Women buried on the Western Front - a complete overview

[Fattyowls]

That's excellent MM. I'm a big fan of Frev too, and as for Edith and all the others you are honouring them which is brilliant.

 

Pete.

 

P.S. the photo with the filter looks splendid. I don't know if it's art but I know what I like.

[Ghazala]

Love all the pictures.  Thank you.

[frev]

 

Thank you so much for visiting Edith Moorhouse and sharing her story and photos Marilyne.  She is the only one of our 4 Aussie ladies buried on the WF that I’ve never had a chance to visit.

 

Absolutely love your photos.  Could I possibly attach a copy of her headstone photo to her ‘profile’ at the NAA Discovering Anzacs website (on your behalf)?

 

Enjoy your ‘break’, and will look forward to more stories and photos in the new year…

Cheers, Frev

[Marilyne]

Frev, 

 

no prob for the pictures. 

I'm sending you a wetransfer link with the pics in big resolution. 

 

M.

[frev]

Many thanks again Marilyne - have downloaded all 4 successfully

Cheers, Frev

[303man]

Kitty Walcroft Died 14 Feb 19 

[Marilyne]

One of the Abbeville girls!! I hope to visit them later in this year. 

Thanks for the pictures!! 

 

M.

[Ghazala]

3 hours ago, Marilyne said:

One of the Abbeville girls!! I hope to visit them later in this year. 

Thanks for the pictures!! 

 

M.

 

Abbeville, on the Somme River northwest of Amiens, was a strategic Allied communications and hospital centre in WW1. In spring and summer 1918, Abbeville was the target of German air raids. In the early morning of 30 May 1918, Abbeville and Doullens were hit. At Abbeville, a bomb hit a protection trench, killing nine women in Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC). The victims were buried with military honours in Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension.

 

•     Mary McLachlan Blaikley (domestic worker) age 20
•     Beatrice V. (Trixie) Campbell (domestic worker) age 20 … “In remembrance of dear Beatrice, beloved by all who knew her.”
•     Margaret Selina Caswell (Officers’ Club waitress) age 22 … “The dearly loved daughter of Fredrick & Mary Caswell. Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on his gentle breast.”
•     Catherine Connor (domestic worker)
•     Jeanie Grant (postal clerk) age 22 … “A dear wee Scotch lassie who feared the Lord and honoured the King.”
•     Annie Elizabeth Moores (cook) age 27 … “She hath done what she could. Mark XIV.8.”
•     Ethel Francis Mary Parker (Officers’ Club waitress) age 21 … “In honour lived, for honour died.”
•     Alice Thomasson (domestic worker) age 21
•     Jeanie HL Watson (domestic worker) age 25 … “Father in thy gracious keeping, leave we our loved one sleeping.”

 

Six other service women are buried in the same cemetery:

 

•     Edith Agnes Baker, Staff Nurse, South African Military Nursing Service, died 6 Nov 1918, age 28 … “Sleep on, dear one, beside the boys whose lives were given for us.”
•     Beatrice Violet Moore, Worker, QMAAC, died 13 Mar 1919, age 21
•     Nellie Teresa O’Neill, Forewoman, QMAAC, died 16 Nov 1918, age 28. Mentioned in despatches.
•     Emily Ada Pickford, Civilian, member of Lena Ashwell’s Concert Party, YMCA, drowned in a car accident, 7 Feb 1919, age 38
•     Edith Fanny Rowe, Worker, YMCA, died of cerebro-spinal-meningitis, 28 October 1916, age 43 … “Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.”
•     Kitty Walcroft, Worker (telephone operator), QMAAC, died of influenza, 14 Feb 1919, age 24 … “Not lost but gone before.”

[303man]

Another from Abbeville

[Marilyne]

On ‎14‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 13:43, Fattyowls said:

Perhaps an obvious one but I like to visit the grave of Helen Fairchild

 

OK... I said that US cemeteries were outside my initial scope, but I WILL make an exception for Helen Fairchild.

Saturday on our way to Talbot House I dragged the Boyfriend out in the cold wind sweeping over Flanders Fields to Dozinghem Cemetery, where she worked and where her plaque stands. that's the first stop, Bony will come.

 

 

Work is still going on for the project, I'm researching now, reading a lot, and trips will resume very soon!

 

M.

[Marilyne]

Good morning all. 

Time to continue with the women buried on the Western Front. 

Last week I convinced my fellow marchers to stop in Rouen on our way to the Vendée and to visit St Sever Cemetery & extension. Armed with a plan, we quickly looked for the graves and so I can continue with this project. I probably broke a new record in that I "ONLY" spent half an hour on said cemetery ... 

 

I'll be starting with the original cemetery and the two Australian ladies buried there. 

The first one is Hilda Mary KNOX, Australian Army Nursing Service, attached to the 11th British Stationary Hospital, who died 17 February 1917. 

Her story has already been beautifully told by Frev on this forum and I can only refer to it here: 

 

 

Hilda was buried the same day as Mary Charlotte Dickson, who died a day earlier ( and about whom we'll talk in a later post). The funeral was a grand affair, with the base commander, Bde Gen Francis John De Gex, also in attendance. Why I mention him? Well one of my fellow travellers found De Gex's grave not far from Hilda's, wondered about a general being buried on the same par as mere lieutenants and nurses (yes, I had to educate them a bit) and from there we tried to figure out what happened to the gentleman. Turns out he died very suddenly from a heart attack not two months after Hilda and Mary. 

 

The "Daughter of the Regiment" has surely been missed, but she has a lovely resting place. 

 

 

 

 

[FifeWar]

On 20/11/2018 at 21:02, Marilyne said:

A second nurse killed in the raid was Elizabeth Thomson.

Of her not much is known except that she was from Kirkcudbright and was 25years old when she died.

If anyone has information on her to share... that'd be most welcome.

Hi Marilyne,

I had a quick look today on a couple of Scottish sites and came up with this information about, and photograph of,  Elizabeth Thomson

 

Best, Kevin

THOMSON, BESSIE. NURSE. KIRKMABRECK V.A.D. 
Elizabeth Thomson, Nursing Member: Voluntary Aid Detachment, 58th (Scottish) General Hospital. Attached to the British Red Cross. Age 28. 
Born 1889 in Creetown, Kirkmabreck. Daughter of Robert and Margaret (Vernon) Thomson of St. John Street, Creetown. Bessie applied to do nursing and was posted to the Old Mill Military Hospital in Aberdeen. She volunteered for overseas service in March 1916 and served in the 58th (Scottish) General Hospital in St. Omer, France. She was killed during an enemy air-raid on the hospital. 
Killed by enemy action on 30 September 1917 and buried in Longuenesse (St. Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, France.

 

http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/warmemscot-post-54790.html

 

[Marilyne]

The Second Australian lady burried in St Sever Cemetery is Louisa "Louie" Riggall. For this lady also I am in debt for the great research done by Frev! 

Louisa “Louie” Riggall was an artist. Born in Maldon, County Victoria, she attended Sale School of Art and in 1897 travelled to France to continue her training at the famous Académie Delécluse.  The Académie was founded in 1884 by Auguste Joseph Delécluse and was a studio exceptionally supportive of women artists. she also toured Italy and visited the Heidelberg School. 

After returning to Australia she opened her own studio in Melbourne, held exhibitions of her work and lived by the sales of them. When the war broke out, she decided she had to help in a more satisfying way as just mending clothes : "I could not stop in Australia while the need for women at the front is so urgent.  I am not a trained nurse, but I am willing and ready to serve in any capacity – in a kitchen or peeling potatoes, so long as I am helping the boys" she wrote. 

She embarked for Egypt in October 1915 and was attached to the 1st Australian General Hospital, first in Heliopolis and from April 1917 on in Rouen (so I guess she must have met Hilda Knox at some point). In Rouen she was in charge of the Red Cross Stores at the hospital and also visited Australian soldiers in other hospitals in Rouen and surroundings.

What happened next can be read in Matron-in-Chief E.M. McCarthy’s diary: "Miss E. Riggall Red Cross Worker. This lady was attached to No.1 Australian General Hospital, and had been with the unit since 1915, and had served with them in Egypt. On the afternoon of the 31st of August 1918, she left the Hospital seeming quite well. A few minutes after, word was brought across from the French billet where she lived, that she was very ill. The C.O. immediately saw her and found her unconscious. She was transferred to the Sick Sisters’ Hospital [8th BGH], but died the same evening without regaining consciousness. The cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage."

 

I have not until now been able to find examples of her work on the web... anyone???

 

 

 

yes, I put a little filter on the pic... felt creative... 

 

I particularly like the caption on the stone, simply putting forward the great work she did: 

 

 

 

Edited 10 June , 2019 by Marilyne

[familyhistoryman]

Marilyn

Have you tried searching the Australian newspapers on https://trove.nla.gov.au

 

Regards, Tony

[303man]

Louisa Rigall was also Mentioned in Dispatches.

[Marilyne]

Hi all, 

 

getting on with St Sever, one of the best know graves - although not in the database - is that of Dame Lucy Branfoot, who volunteered at "the best run show in Europe": Lady Mabelle's Coffee Shop. I own thanks for Trish for sending me her little book on that famous coffee stall, it was indeed a forgotten story ... but a very good one!!

Lucy Innes Carter was born in Madras in India on 19th November 1863. Her father was a Chief Engineer of the Madras Railway.  Lucy had two sisters:  Ethel Margaret and Isabel.  Isabel apparently served as an Army nurse in Africa and Greece during WW1.

In 1886, Lucy married India’s Surgeon General, the much decorated and brilliant obstetric surgeon, Colonel Sir Arthur Mudge Branfoot (1849 – 1914) in India and the couple had two children – Ruth and Dennis.  Lucy was Sir Arthur’s second wife, his first wife – Alice, nee Stewart, having died in childbirth.

Upon his definitive retirement in 1913, they returned to live in Britain.  After the death of Sir Arthur in Folkestone in 1914, Lucy volunteered to go to France and help out at Lady Mabelle Egerton's Coffee Stall at Rouen St Sever railway station in France.  It seems likely that the Branfoots and the Egertons knew each other and that Dame Lucy was swept up in the general feeling of “having to do something”.

She died at No.8 General Hospital of bronchitis and Bright's Disease (kidney failure), aged 53.

 

I unfortunately don't have a picture of Dame Lucy but would be grateful if anyone had one to share... 

 

 

 Another grave is that of YMCA worker Edith Pearton. 

She died 13th March 1918. 

This is the first case where I have to say that I did not find anything about... There is absolutely nothing to be found about this girl… nothing on her gravestone, nothing on internet…. Maybe in the archives of the YMCA it might be possible to find something… but right now, we don’t even know where she was from.

 

[Fattyowls]

More quality work major, not forgotten.

 

Pete.

[frev]

10 hours ago, Marilyne said:

 Another grave is that of YMCA worker Edith Pearton. 

She died 13th March 1918. 

This is the first case where I have to say that I did not find anything about... There is absolutely nothing to be found about this girl… nothing on her gravestone, nothing on internet…. Maybe in the archives of the YMCA it might be possible to find something… but right now, we don’t even know where she was from.

 

 

 

Marilyne - No doubt Jim Strawbridge will be along to help you at some stage...
But meanwhile, it appears that he believes she may be associated with Workington:

 

https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/3929-wanted-photos-nationwide/page/31/

“Hello Kenny, I am after the grave of 5163 Worker F.F. Hope, Q.M.A.A.C. She is in Workington (Harrington Road) Cemetery, plot 4. D. 13. If passing the town's war memorial she may be on there, too, with Edith Pearton, YMCA. I don't know if either are on the WM so please don't go out of your way.”

 

Keep up the great work, cheers Frev

[Marilyne]

Workington ... that's a start !! 

This is what I love about the forum... it's all about team effort!!! 

 

Thaaaaaanks !!!! 

 

M.

[Jim Strawbridge]

One of twelve children to Robert and Sarah Pearton. Robert was an iron worker from Kingston, Oxfordshire. In 1891 the family were in Workington, still there in 1901 and were in Oldham, Lancashire in 1911. Many of the young women of the family, including Edith, were velvet weavers in the local cotton factory.

[Marilyne]

Thank you Jim !!!! 

 

now on to another story... a very sad one: that of Daisy and George Warnock. 

 

Born 1st February 1887 Elizabeth McMath Warnock – or Daisy, as she was called – was educated at Whitehill School, Glasgow. She was a teacher under the Glasgow School Board and when the war broke out volunteered for Red Cross work in the Scottish Branch as a VAD. Meeting all the requirements for service abroad, she was accepted and sent to Malta in August 1915 later proceeding to France in October 1916 where she served at No 12 and No 8 Red Cross Stationary Hospitals, Rouen.

 

Daisy’s brother George Muir Warnock also served. He was a Lt with 6th (territorial) Bn. Princess Louise’s (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders). Before the war George was a Clerk at a firm of Glasgow Stockbrokers. He was mobilized in August 1914, went through the ranks and after Cadet Training school received his commission as  2nd Lieutenant on the 17 August 1916 and promoted Lieutenant in January 1918. He was deployed to France in November 1916 and served first as bombing officer and later as Lewis Machine Gun officer. He saw fighting in Arras and Cambrai in 1917. On the 21st March 1918, his Bn was involved in heavy fighting on the Somme during which he was wounded: a bullet caught him in the side and lodged itself in his lung. He was brought for treatment to No 8 General Hospital, Rouen, where his sister worked.

One can only imagine how hard it must have been for Daisy to see her brother wounded in her own hospital and to try to keep him alive after the operation that removed the bullet. But her tender care could not save him and he died on the 29th March 1918. He was buried in St Sever, without any doubt with his sister at his side.  

 

But pretty soon she joined her brother at the cemetery, for on the 5th May 1918, Daisy too died, from pneumonia contracted while on military service.

Sir Arthur Stanley, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Red Cross Society wrote to her parents: “Your daughter passed away whilst nobly and heroically serving the country, and her magnificent work will remain an inspiration to the personnel of the British Red Cross, of which she was such a distinguished member.”

 

The war diary of the Matron in chief gives a bit more details: Received telephone message from A/Principal Matron, Rouen, to say that Miss E. M. Warnock, VAD had been put on the DI list with septicaemia (pleurisy), and that she was not expected to live through the night. Heard later that she had died the same evening.

 

Both brother and sister are buried in the same plot, at a stone thrown from one another.

 

 

And now to the moment where I can start kicking myself... I started really reseaarching each individual AFTER visiting the cemetery... and thus found out about George AFTER coming back... and so I have no picture of his grave... so sad... I'll have to go back... 

 

[Marilyne]

The next two women on the project were best friends, and now may in the same cemetery: Nurses Mary Dickson and Jeannie Smith Lee. 

Mary Charlotte Dickson was born in 1884 and was the daughter of a clergyman: Revd William Dickson was rector of the parish of Fahan, Co Donegal. 

We don’t know much about the early life of Nurse Dickson nor why she turned to nursing. One can guess that maybe she was inspired by another famous inhabitant of her village: Agnes Jones, a legendary pioneer nurse who trained and served with Florence Nightingale. 

Mary Dickson died of disease and was buried on the same day as Nurse Knox…

 

During her illness, she was nursed by her best friend, Jeannie Smith Lee, from Haltwhistle. Her grand niece wrote a nice little book about her, based on the letters she sent home. in 1912, Jeannie joined the 30th Northumberland VAD and of course volunteered for service as soon as the war started. In october 1916, she applied for overseas service and was appointed to N° 9 General Hospital in Rouen. One of her letters then report the bad news: 

As you say “life is short”. I didn’t tell you before, but since I came out here the greatest friend I made (an awfully nice Irish girl) died of “cerebral Spinal Meningitis”. I nursed her before it was discovered what she had and she was taken to an infectious hospital. For days we had we had a Special Service in the Church Tent for her but there was no hope.

Her funeral was simply tremendous. The most impressive thing I have seen in my life. Another sister  was buried the same day.

Then she got the measles. they were perhaps badly or insufficiently treated, because on the 30th March, she was re-admitted to hospital with complications. The war diary of 25th Stationnary mentions "Purpura fulminans" as cause of death. 

 

So the two friends now rest not far from one another. 

 

Both had siblings. Jeannie's brother Duncan served with the Northumberland Fusiliers and survived the war. Mary's sister Anne (or Annie) Eileen Dickson, who served with the Ulster Volunteer Force Hospital, first in Pau and then in Lyon. She is believed to have died in August 1916 and buried in Lyon, but the city burial records have nothing on her. I'm still looking... 

 

And with this we had all seven ladies at Rouen St Sever Cemetery - the original cemetery. 

Now over to the Extension. 

 

M.

[Fattyowls]

A poignant story beautifully told Marilyne; this thread is fast approaching classic status. I had my sister read your last post as she is really interested in the subject and she immediately asked if the Agnes Jones you mention was the nurse who is well remembered here on Merseyside. And a little digging established that she was, and it is easy to see how she would be an inspiration. In a very tangental coincidence Agnes was brought to Liverpool by William Rathbone, great grandfather of 2nd Lt. Basil Rathbone of the Liverpool Scottish.

 

Pete.

[IPT]

 

42 minutes ago, Fattyowls said:

A poignant story beautifully told Marilyne; this thread is fast approaching classic status. I had my sister read your last post as she is really interested in the subject and she immediately asked if the Agnes Jones you mention was the nurse who is well remembered here on Merseyside. And a little digging established that she was, and it is easy to see how she would be an inspiration. In a very tangental coincidence Agnes was brought to Liverpool by William Rathbone, great grandfather of 2nd Lt. Basil Rathbone of the Liverpool Scottish.

 

Pete.

 

When visiting my in-laws, I often see the little signpost indicating the presence of her grave in a Donegal graveyard.

 

 

(It's on the way to the pub)

Edited 25 July , 2019 by IPT

[Marilyne]

It's about time I finish the posts on the St Sever women, so that I can start turning to the next cemeteries... there will be work to do over the winter, I guess... 

So left are the 7 in St Sever Extension, and on the three ladies I'd like to introduce here I can find not many information., 

If anybody can help... 

 

Worker Clara Gosling died but a few days before the Armistice. She was born in Brightlingsea in september 1886, the daughter of Henry Whitmore Baker-Gosling and his wife, also named Clara, maling her 32 when she died.

Clara enlisted in London and gave her father as her next of kin. It looks like Clara was one of those who, being still without husband, found the appeal of an active life with the WAACs a good way of spending the war and doing her bit.

She is commemorated on her hometown's  war memorial as Clara B. Gosling and on the grave of her parents in the churchyard of All Saints Church. 

 

 

Nurse Mary Cawston Bousfield was mentionned in despatches and received the 2nd class Royal red Cross medal for her service.  Mary Bousfield was born in 1891 and was from Lambeth, London. She was stationed at N° 8 General Hospital in Rouen as an assistant nurse. There is a bench dedicated to her in the chapel of the cemetery.

 

About Sister Ellen Lucy Armstrong I ounf out even less. she also was a Recipient of the Royal Red Cross medal and mentioned in Dispatches for her work. She died aged 38, probably from pneumonia realted to the Spanish flu epidemic. 

She was a reservist of the QAIMNS, a professional nurse, one can only imagine very dedicated to her work and her patients. 

 

 

I promise information on the last four very soon. 

 

M.