Hannah Jane Davies

Place of birth: Mountain Ash

Service: Nurse, TFNS, 1918/06/13 – 1919/03/26

Notes: Hannah Davies was a probationer nurse at Milton Infirmary, Portsmouth when she was called up for Home Service at the 3rd Western General Hospital, Cardiff, where she was promoted to Staff Nurse. She seems to have contacted Influenza during February 1919, when she is described as being ‘pale’ and anaemic. It may be for this reason that she was discharged on March 1919. She continued to be attached to the renamed Territorial Army Nursing Service until she retired from this in 1936.

Sources: WO-399-10779

Reference: WaW0431

Summary record

Record of Hannah Davies’s work with TFNS.

Disability record [part]

Members of the forces were encouraged to fill in a disability statement on demobilisation so that they could use it as evidence in a future insurance claim.

Kate Phyllis Davies (Lyons)

Service: Nurse, Commandant

Notes: Phyllis Davies was Commandant of the Cardigan 4 Brigade of the VAD, and also sister and Assistant Commandant of Hospitals in Aberystwyth. She is said to have volunteered with the American Red Cross in the Spanish American War of 1898. Her sister was Margaret (Peggy) Lyons, [qv].

Reference: WaW0281

Red Cross record card

Record of Kate Phyllis Davies’s work with the Red Cross

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Record of Kate Phyllis Davies’s work with the Red Cross.

Newspaper report

Report of work of Mrs Davies and Sister Lyons. Carmarthen Journal 30th June 1916.

Lottie Davies (married / priod Buley)

Service: Nurse, VAD

Notes: Her niece Mary Davies gives the following information: My aunt was a nurse in Caerphilly in WW1 and nursed a young cockney soldier wounded in the Somme. They ran off on his motorbike (to avoid my aunt marrying the son of the local furniture store according to my uncle) and were married for over 50 yrs. In between nursing she played the organ for the silent movies!

Reference: WaW0007

Lottie Davies VAD

Lottie Davies in VAD uniform c.1916

Lottie Davies

Lottie Davies c. 1916

Mabel Elsie Davies

Place of birth: Fforestfach

Service: Canteen worker, NEF Pembrey

Notes: Mabel was the eldest daughter of Eliza [qv] and Huw Davies. Fourteen when her father died, she started munitions work at Pembrey. When her age was discovered, she was transferred to work in the canteen.

Sources: People’s Collection Wales

Reference: WaW0322

Mabel Elsie Davies

Studio photograph of Mabel Davies. Owner Mrs Dorothy Jones.

Margaret Davies

Place of birth: Pontymister ?

Service: Cook, QMAAC

Death: 1919/02/18, Not known , Not known / Anhysbys

Memorial: Rica Old Cemetary, Risca, Monmouthshire

Notes: Almost nothing is known of Madge Davies who was a cook in QMAAC.

Reference: WaW0350

War Graves Register

Entry for Margaret Davies in the War Graves Register.

Next of kin

Details of next of kin for Margaret Davies (Relationship not known).

Margaret Sidney Davies

Place of birth: Llandinam

Service: Collector, philanthropist, canteen worker, French Red Cross, 1917 - 1919

Death: 1963, Cause not known

Notes: Margaret, born 1884, was the younger sister of Gwendoline [qv] and granddaughter of David Davies the coal owner and builder of Barry Docks. She, her sister and her brother David each received one third of his vast fortune on the death of their father in 1898. All three were strict Calvinistic Methodists, with a strong philanthropic streak. The two sisters began to travel widely, and to study art in Europe. Margaret also studied drawing and printmaking. In their early twenties they were beginning to form the collection that is now at the National Museum Wales. In March 1913 the collection was exhibited, anonymously, in Cardiff; the sisters covering all of the cost. There were 26000 visitors. At the outbreak of war the sisters promoted a scheme to invite Belgian artists and musicians to come to Wales, and settle in Aberystwyth and Llanidloes. In 1917 Margaret joined Gwendoline at the Cantine des Dames Anglais, now sited at Troyes railway station. In her diary she wrote that the chief blessings in a canteen were ‘a tap of water and a gramophone. The former makes life bearable for us and the latter makes life bearable to the poilu’ (private soldier). For a while she and Gwendoline were moved to an American canteen nearer the front; there they experienced air raids and two of their colleagues were killed by bombs. In the winter of 1918-1919 she worked for three months in a canteen in Rouen organised by the Scottish Churches before returning to Wales. Later Margaret helped set up the centre for the arts at Gregynog. She continued to collect paintings, usually by modern British artists, until the late 1950s. Her collection, like her sister’s, was bequeathed to the National Museum of Wales.

Sources: Oliver Fairclough [ed] Things of Beauty: What two sisters did for Wales. National Museum Wales 2007. Trevor Fishlock A Gift of Sunlight. Gomer 2014\r\nhttps://museum.wales/articles/2007-07-29/The-Davies-Sisters-during-the-First-World-War/

Reference: WaW0334

Cantine des Dames Anglaises

Margaret Davies is the figure on the right, at the back of the Cantine des Dames Anglaises.

Plas Dinam

Woodcut of Plas Dinam by Margaret Davies, 1920s.

Mary Davies

Place of birth: Glamorgan?

Service: Mother

Notes: Mary Davies, born around 1858, was the mother of Eva Davies (WaW0008). Of her three sons, her middle son Glyn was killed in France 10 months before the death of Eva, and her youngest, Max, on the 10th August 1918.

Sources: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?f%5B0%5D=agentString%3ADavies%2C%20Eva&query=

Reference: WaW0172

Newspaper report

Report in the Glamorgan Gazette, 23rd August 1918, of Eva Davies’s death.

Letter

Letter to the Women’s Work Subcommittee, Imperials War Museum, regarding a photograph of Eva Davies, February 1919

Letter

Letter to the Women’s Work Subcommittee, Imperials War Museum, regarding a photograph of Eva Davies, December 1920.

Mary Davies

Service: Nurse, Anglo-French Red Cross

Notes: Nothing is known of Mary Davies, whose name appears on the Roll of Honour in Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London.

Reference: WaW0198

Roll of Honour

Roll of honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London

Mary Davies’s name on Roll of Honour

Mary Davies’s name on the Roll of honour of those who served in WWI, Kings Cross Welsh Chapel London

Mary D Davies

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Unknown, ATS

Memorial: Cenotaph, Swansea, Glamorgan

Notes: Nothing is currently known of Mary D Davies, who worked, perhaps as a WAAC, in the Army Transport Service.

Reference: WaW0119

Swansea Cenotaph

Name of Mary D Davies on Swansea Cenotaph

Megan Davies

Place of birth: Aberdare

Service: Singer, bank clerk

Death: 1919/03/25, Aberdare, Influenza / y ffliw

Notes: Megan Davies was a well-known contralto soloist in the Aberdare area, and performed in several War Heroes concerts. She worked in Barclay’s Bank, Merthyr.

Reference: WaW0421

Newspaper report

Newspaper report of a War Heroes Concert, naming Megan Davies. Aberdare Leader 5th January 1918.

Newspaper report

Report of the death from influenza of Megan Davies, aged 29. Aberdare Leader 29th March 1919