Annie Roach

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Nurse, 1914 - December 1915

Death: December / Rhagfyr 1, Great Yarmouth, Enteric fever / Ffliw enterig

Notes: Annie, who was 21 when she died, contracted enteric fever from a sailor patient in the isolation hospital in Great Yarmouth. Her body was brought back to Swansea, and she was buried in Dan y Graig cemetery, Swansea.

Reference: WaW0354

Newspaper article and photograph

Report of the death of Annie Roach, Herlad of Wales 8th January 1916.

Alice Evans

Place of birth: Carmarthen

Service: Nurse, VAD, 1914 - 1919

Notes: Initially a volunteer at the Red Cross Hospital in Carmarthen, in 1917 Alice became a paid nurse at Netley Military Hospital, Southampton. In September 1918 she was posted to work at the National Explosives Factory at Pembrey.

Reference: WaW0353

Red Cross record card.

Red Cross Record card for Alice Evans.

Red Cross record card (reverse)

Red Cross Record card for Alice Evans, showing her service at NEF Pembrey.

Agnes Cissy Pugh

Place of birth: Wrexham

Service: Nurse

Death: Croesnewydd Military Hospital, Wrexham, Effects of explosion / Effeithiau ffrwydrad

Notes: Cissy Pugh, born 1895, trained as a nurse in London. She was caught up in a bombing raid on King’s Cross station on 13th June 1917. While attending to a wounded child she herself was badly wounded by a secondary explosion. After treatment in London she was transferred to Croesnewydd Military Hospital in Wrexham where she died of her injuries at the end of October. Thanks to Wrexham Museum.

Reference: WaW0389

Agnes Cissy Pugh

Cissy Pugh in her nurses uniform. Thanks to Wrexham Museum.

Ethel Dora Heins

Place of birth: Brecon

Service: Nurse, VAD, 1915/09/11 - 1918/05/18

Notes: Ethel Heins volunteered for the VAD early in the war, and after ‘special training’ was sent to work in the 19th General Military Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt, where she was for a year. During her time there she kept a diary, now in the National Library of Wales. In it she describes the voyage out, avoiding German ships, and the diseases that affected many of the hospital staff. After her return she worked in English military hospitals.

Reference: WaW0386

Red Cross record card

Red cross card of Ethel Heins. Her father was a well known piano shop owner and musician in Brecon.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Red cross card of Ethel Heins showing her service in Egypt and England. [reverse]

Newspaper report

Report of Ethel Heins’s deployment to Egypt. Brecon County Times 16th September 1915.

Diary

Page from Ethel Heins’s diary, October 1915. The Miss Smales mentioned was VAD Florence Smales of Whitby, Yorkshire. National Library of Wales.

Gwladys Jones

Place of birth: Carnarthen ?

Service: Nurse, SWH

Notes: Gwladys Jones was a professional nurse who had trained and worked in London, and also worked as a school nurse in Swansea. She volunteered for the Scottish Women’s Hospitals and went to Serbia in September 1915. She was among the group of nurses captured by the Austrians at Krushevatz. She managed to get a letter to her mother through one of the nurses who escaped the Austrian army through the mountains. Her letter arrived on Christmas Day 1915. She was a friend of Nora Tempest [qv].

Reference: WaW0387

Newspaper report

Report of the capture of Gwladys Jones and colleagues in Serbia. Haverfordwest and Milford Haven Telegraph 19th January 1916.

Una McCarthy

Place of birth: Abertillery ?

Service: Nurse

Death: October/Hydref 1918, Cause not known

Notes: Nothing is currently known of Una McCarthy, whose photograph appears with others in a newspaper, possibly the Argus, headlined ‘Died on Service’.

Reference: WaW0390

Newspaper photograph

Photograph of Nurse Una McCarthy 19 Marlborough Road Abertillery.

Ethel Hodgens

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Nurse, VAD, November 1914 – May 1919 / T

Notes: After an initial few months as a part-time volunteer, Ethel worked, paid, in military hospitals: one year at Oxford, then from May 1916 in Camiers, Tréport and Rouen, all in France. She worked until June 1919, and was mentioned in despatches in January 1918. She was 24 when she joined the Red Cross.

Reference: WaW039

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Ethel Hodgens.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

Red Cross card for Ethel Hodgens, showing her service in England and France [reverse].

Newspaper report

Brief report of Ethel Hodgens’s mention in despatches. Cambria Daily Leader 5th January 1918.

Fannie A Jones

Place of birth: Anglesey

Service: Nurse, VAD

Notes: Fannie’s VAD record is rather peculiar. According to her card (which has had the initial changed from F to E), she joined the VAD in January 1916 and worked for 1 hour. However it does say she has worked at Fazackerley War Hospital in Liverpool, and the North Wales Chronicle for 23rd March 1917 records her award of the Royal Red Cross.

Reference: WaW0403

Red Cross record card

Red Cross card for Fannie Jones, showing the change of F to E.

Red Cross record card [reverse]

‘No more information’

Newspaper report

Report of award of Royal Red Cross to Fannie Jones. North Wales Chronicle 23rd March 1917

Sarah Annie Evans (later Kyght)

Place of birth: Carmarthen

Service: Nurse, TFNS, 1914 - 1919

Notes: Annie, both of whose parents worked for the Carmarthen Poor Law Union, became a pupil teacher at 13. She later trained as a nurse at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and joined the TFNS. At the outbreak of war, Bristol RI became a military hospital. Annie was posted to Egypt in October 1915, and was then transferred to HMHS Braemar Castle in April 1916, where she remained until it was struck by a mine in the Aegean Sea on 23rd November. No lives were lost, but she spent some time in the sea. She spent the rest of the war in France, where she rose to the rank of Sister. She was discharged from the TFNS, with glowing references, in 1919, and returned to Bristol Royal Infirmary – they would be ‘very pleased to have her back again’. She gave up nursing and the TFNS when she married Bert Kyght in 1923.

Reference: WaW0394

Newspaper report

Report of Sarah’s departure for Egypt. Carmarthen Journal 29th October 1915.

Newspaper report

Report of Sarah’s career, published when she was home on leave. Carmarthen Journal 29th November 1918.

Letter

Letter from Sarah Annie Evans claiming her right to the 1914-1915 star, written in 1920.

Gladys Paynter-Williamson

Place of birth: Margam

Service: Nurse, QAIMNSR, 1914/08/05 - 1919/ 08/24

Death: 1936, Carcinoma

Notes: Gladys trained as a nurse at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. Her father was the Vicar of Margam. As a reservist, she was called up in August 1914. Initially she served in war hospitals in England, but in 1917 she was sent to France (Etaples), and after the Armistice to Bonn in Germany. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross in February 1917. She seems to have been a solitary person; she had to ask for financial assistance when she developed cancer in 1934, and on her death her record states ‘Miss Paynter-Williamson does not appear to have any relations with whom she had kept in touch’.

Reference: WaW0401

Newspaper report

Report of Gladys Paynter-Williamson’s award of the Royal Red Cross. Cambria Daily Leader 11th April 1917.

Medical report

Doctor’s letter passing Gladys Paynter-Williamson as fit for overseas service. 27th July 1917.

QAIMNS gratuity claim form

Gratuity claim form for Gladys Paynter-Williamson.