M Hopkins

Place of birth: Barry ?

Service: Locomotive Ckeaner, Barry Railway Company

Notes: On 17th July 1917 M Hopkins is recorded in the Barry Railway accident book as having cut her hand on a piece of wire (potentially a serious injury, as blood poisoning was a possibility). She was 24 years old, and paid 18 shillings a week.rn

Sources: Women and the Barry Railway.\\r\\nBlog by Mike Esbester on March 22, 2021 \\r\\n

Reference: WaW0479

Photograph

Women locomotive cleaners at work

Maude Downs

Place of birth: Barry ?

Service: Locomotive cleaner , Barry Railway Company

Notes: The Barry Railway accident book reveals that Maud, aged 23, was injured while working underneath an engine on 17th September 1917. A large spring fell on her foot. Her wages are recorded as 23 shillings a week.

Sources: Women and the Barry Railway.Blog by Mike Esbester on March 22, 2021

Reference: WaW0480

Photograph

Women locomotive cleaners at work

Rachel Barber

Place of birth: Barry ?

Service: Locomotive cleaner , Barry Railway Company

Notes: On 10 September 1917 Rachel suffered a cut forehead when emerging from underneath an engine where she had been working, and meeting a swinging coupling. She was 23 and earned 25s 3d a week. Average pay for working women at that date were around 10 shillings a week.

Sources: Women and the Barry Railway.Blog by Mike Esbester on March 22, 2021

Reference: WaW0481

Photograph

Women locomotive cleaners at work

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.

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.

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.

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.

Margaret Morris

Place of birth: Swansea

Service: Widow, Mother, Munitions Worker

Death: --, Tawe Lodge, Swansea, Tuberculosis / Y diciau

Notes: Margaret Morris began work at NEF Pembrey after her soldier husband was killed in August 1916. There she is said to have contracted the tuberculosis from which she died. She left children aged 12, 8 and 2 and a half.

Reference: WaW0096

Death of Margaret Morris

Account of death of Margaret Morris, Cambrian Daily Leader 30 April 1919

Emily Ada Pickford (née Pearn)

Place of birth: Penarth

Service: Entertainer

Death: -1919-07.02, River Somme, Drowning / Boddi

Memorial: War memorial, Penarth, Glamorgan

Notes: aged 37. A member of one of Lena Ashwell's Concert Parties, she died when the car in which she was a passenger skidded into the River Somme on the way back from a concert. Buried Abbeville Community Cemetery Extension Plot V, Row G, Grave 23

Reference: WaW0043

Penarth War Memorial

Name of Emily Pickford on Penarth War Memorial. She was a singer who drowned in an accident in the Somme January 1919