: St Woolos, Newport, Monmouthshire

Notes: Violet was the daughter of Mrs C.M.Phillips, 32 Barrack Hill, Newport, Mon.

Sources: http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/390079/PHILLIPS,%20V

Reference: WaW0118

Grave of Violet Phillips

Grave of Violet Phillips, St Woolos Cemetery, Newport

Ladas May (Known as Gladys WAAC / in Gelwid yn Gl Powell ( later Pritchard)

Place of birth: Cwmaman

Service: Worker, WAAC/QMAAC, 24/05/1918 - 11/02/1920

Notes: Ladas Powell joined the WAAC underage. She served at Stonar Camp, near Sandwich, Kent. Ladas, or Gladys as she was known in the WAAC, kept an album with photographs and documents in it as well as entries by friends and colleagues.

Reference: WaW0044