Commemorative First World War Exhibition Project

This self-funded project is in memory of my Grandfather, who was an Old Contemptible  with the Royal Field Artillery who survived, and my two Great Uncles who lost their lives in WW1.

WOS resident artist Rebecca
Grindley gave a talk about women of WW1

I began researching WW1 in 2012 for an exhibiton of Female Poets of the First World War, requested by Dean Johnson, founder of the Wilfred Owen Story museum (The WOS), Wirral, UK.   Once the exhibition was on display, I just continued researching, adding other headings. Inspirational Women of WW1 came about when I stumbled on the story of Canadian artist Mary Riter Hamilton, commissioned in early 1919 by the Canadian Amputees Association to go and paint the aftermath in France and Belgium.  Philip Gosse, MD, a General Practitioner in Britain was the Official Rat Catcher Officer of the British Second Army on the Western Front, which brought about Fascinating Facts of the Great War.  Realisation that Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves were not the only male soldier poets of WW1, prompted me to start researching Forgotten Poets of the First World War.  I am now researching lesser-known artists of WW1.

Exhibition panels are e-mailed free of charge to anyone wishing to host an exhibition.  Exhibitions have been held in a wide variety of locations throughout the UK, as well as in Cork University, Ireland and in Delaware University, USA, and panels have been sent to schools.  If you know of a venue that would like to display panels, please ask them to contact me and I will send them the list of panels researched so far. 

If you are interested in exhibiting any of the panels researched so far, a full list of panels available will be sent on request.  Some of the panels have been put into book form – please see http://www.poshupnorth.com/ for details.

LUCY LONDON

Commemorative First World War Exhibition Project

www.fascinatingfactsofww1.blogspot.co.uk

www.inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.co.uk

www.femalewarpoets.blogspot.co.uk

www.forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.co.uk

http://lesserknownartists.blogspot.com/

https://worldofnadjamalacrida.blogspot.com/

http://greatwargraves.blogspot.com/

Also on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Inspirational-Women-of-World-War-One-187332758143199/

https://www.facebook.com/femalepoetsofthefirstworldwar/

https://www.facebook.com/forgottenpoetsofww1/

https://www.facebook.com/fascinatingfactsofww1/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/385353788875799/

Gertrude Bell (1868 – 1926) – British English writer, traveller, administrator, archaeologist and spy - involved in establishing and administering the modern state of Iraq. 'Liaison Officer' during WW1

Gertrude was born on 14th July 1868 in Co. Durham, UK. Her parents were Sir Hugh Bell, 2nd Baronet, three times Mayor of Middlesborough and a director of the family firm Bell Brothers Ironworks’ steelworks in Middlesbrough, and his wife, Maria, nee Shield.  Gertrude had a brother, Maurice, who was born in 1871. Gertrude’s Mother died when she was three years old, which meant that she formed a close relationship with her father.

In 1876, Gertrude’s Father married Florence Eveleen Eleanore Olliffe, a playwright and writer of children's fiction.  Gertrude was educated at Queen's College, London, before going on to study at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she obtained a First Class Honours Degree in Modern History.

Portrait of Sir Hugh Bell, with Gertrude Bell,
by Edward Poynter, in 1876

After her graduation from university, Gertrude travelled to Persia with her uncle, Sir Frank Lascelles, who was appointed British Minister at Tehran (similar to the post of Ambassador). The next few years were spent travelling - especially in Arabia -  mountaineering and learning languages. Gertrude became fluent in Arabic, Persian, French, German, Italian and Turkish.

During her travels in Arabia, Gertrude met T.E. Lawrence, with whom she shared a love of the Arab peoples.  Gertrude translated and published the work of the fourteenth century Sufi poet, Hafiz into English to great acclaim.

When war broke out in 1914, Gertrude went to work with the Red Cross in France. In 1915, she was summoned to Cairo to work for the Arab Bureau. On 3rd March 1916 she was sent to Basra and on 10th March 1917 to Baghdad. According to Gertrude's reports at the time, "…there were not
many (if any) permanent solutions for calming the divisive forces at work in that part of the world".

Gertrude Bell and T.E. Lawrence

When the Ottoman Empire was split up after the War, Gertrude was given the task of reporting on the situation in Mesopotamia as, by that time, she was an expert on the tribes in the area. Gertrude returned to England in 1925, where her family fortunes had suffered in the aftermath of the war. She returned to Baghdad and was treated for Pleurisy. Her half brother, Hugo, died of Typhoid. Gertrude died in Baghdad on 12th July 1926.

Gertrude’s Obituary, published in "The Geographical Journal" and written by her colleague and fellow archaelogist – David George (D.G.) Hogarth - stated: "No woman in recent time has combined her qualities – her taste for arduous and dangerous adventure with her scientific interest and knowledge, her competence in archaeology and art, her distinguished literary gift, her sympathy for all sorts and condition of men, her political insight and appreciation of human values, her masculine vigour, hard common sense and practical efficiency – all tempered by feminine charm and a most romantic spirit."

After Gertrude's death, her stepmother, by then Dame Florence Bell, published two volumes of Gertrude's letters written during the preceding twenty years. Gertrude is buried in the British Cemetery in Baghdad. A stained glass window in the church of St. Lawrence, East Rounton, North Yorkshire is dedicated to her memory.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Bell

Mary Elizabeth Gladwin (1861 – 1939) - a British-born American Red Cross nurse who served in three wars.

 She was one of the first six American nurses to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal when it was awarded by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1920.

Mary Elizabeth Gladwin was born on 24th December 1861 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK, the daughter of Francis Gladwin and Sarah Gladwin, nee Cooper. The family moved to the United States, settling in Akron, Ohio. Mary graduated from Buchtel College in 1887 (now The University of Akron) and trained as a nurse in Boston, finally completing her formal studies in 1902.

Mary became a science teacher in Norwalk, Ohio after finishing college. Her first work as a war nurse was while she was still a nursing student, during the Spanish–American War in 1898, treating soldiers with typhoid fever in Chickamauga, Georgia. She was soon included in American Red Cross units assigned to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines as well. She was awarded a Spanish War Service Medal for her service. During the Russo-Japanese War, Mary joined an American Red Cross unit, assisting Japanese nurses at Hiroshima. The Japanese emperor personally presented Gladwin with the Imperial Order of the Crown.

Superintendent at Beverly Hospital in Massachusetts from 1904 to 1907 and at the Women's Hospital in New York City from 1907 to 1913, back home in Ohio Mary worked with the Red Cross during the Great Dayton Flood of 1913.  She was head of women's employment at the B. F. Goodrich Tyre Company in Ohio, and was superintendent at the City Hospital in Cleveland. She was also president of the Ohio State Nurses Association and chaired the National Committee on Red Cross Nursing in 1911.

During the First World War, Mary went to Serbia with the American Red Cross to work at a hospital in Belgrade and later iwent to work in Salonika in Greece. She received the Serbian Cross of Charity medal for her service there.  In 1920, Mary was one of the first six American nurses to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

After the war, Mary worked as a hospital administrator and nursing instructor in New York and Minnesota. She wrote two books, Ethics: Talks to Nurses (1930) and a biography of Jane Delano (1931), as well as articles for the American Journal of Nursing. She was also a frequent speaker for students and women's groups, especially after 1929. "If the fathers and mothers could have seen what I have seen on the bloody battlefields," she said, "there never would be another war."

Mary died on 22nd November 1939 at Akron City Hospital, aged 77 years. In 1978, the new building for the School of Nursing at Akron University was named Mary E. Gladwin Hall. Her papers, including diary, photographs, and an unpublished memoir, are archived at the University of Akron, but her medals were donated to the Summit County Historical Society.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Newcomb_McGee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_E._Gladwin