Wiltshire 6 VAD - Chippenham

[HERITAGE PLUS]

I have collated an excel spreadsheet listing the names of 84 women known to haved served in Wiltshire 6 VAD (Red Cross) at Chippenham.

I have listed Honours and Awards received which can be broken down as follows:

OBE - 1

MBE - 2

ARRC - 1

Brought to the Notice of the Secretary of State - 5

Red Cross Card for Honourable Service - 21

Red Cross 5-year Service Badge - 11

Red Cross Certificate for Needlework - 3

I have also listed the names of 27 men known to have served in Wiltshire 13 VAD at Chippenham.

If anyone is interested in a copy please PM me your e-address and I will send a copy.

Dave

[Jim Strawbridge]

Dave, I am interested in Muriel Annie Belcher and A. Stevens (female). I believe that Muriel was awarded an MBE. Any information on these two would be appreciated.

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Jim

I don't have a lot of info.

It was Muriel's sister Evelyn who was awarded the MBE. Four Belcher ladies served in the VAD.

BELCHER, Annie Mrs - VAD - Mother of Evelyn, Dora and Muriel Belcher

BELCHER, Dora Miss - Assistant Quartermaster -Red Cross Card for Honourable Service

BELCHER, Evelyn Miss - Quartermaster - M.B.E - Red Cross Card for Honourable Service

BELCHER, Muriel Annie Miss - VAD - Died - Complications following Appendectomy Operation - 30.9.1914 aged 22. Buried St.Paul's Churchyard,Langley Road, Chippenham.

The Belcher's ran an Outfitters and husband/father Frank was also a Director of the Chippenham Laundry Co.

Some years after the war Dora married the widowed Frederick Hinton, Headmaster of Ivy Lane Primary School in Chippenham ,whose first wife had also served in the VAD, becoming the step-mother of Christopher Hinton who became

Baron Hinton of Bankside OM, KBE, FRS, who was a British nuclear engineer, and supervisor of the construction of Calder Hall nuclear power station.

STEVENS, A. Mrs - VAD -Died - Influenza - 30.11.1918 buried St.Paul's Churchyard, Chippenham

Her husband was a Sanitary Engineer.

Evelyn and Dora Belcher and Mrs. Stevens are on a photograph of the VAD held in the Chippenham Town Museum Collection. The reference number being CHYHM 1978:775. The prefix indicates that the photo was in the collection when the Museum was housed in the Yelde Hall before moving to its current Market Place loacation so the photo may have been re=referenced at the time of the move in 2000.

Dave

[Jim Strawbridge]

Dave, this is great stuff for me. Thank you. Four Belchers in the local VAD seems quite formidable. But I am particularly pleased with the extra information on A. Stevens. All that I previously knew was her initial/name, that she was a married woman, a member of Wiltshire 6 VAD and died of illness 30/11/18. Ok, I could have tried to get a death certificate but funds and time only go so far. But I didn't even know that Wilts 6 was Chippenham. So now I have three sources of finding out more about her. Her death certificate for the quarter and covering Wiltshire. Or, just perhaps, the 1901 census if she had married before that date. But it will take some searching. I shall have to look through all the Chippenham Stevens' to find one who was a sanitory engineer with a wife with the initial A. Or, lastly, to try and find her grave in St. Paul's churchyard. But I will eventually work out her first name and a lot more about her. So thank you for the lead. Incidently neither Muriel Belcher nor Mrs Stevens name are on the York Minster panels under VAD.