Gwerfyl R Williams

Place of birth: Bangor

Service: Masseuse, 1919 -

Notes: Gwerfyl Williams was appointed masseuse at the Ministry of Pensions outpatients clinic in Bangor in October 1919.

Reference: WaW0419

Newspaper report

Report of Gwerfyl’s appointment as masseuse in Bangor. North Wales Chronicle 31st October 1919

Gwladys Perrie Williams (Morris)

Place of birth: Llanrwst

Service: Educationalist, administrator, WLA

Death: 1958/07/13, Cause not known

Notes: Born 1889 to Welsh speaking parents, Gwladys was the star pupil at Llanrwst County (one of only two members of the 6th Form there), and a graduate of University College Bangor. She was awarded a fellowship to study mediaeval French at the Sorbonne, Paris, and received a DLitt in 1915. Her edition of Le Bel Inconnu (1929) is still read. Back in Wales 1917 she was appointed WLA organising inspector in South Wales. Gwladys was admitted to Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion in 1918. She published ‘Welsh Education in Sunlight & Shadow’ (1919), comparing Welsh and French Intermediate education based on her own experiences. It includes a large number of Central Welsh Board examination papers from Junior Certificate to degree level. She married in 1918 [Sir] Rhys Hopkins Morris, first head of BBC Wales and MP for Carmarthen West, but kept her own name professionally. They met at Bangor University.

Reference: WaW0415

Newspaper report

Report showing Gwladys Perrie Williams’s school achievements. The Weekly News 27th December 1907.

Newspaper report

Report of Gwladys’ membership of the Society of Cymmrodorion.

Book

Welsh Education in Sunlight & Shadow. Constable 1918.

Book

Gwladys’s edition of Le Bel Inconnu, 1991 printing.

Lily Stock

Place of birth: Pontypool

Service: Nurse, VAD, November 1917 – August 1919

Notes: Lily served with the VAD in Hospitals in Bristol and Colchester. She was paid, her pay rising from £12 per annum to £20 per annum. Her name appears on the Griffithstown Baptist Church Roll of Honour – possibly twice, as both Nurse Stock and Lily Stock are named. There are two sets of Red Cross cards, one naming Beatrice Lily Stock and one just Lily. Otherwise the details are the same.

Reference: WaW0416

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card with name Beatrice Lily

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card with name Lily

Griffithstown Baptist Church Roll of Honour

Griffithstown Baptist Church Roll of Honour showing names of Nurse Stock and Lily Stock. Thanks to Gethin Matthews.

Mary Evans

Place of birth: Swansea ?

Service: Masseuse, VAD, 1914 - 1918

Notes: Mary Evans was a professional masseuse who volunteered for the VAD in four Red Cross Hospitals. Her health broke down in 1918, and she herself was admitted to hospital. Her practice was taken over by Mr and Mrs Walton in 1919.

Reference: WaW0418

Red Cross record card

Record card for Mary Evans

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Record card for Mary Evans giving details of her VAD service

Newspaper advertisement

Notice of the Waltons taking over Miss Evans’s practice. Cambria Daily Leader 23rd December 1919

Roll of Honour

Miss May Evans’s name on the Roll of Honour Henrietta Street Chapel, Swansea. Thanks to Gethin Matthews.

Queenie Parry

Place of birth: Ebbw Vale ?

Service: Nurse, Munitions worker, VAD, March 1915 – May 1918 Mawrth

Notes: Queenie was originally a member of Ebbw Vale VAD, but transferred to Maindiff Court Hospital Abergavenny. She worked there as a night nurse on £20 p.a. She then moved to work in munitions at Rotherwas, Hereford. She offered to come back to Maindiff Court if needed.rn

Reference: WaW0424

Red Cross record card

Record of Queenie Parry’s VAD work.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Reverse of Queenie Parry’s card with details of her move to munitions.

R Ellis

Place of birth: Aberystwyth ?

Service: Masseuse, VAD, 1919 -

Notes: Miss R Ellis was working as a masseuse at Red Cross Hospital Aberystwyth, which was closed down in 1919. Temporary arrangements were made to enable her to continue working with disabled ex-servicemen in the Infirmary.

Reference: WaW0420

Newspaper report

Report of the working arrangements made for Miss Ellis. Cambrian News 25 April 1919.

Ella Jane Vincentia MacLaverty

Place of birth: Llangattock-Vibon-Avel

Service: Driver, FANY, Red Cross, 1914 ? - 1919

Notes: Ella MacLaverty, born 1880, was the youngest child of the wealthy vicar of Llangattock near Monmouth. She may have joined the Red Cross as a chauffeuse in 1914; she was definitely a member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry by July 1918, and may have been part of the St Omer convoy when George V visited the battlefields. Late in the war and after the Armistice she was employed driving those involved with clearing unexploded bombs in Hazebrouck and Poperinge.

Sources: https://tochcentenary.wordpress.com/2020/01/05/the-women-who-knew-talbot-house/?fbclid=IwAR3pjQb2iBRWs1CH1vjyMJC9ek1RiF5eCHWPM6HfXW2FK3BuGVzRfwe-vCk

Reference: WaW0414

Red Cross record card

Record card for Ella MacLaverty.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Record card for Ella MacLaverty (reverse)

Communicant’s slip

Communicant’s slip for Talbot House, the Toc H church centre in Poperinge, Flanders.

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

Red Cross record card

Emily Hill’s Red Cross record.

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.

Gwenllian Lewis

Place of birth: Treharris

Service: Nurse, TFNS, November/Tachwedd 1914 – Jul

Notes: Gwenllian Lewis seems to have been working as a private nurse in the Midlands before she was called up in 1914. She spent three years at the 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester before going to France in 1917. She remained there until early 1919 when she returned to Leicester. Her annual appraisals all refer to her as a ‘good nurse’ who was kind to patients. Her only misdemeanour was losing her TFNS badge, and having to pay for a replacement.

Reference: WaW0426

Annual Review

Gwenllian Lewis’s last annual report before being deployed to France.

Testimonial

TFNS testimonial for Gwenllian Lewis on resigning from the force.

Margaret Walker Bevan

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Nurse, QAIMNS

Death: 1915 - 1919, Cause not known

Notes: Born in Swansea in 1883, Margaret trained as a nurse in Coventry and later worked in Barnsley. Early in 1915 she joined the staff of the Welsh Military Hospital, Netley. The Welsh Hospital was designed to be moveable, and it was soon packed up and sent, with its staff, to Deolali in India. Margaret worked there, and in Mesopotamia, until December 1919. After the war she became Matron of the new Memorial Hospital in Farnborough, Surrey.

Sources: People’s Collection Wales

Reference: WaW0429

Photograph

A ward at the ‘Welch’ Hospital, Deolali. Margaret is standing on the left. Thanks to Dave Gordon.

Photograph

Margaret in a hospital tent, possibly in Basra, Mesopotamia. Thanks to Dave Gordon

Magazine article

Description of the Welsh War Hospital, Netley. 'The Hospital' 24th October 1914.