Women buried on the Western Front - a complete overview

[Marilyne]

On 27/10/2020 at 09:36, wenchesintrenches said:

We at Wenches in Trenches have been ding annual tours of the Nurses graves since 2006, come and see our page on FB. Our next tour in April 2021 id sold out but we will possibly run an extra one in September. We also have our book full of pictures and bios of the nurses. Not all of them but volume 2 will follow next year. 

 

Great initiative!! 

April 2021 I'll still be at my course but maybe september... 

I visited Lochnagar crater in July and saw your memorial. Very nicely done!

 

M.

Edited 3 November , 2020 by Marilyne

[FROGSMILE]

Thank you for continuing this series of records commemorating these pioneer women Marilyne, I always look forward to each entry.  I hope that one day when you finish them all you might compile them all together and perhaps, if feasible, publish a small booklet.  I'm sure that the ladies of the other nations will be interesting too.

Edited 7 November , 2020 by FROGSMILE

[Marilyne]

Hi all, 

 

Well you all know I'm up to my elbows in my GS course and need first and foremost to work on my Research Paper and the other papers before even thinking of taking up the WWI research in general and that of the women in particular. 

BUT... I have done the research for Etaples end 2019 - beginning 2020 and have been to Etaples to visit the ladies in July, so I think I can find a bit of time in my insane schedule to at least share the pics and the stories with you over the next weeks. 

If you go back to pages 5 and 6, start of April, I already shared the stories of Katherine MacDonald, Margaret Lowe and Gladys Wake with you, the first Canadian nurses to die in the war, all three victims in the 19th May 1918 bombings of Etaples. Katherine and Gladys lay only three graves apart, Margaret one row further, as she died ten days later from her wounds. The grave just behind her on the pic is Katherine's. I found it interesting to keep them together on the picture. 

 

 

 

 

M. 

[Marilyne]

And to answer @frev's question, here's the picture of Annie Bain's grave. 

 

Florence Grover's marker was removed ... I'll have to go back to see when it's back ! 

 

M

 

 

[Marilyne]

as the song goes: "heeeeere we go again" .... 

Thought I'd just post a little update to get this thread out of the mothballs... 

nearly three years since I started this project, many research hours past, many still to come but also a long break due to my General Staff course which I successfully finished and also due to COVID-induced travel restrictions...  it was not so easy to follow up in the last months.

Now that I've got my career and life well balanced out, it's time to go back... FOR GOOD !! 

I'll start by re-reading everything already done and adding some context and information here and there to my existing texts, information which came out from extra research (COVID did have a good side: one could read... and buy more books) or was given out by forum members and then go on with presenting all the girls to you. We'd arrived in Etaples, a document which will need some more review, considering the enormous amount of extra information I found during my trip last July. I already have all the pics for Bagneux and Abbeville too and then I hope by next spring to be able to plan another visit to the front, now to the French coast: Le Treport, Mont Huon, Le Havre, Dieppe ... 

First thing: go back to Nellie and Lijssenthoek... war records and war diary Nb44 CCS. 

more soon...  

Thanks for staying with me on this. 

M.

[DoubleD]

Great to see you back Marilyne!

i saw a post by the Vimy Foundation on Twitter recently and it reminded me of you and your project. It concerns Clare Gass, who’s book of war diaries I sent to you what now seems like ages ago! 

I know Clare isn’t a casualty, but her book is a fascinating account of a nurse’s life on the Western Front and evidence has come to light that she may have helped John McCrae with his famous poem “In Flanders Fields”. 

The Vimy Foundation post tweets in French and English, but the link to the English version doesn’t work so I’ve had to paste the link in French below. Hope your French is ok?

Cheers,

Dave

 

https://www.fondationvimy.ca/100joursdevimy-29-mars-2017/

 

 

[Marilyne]

6 minutes ago, DoubleD said:

Hope your French is ok?

WAAAAAYYYYYYY better than my English!!! 

Merci beaucoup!! 

It's great to be back in the game and to look forward to many visits. I just noticed I'm not THAT happy with some of my Etaples and Bony pics... and I'm already going through my agenda trying to find some days on which I can sneak off to the front... 

M.

[DoubleD]

Your English is excellent Marilyne!

I’m sure Clare Gass spent quite a bit of time at Etaples as well as many other Canadian CCSs and hospitals. She was at No 2 Canadian CCS near Esquelbecq when she nursed Perth Academy former pupil James Amess as he was dying and wrote the letter to his mother.

Enjoy your visits, looking forward to following your progress again.

Dave 

 

[Marilyne]

First time since long that I had a complete day to spend with my research... well actually I just spent half a day re-reading files, putting books and documents to read in a right order, going through the already written parts and adding some more stuff... all the while having Shania Twain's take on AC/DC's "shook me all night long" on a loop in order to learn it by tomorrow's Crazy Pony Rehearsals... oh boy!!! 

This being said, and just coming back to DoubleD's previous post... Dave, you'll be glad to know that I talked about Clare to my fellow students of the General Staff's course when we went to the Western Front in June and visited Essex Farm. And you talk about Etaples, there are two pictures of soldier's graves in Etaples in the book. She passed there quite some times with her bicycle, also to participate in the burial of American nurse Margaret Hamilton, who now lies in Bony. 

I've got a friend who's into mangas and animes... the Japanese cartoons and she sent me this drawing of the nurses uniforms... it might not be 100% accurate, but still, I like the attention and it shows that even if I sometimes tend to rant on when I'm on the subject, some of my friends actually listen to me... *** 

[Fattyowls]

They are really good, congratulate your friend. They might be quite relevant to a younger non WW1 obsessed audience. And I always listen to you, I don't often do what you say but I do listen......

[DoubleD]

Hi Marilyne,

Glad to hear that you’re sharing Clare’s story and glad that you’re getting back to your research.

Really like the cartoons, pass on my congratulations to your friend.

Best wishes,

Dave

 

[seaJane]

Hi Marilyne,

Those are wonderful images! Do you think your friend could do likewise for QARNNS (Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service) and QARNNS (R)?

seaJane x

[Marilyne]

Hi, 

my english words were not really well chosen... the friend found the picture and sent it to me... did not mean she drew it herself... 

sorry for that!! 

I'm continuing the Etaples list tomorrow! Time to get back to work! 

M.

[Marilyne]

Hi all, 

It looks like all I needed to get it all back on the road was some Spanish air, Mum's cakes and cookies and no access to my work e-mails... and a complete day home alone while mum and dad had to take care of other things was a also a bonus. I've re-read, corrected and completed my complete Etaples document, taking advantage of my notes of last year's visit to the Archives of Arras and of some more recent publications and while I'm still looking for some more details, I can now move on to the next region: the Boulogne-Wimereux cemeteries; of which I already have the pictures. 

But I still owe you a number of ladies of Etaples, so here we go for that last stretch: 

And I'm re-starting with a very interesting young lady, who has her very own thread on this forum, to be found HERE: https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/148898-our-happy-warrior/ so I'll try to be concise. 

Betty Gavin Stevenson , YMCA, 30 May 1918

Betty Gavin Stevenson was born in September 1896. She was a real outdoorsy type, loving nature, her pony and dogs and she spent hours writing letters and diaries. in 1913, Betty moved to Brussels to study piano at the conservatoire under José Sévenants. I'm still trying to get the conservatoire to look into their archives for a trace of her passage there. Might be tricky, but I'll keep you posted.

Her parents were very active in the YMCA, and whenever she could, Betty went along. When the war started, lessons were interrupted in Brussels, so Betty went back home and immersed herself in charity work with her mother. This work brought her to join an aunt run a canteen in Paris in 1916. Still craving to do more than that, she managed to secure herself a job as a driver in Etaples, in the spring of 1917. She drove a Ford, named "archie", with which she would drive around concert parties, relatives of wounded soldiers, visitors, doctors, VIPs... The work was hard, but her always cheerful attitude earned her the name "The Happy Warrior". 

In the beginning of 1918, Betty had to take a break from driving, after being ill with the flu and suffering some sort of nervous breakdown. But duty called once more when in May the bombings started in Etaples. Betty and her friends would drive to the station every day to see how they could help refugees get away. One of these trips would be fatal. According to an eye witness, the girls had been told to head back to their billets, out of town and out of harm's way. one of the cars of Betty's column broke down and they were caught in the raid, having to seek shelter in the banks of the road. on bomb killed Betty and wounded two other workers.

Betty was posthumously presented with the Croix de Guerre avec Palme by Maréchal Pétain. After the war, her mother wrote a book about her daughter, the proceeds to go to charity. It's a fascinating life story! 

I left the poppy's I had with me that day with her, a gift to a true warrior!

Next one tomorrow! 

M. 

 

[seaJane]

[Marilyne]

Just three pictures, still from Etaples, very quickly... it is late ... And I'm to blame for putting in too much hours of "normal" work ... 

I have found very little information about the three ladies in this post, so anyone who has more and is willing to share, please do!! One surmises they were all three victims of the flu... 

Emma Whittaker (15 February 1919 - LXXII.B.26) was born in Bradford, Yorkshire. A little butterfly had landed on her grave when I was in Etaples. It did not stay longer than for this picture, unfortunately... 

Mary Matthews (17 February 1919 - LXXII.B.36) was from Buxton, Norfolk. 

I very much like her epitaph by the way. Simple, yet poignant. 

Finally, Assistant forewoman Edith Routledge (5 March 1919 - LXXII.D.37) was the eldest daughter of George and Elizabeth Routledge and was from Rock Ferry, in Cheshire. Her name is on the Liverpool Post Office Staff Memorial, which seems to indicate that before enlisting with the WAAC, she worked as a telegraphist or post sorter ... She had been mentioned in dispatches. 

Good night ! 

M.

[royalredcross]

No. 1585 Edith Honoria Routledge was born in 1890 the eldest daughter of George and Elizabeth Routledge of Rock Ferry, Cheshire.  She enrolled in the QMAAC and served in France from 10 July 1917 to5 March 1919.  On that day she died of pneumonia aged only 29.   She was mentioned in despatches in the London Gazette dated 10 July 1917.  I have her medals. 

Norman 

[mbriscoe]

On 23/10/2021 at 17:03, Marilyne said:

I've got a friend who's into mangas and animes... the Japanese cartoons and she sent me this drawing of the nurses uniforms... it might not be 100% accurate, but still, I like the attention and it shows that even if I sometimes tend to rant on when I'm on the subject, some of my friends actually listen to me... *** 

 

 

Excellent pictures, don't know if you have seen it but some time ago I found an article in the British Newspaper Archive with details of the various WWI nurses' uniforms though not sure I will be able to find again!

 

[Marilyne]

On 23/11/2021 at 12:51, royalredcross said:

No. 1585 Edith Honoria Routledge was born in 1890 the eldest daughter of George and Elizabeth Routledge of Rock Ferry, Cheshire.  She enrolled in the QMAAC and served in France from 10 July 1917 to5 March 1919.  On that day she died of pneumonia aged only 29.   She was mentioned in despatches in the London Gazette dated 10 July 1917.  I have her medals. 

Norman 

Norman, 

 

Thank you very much for this information! 

How did you come to her medals? Is she family?? 

Regards, 

Marilyne

[Marilyne]

Hi all, 

Getting on with Etaples... want to finish THIS YEAR... 

Jeanie Macpherson Barclay Smith (28 April 1916 - I.B.27) was born in Aberlour, Scotland 22 February 1874, the daughter of John Smith, a pharmacist, and his wife Margaret. She had seven sisters and one brother: George, who became a pharmacist like his father. Jeanie was the only girl in the family who decided to pursue a career and enrolled in nursing training at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary between 1901 and 1904. She subsequently joined Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service as a Staff Nurse in September 1907.

She resigned from the service in July 1911, for reasons not known, but returned on the outbreak of the Great War to serve once more. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross, First Class, on 23 June 1915. In 1915 she was stationed for a while at Nb 3 CCS in Hazebrouk, then Poperinge, where she worked with Edith Appleton, who reported about Jeanie's death in her diary. Continuous shelling forced the nurses to evacuate and the CCS to re-open later in Bailleul. Whether Jeanie was still with the clearing station at the time is not known but 1916 saw Jeanie working as the matron on N° 24 General Hospital in Etaples.

On the 24th April, the Matron-in-Chief received a Telephone message from Miss Blakely to say Miss Barclay Smith was seriously ill and put on the DI List at 8pm. The diagnosis was of endocarditis (rheumatic fever) Her sister was called for and arrived a few days later. On the 27th, Matron McCarthy: Left at 3pm with Miss Walford VAD to Etaples to see Miss Barclay Smith at Villa Tino who is still dangerously ill. Found her seriously ill, hardly conscious, her sister with her. Everything which possibly could be done was being done. Sir John R. Bradford had visited her, but at his last visit gave very little hope. She has worked so bravely and well, that it is more than usually sad. Jeanie died on 28th April. She was buried on the 30th April, with, according again to the war diary of the Matron-in-Chief, A large number of Nurses from all Hospitals present, as well as officers. Her sister dreadfully upset, poor thing

 

Evelina Maud Dawson was from Ballymeda, Northern Ireland and was born in 1868. Before the war, she was a missionary with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and a nurse at St Catherine’s Hospital, Cawnpore (now Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh), India for eight years before she returned to the UK on furlough. The outbreak of WW1 saw her called up for service in the QAIMNS (Reserve), and she served as a senior nurse and matron at Aldershot, England and later on hospital ships, mainly in the Mediterranean area.

Eveline was matron on board the hospital ship Salta when it struck a mine on the 10th April 1917. Along with all the others mentioned on the Salta Memorial in Le Havre (we’ll see to the whole story when at Le Havre), she was reported “missing, believed drowned”, on the 21st April but her body washed ashore near Etaples on the 28th June 1917 and buried there.

Australian nurse Elsie Tranter attended the funeral with her colleagues. She had just arrived in Etaples. We had to attend the funeral this morning of Sister Dawson. Her body was washed up near our camp.  She was on a hospital ship that was torpedoed in the Channel.  There were about one hundred sisters and VADs present.  The service was at the mortuary, then we all walked to the grave headed by three Kilties playing the bagpipes.  The coffin was covered with the Union Jack and flowers.  After it was lowered, ‘Last Post’ was sounded by two Jocks and two Tommies.

Good night all! 

M.

[royalredcross]

In answer to your query on Edith Routledge, she is not family.  She is part of my collection of medals and awards to uniformed women.  I have her British War and Victory Medals, but not, unfortunately, her Memorial Plaque. 

[Marilyne]

@royalredcross: thank you! 

on we go... 

Alice Violet Hallam was a member of the London 114 Voluntary Aid Detachment and was attached to 18th General Hospital. She arrived in France on 2nd June 1915 and died of illness contracted on duty in December 1916. She was 45 years old. I don't have more details than that..; any more information is welcome. 

 

Mathilda Ethel Green was born in 1884 in Listowel, Ontario, Canada. She received her nursing training at Medicine Hat (that's a city) General Hospital in Alberta and enlisted in April 1917 with the Canadian Army Nursing Service in Calgary. She crossed to England quite quickly and served first at Toronto Military Hospital in Orpington, Kent. She was then sent to France and started work at N° 7 Canadian General Hospital (Queen’s University) in Etaples, staying there for next a year and a half. In October 1918 she fell ill with pneumonia and died. She was 32 years old.

 

 

[alf mcm]

Marilyne,

  The IWM has a photograph of Alice Violet Hallam. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205380467

  There is a family tree for her on Ancestry which shows she was born in Hampstead, Middlesex in April 1871.;- https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family-tree/person/tree/110739985/person/230085485691/facts

Regards,

Alf McM

[Marilyne]

Thanks, Alf!! 

I do have the picture... failed to load somehow... I'll try again later. 

one last for you guys, then I need to hit the kitchen again ... making millionaire's shortbread for the Boyfriend, who still has to work tomorrow. 

Jessie Emily Wakefield, TFNS, 7 Feb 1919, XLV.B.3 

Jessie Wakefield was born in 1879 to Richard and Emily Wakefield, who had nine children in total. They lived in Maidstone, Kent, where her father was a corn and coal merchant.

By 1891 Jessie had left Maidstone and was living with her sister and brother-in-law in Gravesend where she worked as a governess. she then moved to Norfolk in 1908 and trained at the Norfolk & Norwich Hospital between March 1908 and March 1911.

Jessie joined the Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) on 11 August 1914 and worked as a Nursing Sister at RAMC Territorial Force 1st Eastern General Hospital; Addenbrooke hospital, in Cambridge. Her annual reports at Cambridge praised her as “Conscientious, methodical and sympathetic.”. she wanted to serve abroad, was considered fit for duty abroad on the 28th February 1916, but she would have to wait a while longer. From 1st July to the 20th August 1916, Jessie was granted sick leave after appendicitis, after which a medical board declared her fit for duty again.

On 24 October 1917 Jessie was awarded the Award of Royal Red Cross (ARCC), which she received, upon her express request, on 20 April 1918, before leaving for France on the 28 May 1918. When she left for France, she was put in charge of the travelling party. once there, Jessie was posted at 56th General Hospital at Etaples.

In July 1918 Jessie fell ill with bronchitis and was admitted to 30th General Hospital in Calais.  She then returned to England for 2 months sick leave. After passing a medical board on the 15th October, she returned to France by the end of the month, but her health did not recover. One can only guess that returning to a hospital battling with the flu epidemic was not the best option for a recovering bronchitis patient. On the 4th February her father was informed that Jessie was gravely ill.

Jessie died of “septicaemia complicated by meningitis” on 7 February 1919 in the same hospital where she had worked as a nurse. 

M;

[Marilyne]

Happy New Year all! 

I have a few ladies from Etaples left to share with you:

Today I'm starting with Eliza Margaret Nesbit of the Scottish Churches Huts, who died 16 August 1916 (I.B.43)

Like the YMCA, the Church of Scotland’s Guild also opened a number of rest huts overseas, with the aim to provide soldiers with a possibility to worship and a bit of rest and other services. The huts were manned by volunteers from the Guild and all efforts paid for by volunteer contributions coming from the home front. A report about their work written in August 1916 by a reverend George Christie worried about the number of soldiers who departed for France without their Bible and so efforts were made to provide every soldier passing the huts with one before going to the front. In total, the Guild opened 25 centers, occupying as much as 350 volunteers. One of these centers was in Etaples.

Not much is known about Margaret (as she wanted to be called) but the fact that she arrived in Etaples with her sister Amy in June 1916. She might have worked at the hut in Montreuil, not far from Etaples, but she died in hospital in Etaples, from illness, but what is not known. The sisters were from Glasgow, the daughters of David and Jane Stevenson Nisbet. She is remembered on the family stone at the Glasgow Necropolis. 

Doris “Dot” Mary Luker was born 13 Jan 1898 in Woking as the second daughter and youngest of the three children of James George Luker and his Wife Mary. She had a sister called "Effie" and one brother:  James Ryder Luker, a private of the 19th Bn the London Regiment. He died at High Wood, on 15 September 1916 and is buried in London Cemetery and Extension, Longueval (1A.C.20)

Whether the death of her brother was an incentive for Doris to enlist we will never know, but she did so in January 1917, joining Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps, as “worker”. I have found no other information about what kind of work she did, in Etaples this might be anything ranging from serving tea to the soldiers to driving or manning telephone exchanges. She arrived in France on the 23rd February 1918 and fell ill with the flu twelve months later. 

At the beginning of this project, @tbirdukkindly shared a picture of the Woking memorial with us, showing both Doris's and James's names on it. Thanks for that. 

 

Blanche Amelia Page was the eldest of the six children of Edwin and Mary Page of Southampton.  In 1911, Blanche was 23 years old and working as a telephone operator in Eastleigh, Hampshire, where the family had moved to 14 years earlier.

When then Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was founded, Blanche enrolled immediately and was very soon stationed with the Royal Engineers and Signals in France. I have not found any records about where exactly she worked, but at the moment of her death, she was in a QMAAC convalescent home, implying that she might have been ill a longer time and was probably on lighter duty.

Her burial was a grand affair, in presence of her parents, as a newspaper article writes: "funeral took place at Etaples on December 9th, when about 200 members of the Q.M.A.A.C. from various camps followed. Major Comport and Captain Wells represented the corps. The parent, through the courtesy of the War Office, were also present" 

Her epitaph in a well-known quote from Scottish poet and academic Thomas Campbell: "To Live in Hearts we leave behind is not to die", from his poem Hallowed Grounds, written in 1825. 

Have a nice day, 

 

M.