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

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\r\n\r\n\r\n

Reference: WaW0483

Irene ‘Ivy’ Ace

Ivy Ace in WAAC Official’s outdoor uniform.

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.

Lily Ellis

Place of birth: Mountain Ash

Service: Nurse, TFNS, 1914 - 1919

Notes: The daughter of a well-known Mountain Ash choral conductor, Hugh Ellis, Lily trained at Swansea General and Eye Hospital. After working in Swansea and Malvern she was appointed to be theatre sister at Lewisham Hospital London. At the outbreak of War she joined the TFNS and was serving at the 1st Southern General Hospital when King George V visited it in 1916; she was awarded the Royal Red Cross.

Reference: WaW0486

Lily Ellis

Newspaper photograph of Nurse Lily Ellis. Aberdare Leader 24th June 1916.

Newspaper report

Report of Lily Ellis’s appointment as Theatre Sister at Lewisham Hospital.

Newspaper report

Report of Lily Ellis award of the Royal Red Cross. Aberdare Leader 24th June 1916.

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.