Gertrude Annie Walters

Place of birth: Bridgend ?

Service: Scientist, Botanist

Notes: Gertrude was one of the two scholars of Bridgend County School to win a Glamorgan County scholarship to study at a Welsh university. (There were 7 County scholarships in all). Clearly a scientist from an early age (her other higher school certificate subjects were physics and chemistry), she graduated from Aberystwyth in 1919 with a ‘brilliant’ first class degree and joined the Botany department.

Reference: WaW0463

Newspaper report

Report of Gertrude’s Higher School Certificate results. Glamorgan Gazette 24th September 1915

Newspaper report

Report of Gertrude’s County Scholarship. Glamorgan Gazette 15th September 1916

University College Aberystwyth report

Report from the Botany Department, University College Aberystwyth, 1919

G L Reynolds

Service: Scientist, chemist, 1917

Notes: In 1915 Miss G L Reynolds was the only postgraduate student in the Chemistry department of University College Aberystwyth. At Christmas 1916 she put her research on hold when she went to do work ‘of national importance’ at the dye company Morton Sundour Fabrics in Carlisle. The dye industry had been highly dependent on German chemicals, and British expertise was needed. It is not clear whether she returned to Aberystwyth.

Reference: WaW0464

Departmental Report

Chemistry department report mentioning Miss G L Reynolds

Departmental report

Chemistry department report stating that Miss G L Reynolds had been given leave to undertake ‘research on the manufacture of special dye’ in Carlisle.

Kathleen Edithe Carpenter (Zimmermann)

Place of birth: Lincolnshire

Service: Scientist Biologist Environmentalist., University College Aberystwyth

Death: 1970, Cheltenham, Cause not known

Notes: Born 1891 to a German father and English mother, Kathleen Carpenter (she changed her surname from Zimmermann at the outbreak of WWI) was awarded her BSc in 1910. She remained at Aberystwyth for research, and subsequently became an Assistant Lecturer in the Zoology Department. She gained her PhD there in 1925. Her seminal studies focused on the environmental impact of metal pollution on Cardiganshire streams. This gained her international renown, particularly in the United States where she worked at several leading universities. Kathleen Carpenter is regarded as ‘the mother of freshwater ecology’.

Sources: Catherine Duigan: https://thebiologist.rsb.org.uk/biologist-features/158-biologist/features/1968-who-was-kathleen-carpenter ++

Reference: WaW0465

Kathleen E Carpenter

Kathleen Carpenter in about 1910

Kathleen Carpenter and fellow students

Kathleen Carpenter (front, 2nd left) Aberystwyth's literature and debating society in 1910

Report

Zoology Department report listing departmental research

Kathleen Carpenter’s research

Kathleen E Carpenter: Life in Inland Waters. Macmillan 1928

Eva Jennie Fry (Savage)

Place of birth: Southampton

Service: Scientist, botanist

Notes: Eva, whose father was an elementary school teacher, was a botany student at University College Aberystwyth, with a particular interest in mosses. She joined the Moss Exchange Club in 1915. She graduated with a first class BSc in 1916, and MSc in 1919, when she published her research findings. She was an Assistant Lecturer in the Botany department until she became a lecturer in Botany at Westfield College, University of London, in 1925.

Reference: WaW0466

Newspaper report

Report of Eva Jennie Fry’s first class degree. Cambrian News 21st July 1916

Botany Department report 1916

University Botany Department report of Eva’s degree success.

Botany Department report 1920

University Botany Department report of Eva’s post-graduate research

Marion Crosland Soar

Place of birth: Kent

Service: Scientist, Chemist

Notes: Marion Soar entered University College, Bangor in 1913, and graduated BSc in 1917. She then became an assistant lecturer in chemistry at King’s College of Household and Social Science, specialising in bio-chemistry. In 1920 Marion was one of the first cohort of 20 women admitted as fellows to the Chemistry Society (along with Phyllis McKie [qv]), after a very long struggle. Women had been actively attempting admission since 1892.

Sources: Chemistry Was Their Life: Pioneer British Women Chemists 1880 – 1949. Marelene Rayner-Canham & Geoff Rayner-Canham Imperial College Press 2008

Reference: WaW0467

scientific report

Report of the formation of ferrous sulphide in eggs. Biochemical Journal April 1, 1920

Augusta Minshull

Place of birth: Atherstone

Service: Nurse, St John’s Ambulance, Scottish Women’s Hospital

Death: 1915/03/21, Kraguievatz, Typhus fever / Haint teiffws

Memorial: Chela Kula Military Cemetery, Nĭs, Nĭs, Serbia

Notes: Augusta Minshull was born in 1861 in Atherstone, near Manchester, but was brought up in Denbigh where her parents ran the Crown Hotel. She seems to have trained as a nurse after her mother’s death. She had extensive experience in hospitals in England and Dublin. In 1914 she seems to have travelled first to Belgium, and then to Kraguievatz, Serbia early in 1915. She died there in the epidemic of typhus, aged 53 or 54.

Reference: WaW0468

Augusta Minshull

Augusta’s photograph was collected by the Women’s Subcommittee as part of its collection of women who died during the war.

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of Augusta Minshull’s death in Serbia. Denbighshire Free Press 17th April 1915.

Obituary

Obituary of Augusta Minshull in the British Journal of Nursing, detailing her career.

Roll of honour

Roll of honour of members of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals who died overseas.

Alice A White

Place of birth: Pontardulais

Service: Teacher, Commandant, VAD, 1916/09/01 – 1919/05/10

Notes: Alice White was the head teacher of Wood Green Infants School Cardiff. She was also the Commandant of Samuel House Auxiliary Hospital in Cardiff, and received the Royal Red Cross for her service in April 1919.rnRoedd Alice White yn brifathrawes Ysgol y Babanod Wood Green, Caerdydd. Roedd hi’n Benswyddog Ysbyty Atodol Samuel House Caerdydd hefyd a derbyniodd y Groes Goch Frenhinol am ei gwasanaeth ym mis Awst 1919. rn

Reference: WaW0469

Newspaper report

Report of Alice White’s award of the Royal Red Cross. Cambria Daily Leader 7th April 1919.

London Gazette

Alice White’s award listed in the London Gazette, April 1919.

Wood Street Infants

Photograph of children at Wood Street Infants School, 1925. Wood Street, also known as Temperance Town, was a densely packed area adjacent to Cardiff Station.

Caroline Emily Booker (née Lindsay)

Place of birth: Glanafon, Glamorgan

Service: Vice president, VAD, 1909-1919

Notes: Mrs Booker was widowed in 1887. She became the founder of the local Glamorgan detachment of the VAD (22) in 1909. She seems to have instigated the use of Tuscar House, Southerndown, as a Red Cross Hospital in May 1915, and most of her 7 daughters played a greater or lesser role in the running of the hospital. [qv Etta,Ellen, Mabel, Ethel and Dulcie Booker]. Mrs Booker provided a car and the petrol to ferry patients to and from the station in Bridgend 5 miles away.

Reference: WaW0470

Record of Caroline Booker

Mrs Booker’s entry in The County Families of the United Kingdom, Edward Walford (this edition c 1920)

Red Cross record card

Red cross card for Caroline Emily Booker.

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Red Cross card for Caroline Booker showing her VAD activities.

Tuscar House

Tuscar House Red Cross Hospital, Southerndown. The house was used as a hospital in WW2 as well.

Etta J O Booker

Place of birth: Southerndown ?

Service: Nurse, Commandant, VAD, FANY, 1909 - 1919

Notes: Etta Booker served as Commandant of the Glamorgan [22] detachment when it was founded in 1909. In November 1914, she was part of a group of six nurses from Glamorgan sent to the French Base Hospital at Saumur for 6 months. After her return to Southerndown she worked for a while in the Tuscar House hospital, but then relinquished her rank as Commandant to go to Calais with the FANY. After a breakdown of health she was moved to Nice to work in the Officers’ Hospital, then back to northern France where she worked in several hospitals, ending as a charge nurse in the Anglo Belge Hospital in Rouen in 1919. She was nearly 40 years old by this time, and had had only short breaks at home, when she worked with her sisters [Booker qv] at Tuscar House. Etta seems to have remained a member of the Red Cross, as her medals include a Silver Jubilee medal (1935) as well as French and Belgian decorations.

Reference: WaW0471

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Etta Booker, heavily annotated.

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Reverse of Etta Booker’s Red Cross card, with details of her service (presumably written by her sister Ethel [qv].

Newspaper report

Report of Etta’s departure for France. Glamorgan Gazette 6th November 1914

Etta Booker’s medals

Etta Booker’s medals, which were sold at Bonhams, London for £1440 in 2013. They include the Medal of Queen Elizabeth; Belgium and the France, Ministry of the Interior, silver medal

Medal card

Record of medals awarded to Etta Booker. There are two separate cards in the National Archives, this one listing her as a Trooper then Nurse in the FANY

Medal card

Record of medals awarded to Etta Booker. There are two separate cards in the National Archives, this one listing her as VAD, French Red Cross and FANY

Ellen ‘Nellie’ Mariana Booker

Place of birth: Southerndown ?

Service: Secretary then Commandant, VAD, 1909 - 1917

Death: February/Chwefror 19, Southerndown, Not known / anhuybys

Notes: Nellie Booker was the sixth daughter of Caroline Booker [qv]. With her mother and sister Etta [qv] she established the Southerndown branch of the Red Cross Society. At the outbreak of war she was the Secretary of the Tuscar House Hospital, and later became its Commandant. Unusually she was given a military funeral: ‘a unique honour for a lady’ (Glamorgan Gazette). Her Red Cross record card does not survive.

Reference: WaW0472

Newspaper report

Report of the opening of Tuscar House Red Cross hospital. Glamorgan Gazette 28th May 1915

Tuscar House Red Cross Hospital, Southerndown. The house was used as a hospital in WW2 as well.

Newspaper report

Report of the troops recovering at Tuscar House. Glamorgan Gazette 18th June 1915

Newspaper report

Part of the report of Nellie Booker’s military funeral. Glamorgan Gazette 2nd March 1917