Anne Matilda Marshall

[Uncle George]

I’ve recently been researching one William Henry Roe of the South Irish Horse - his MIC from ‘Ancestry’ is attached. I’ve found a few things about him online, including the SIH website and an Intelligence report (and subsequent questions in the House of Commons) concerning his post-war persecution by Irish Republicans. 

I came to William Henry Roe through his marriage to my family member Anne Marshall in Devonport in 1919. Anne was from a very poor family - her mother was born in Devonport Workhouse, for instance - and in the 1911 Census she appears as a servant in Saltash, just over the Tamar from Devonport, where she was brought up. To my huge surprise, in a recent (2017) article about the family home, I read about William and “his wife Anne whom he had met whilst in the army when she was stationed here in Ireland as an army nurse.”

I can find no mention of Anne in records online of the VAD and am at something of a brick wall. I know very little about “army nurses” but it seems unlikely to me that someone from Anne’s background should become an “army nurse” - am I wrong? And then find herself in Ireland? (And then marry a Commissioned Officer, from a landed family - albeit a former sergeant. But perhaps that’s easily explained.) 

I’d be grateful for any guidance in my search for details of her service. I’ve assumed Anne was in the VAD, but is this necessarily the case? Are there any other records, other nursing organisations that I could explore? 

Thanks in advance.

[Jim Strawbridge]

Trying to help and went to the BRCS website to search for VADs. What have they done?  One search box. Marshall brings up 542 results. Anne Marshall brings up over a thousand. The old website was so much easier to use. Then you had boxes for first names as well as surnames and also places where they may have served. This website is a retrograde step. BRCS please bring back the old site or improve this one. Meanwhile, Uncle George, good luck with your research.

[Uncle George]

5 minutes ago, Jim Strawbridge said:

Trying to help and went to the BRCS website to search for VADs. What have they done?  One search box. Marshall brings up 542 results. Anne Marshall brings up over a thousand. The old website was so much easier to use. Then you had boxes for first names as well as surnames and also places where they may have served. This website is a retrograde step. BRCS please bring back the old site or improve this one. Meanwhile, Uncle George, good luck with your research.

Thank you for looking. That website is awful, I agree.

[alf mcm]

It's much easier to search the Red Cross using Findmypast.

Search Results for British Army, British Red Cross Society Volunteers 1914-1918 | findmypast.co.uk

Regards,

Alf McM

[Uncle George]

3 minutes ago, alf mcm said:

It's much easier to search the Red Cross using Findmypast.

Search Results for British Army, British Red Cross Society Volunteers 1914-1918 | findmypast.co.uk

Regards,

Alf McM

Thanks very much indeed Alf -  that’s a much better source. But I still can’t find “my” Anne, alas.

[Matlock1418]

7 hours ago, Jim Strawbridge said:

Trying to help and went to the BRCS website to search for VADs. What have they done?  One search box. Marshall brings up 542 results. Anne Marshall brings up over a thousand. The old website was so much easier to use. Then you had boxes for first names as well as surnames and also places where they may have served. This website is a retrograde step. BRCS please bring back the old site or improve this one.

Couldn't agree more = dreadful site nowadays

On 29/01/2024 at 15:23, Uncle George said:

To my huge surprise, in a recent (2017) article about the family home, I read about William and “his wife Anne whom he had met whilst in the army when she was stationed here in Ireland as an army nurse.”

One of  he things to remember is that the BRCS site used to cover Homeworkers - who did knitting and the like - so no nursing, and thus a poor lass could still do war work ... and perhaps an exaggeration if providing cookery and the like when in Ireland.  Maybe the author of that article can explain/offer his source.

???

M

Edited 30 January by Matlock1418

[knittinganddeath]

Sorry if I'm being dense, but do you know if she and William really were married (i.e. have documentary proof), or is the article the only source of that information?

[Uncle George]

1 hour ago, Matlock1418 said:

Couldn't agree more = dreadful site nowadays

One of  he things to remember is that the BRRC site used to cover Homeworkers - who did knitting and the like - so no nursing, and thus a poor lass could still do war work ... and perhaps an exaggeration if providing cookery and the like when in Ireland.  Maybe the author of that article can explain/offer his source.

???

M

Thanks - that’s very interesting, about the Homeworkers. And yes, I’ve already sent an email to the source (the ‘Leinster Express’) but have yet to receive a reply.

Anne and her husband had a very accomplished son: one Robin Roe. He was a well-known rugby player in the 50s, I have learned (Ireland, Lions, Barbarians); in his day-job he was an army padre and was awarded the MC for gallantry in Aden. He ended up Honorary Chaplain to the Queen and CBE. A long way from the slums of Devonport…

Edited 30 January by Uncle George

[Uncle George]

4 minutes ago, knittinganddeath said:

Sorry if I'm being dense, but do you know if she and William really were married (i.e. have documentary proof), or is the article the only source of that information?

Yes, I have the marriage record - see attached, courtesy of ‘family search.org’: