Notes: Amy’s father was a railwayman who moved the family around the English midlands before setting in Gwersyllt. She married James Chamberlain in 1909 and had a daughter Lilly in 1910. James was killed in action in December 1917, and Amy joined the VAD in July 1918. She was 31 when she died; her name appears in the Welsh Book of Remembrance.
Red Cross record of Amy Curtis’s service. (reverse)
Welsh Book of Remembrance
Mrs Amy Curtis’s name in the Welsh Book of Remembrance.
Edith May Francis
Place of birth: Caersws
Service: Nurse, Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU), Feb 1918 – Dec 1919
Notes: Born 1892, Edith was a qualified nurse with three and a half years’ experience when she joined the FAU. She spent nearly 2 years at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Dunkirk. She was a member of the Presbyterian Church, not a Quaker.
Death: 1918/04/03, St Omer, France, Illness / Salwch
Memorial: St Collen\'s Church, Llangollen, Denbighshire
Notes: Born 1869, the daughter of a Liverpool Brewer, Edith lived with two brother in Pen-y-Bryn Hall, Llangollen for a number of years from 1901. She nursed in Malta and France where she died aged 49. She is buried in Longueness (St Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, and her name appears on Llangollen War Memorial.
Document giving instruction for inscriptions on headstones in Souvenir Cem Longueness. Edith Barker’s age is given as 49.
Red Cross Record Card (reverse)
Red Cross record for Edith Frances Barker (reverse).
Red Cross Record card
Red Cross record for Edith Frances Barker. This gives her age as 37.
War Memorial
War memorial, Llangollen. Edith’s name is near the top of the second column from the left.
Emma Hardy
Place of birth: Cardiff ?
Service: Nurse, VAD, 15/10/07 – 17/11/06
Memorial: City Hall, Cardiff, Glamorgan
Notes: Emma Hardy was an employee of Cardiff Council. She served as a VAD, paid, for two years, first in the 3rd Western General Hospital, Cardiff and then in the 26th General Hospital in France. Her name appears on the Roll of Honour in Cardiff City Hall.
Reference: WaW0015
Red Cross record card
Red Cross record for Emma Hardy.
Red Cross record card (reverse)
Red Cross record for Emma Hardy (reverse)
Cardiff Roll of Honour
Name of Emma Hardy (second column, near the top) on the Roll of Honour in Cardiff City Hall.
Evelyn Margaret Abbott
Place of birth: Grosmont, Monmouthshire
Service: Nurse, Scottish Womens Hospitals, January - June 1916
Death: 1958, London , Cause not known
Notes: Evelyn, born 1883, was the daughter of the Grosmont school master. A professional nurse trained in London, she spent six months working at the Scottish Women’s Hospitals hospital at Royaumont Abbey north of Paris. Follow the link to see the hospital on film
Notes: Annie Handley was one of three Welsh nurses serving on the hospital ship Britannic (sister ship to the Titanic). The others were M A Harries and Nurse Edwards. All survived when the ship struck a mine in the Aegean sea on 21st November 1916 and sank, with the loss of 30 lives out of 1065 on board. She spent the remainder of the war nursing in France.
Report of presentation to Annie Handley at the Williams Pantycelyn Memorial Vestry. Cambria Daily Leader 8th January 1917.
Annie Handley
Annie Handley VAD. Courtesy Alathea Anderssohn.
Annie Handley
Annie Handley in outdoor uniform.Courtesy Alathea Anderssohn.
M A Harries
Place of birth: Abergwili ?
Service: Nurse, Not known / anhysbys
Notes: M A Harries was one of three Welsh nurses serving on the hospital ship Britannic (sister ship to the Titanic). The others were Annie Handley and Nurse Edwards. All survived when the ship struck a mine in the Aegean sea on 21st November 1916 and sank, with the loss of 30 lives out of 1065 on board. She ‘lost all her belongings’ in the wreck.
Reference: WaW0255
Newspaper report
Report of survival of Nurse M A Harries. Carmarthen Journal 1st December 1916.
Newspaper report
Report of visit home of Nurse M A Harries. Carmarthen Journal 5th January 1917.rn rn
Mary Hopkins
Place of birth: Pontardulais
Service: Nurse, VAD, 1915 - 1919
Notes: Mary Hopkins joined the VAD part time in September 1915. She may have trained as a nurse in London. She then worked in the Welsh Military Hospital at Netley before being transferred to France in March 1917. Her brother Second Lieutenant Daniel Hopkins, mathematics master at Holyhead County School, was killed at the Battle of Arras a few weeks after Mary arrived in France. It is not known whether they met in France before his death, but such meetings were not uncommon.
Notes: Mildred Hughes was a professional nurse, born in 1879. She was already a QARNNS sister in 1911, and at the outbreak of war was Superintending Sister at the Royal Naval Hospital, Gibraltar, where she had been since 1912. In 1916 she became Head Sister (i.e. Matron) of Plymouth Naval Hospital, from where she wrote a letter to the parents of VAD Maggie Evans on Maggie’s death [qv]. She remained at Plymouth until she was appointed head of QARNNS in 1929. She retired in 1934. She received the Royal Red Cross in 1916, and a second award in 1919.
Letter from Mildred Hughes to the parents of Maggie Evans. Yr Udgorn 7 August 1917
Citation
Presentation of bar to Royal Red Cross by King George V, British Journal of Nursing 6th December 1919
Nurse Edwards
Place of birth: Cynwyd
Service: Nurse, Not known / anhysbys
Notes: Nurse Edwards was one of three Welsh nurses serving on the hospital ship Britannic (sister ship to the Titanic). The others were Annie Handley and M A Harries. All survived when the ship struck a mine in the Aegean sea on 21st November 1916 and sank, with the loss of 30 lives out of 1065 on board. She subsequently nursed in France
Reference: WaW0256
Newspaper article
Report of Nurse Edwards’s home leave, Yr Adsain 27th February 1917
