Jessie Scorgie, ARRC - WW1 Nurse

With thanks to Historian Lawrence Taylor for the following information 

Jessie Scorgie served as a Nurse in the Scottish Women's Hospitals [British Committee French Red Cross] in Kraguievatz, Serbia from July 1915 to February 1916. She took up the post of Sister at the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve General Military Hospital, Colchester until July 1919 when she was awarded Associate Royal Red Cross. 

On leaving the QAIMNS Jesse took up a post at the London Homeopathic Hospital.

From the “Nursing Journal”, April 1921:

“London Homeopathic Hospital, Great Ormond Street, W.C.

Miss J. Scorgie has been appointed Sister of a Women’s Surgical Ward in the same institution. She was trained at the Royal Infirmary, Manchester, and has been Theatre and Ward Sister in the same institution, and Sister in the Scottish Women’s Hospital, Serbia. She served four years in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve, and holds the Royal Red Cross (Second Class) and the Serbian Cross Good Samaritan.”

Photo from “Manchester Evening News” 9 December 1955, – Jessie’s retirement 

NOTE\:

Colchester Military Hospital was one of several army hospitals in England, UK. It closed when the QEMH Woolwich opened in 1977 and was demolished some time later. Local army medical needs were met, and still are, by the new Medical Reception Station (MRS) Colchester.

Sources:

Lawrence Taylor, 7 October 2024

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000272%2F19551209&page=6&article=148&stringtohighlight=jessie+scorgie

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/4964023

Photo from “Manchester Evening News” 9 December 1955, – Jessie’s retirement 

The five Gladstone sisters and their mother, WW1

Information posted Liz (Janet) Tobin almost ready to decamp from X via Twitter 

Five sisters and their mother who were all born in India.: 

Florence Eliott Gladstone – the girls’ mother b. 1855

Florence Amy Loree Gladstone b. 1884

Rose Gladstone b. 1885

Elsie Mabel Gladstone b. 1888

Margaret Cecil Gladstone  b. 1891 

Gladys Cornelius Gladstone b. 1893 

During the First World War the five women contributed to the war effort in various ways. The Gladstones lived in Jersey, Channel Islands, where two of the sisters and their mother volunteered with the local Red Cross. Two other sisters served as VADs in Malta. A fifth sister, Elsie, was a nurse and trained as an anaesthetist with the QAIMNS and served in France and Belgium, where she died in 1919.

Elsie Mabel Gladstone, ARRC, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service. 

Sister Elsie Gladstone

Elsie died on 24th January 1919 and was buried in Belgrade Cemetery, Namur, Belgium, Grave Ref. I.A.5.

I mentioned Elsie in one of my posts in 2014 - 

https://inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.com/search?q=Gladstone

Additional Sources:  Find my Past, and

https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/community/2980

Helena Maria Paderewska (1856 – 1934) – Polish founder of The Polish White Cross during WW1

With thanks to Professor Margaret Stetz for finding Helena for us 

Helena Maria von Rosen was born on 1st August 1856 in Warsaw. Her parents were Baron Wladislaw Friedrich Johann Kasimir von Rosen, Polish of Baltic German descent and Zofia Taube, who met during his military service during the Crimean War. Zofia was born into a noble family of Baltic heritage whose ancestors came from Denmark. Helna’s mother died shortly after Helena's birth.

Helena met Ignacy Jan Paderewski when he was a promising young pianist. They were married in Warsaw on 31st May 1899.

As hostilities began in late July 1914, the Paderewskis were celebrating her husband’s name day and her birthday with their customary gathering of friends, musicians and politicians at their home in Switzerland. Their funds (and especially those of their Polish friends) were frozen in Lausanne (although they managed to live on credit), and travel became difficult. In November 1914, Russian Grand Duke Nicholas reportedly promised Polish independence after the war, but Paderewski feared it was a ruse to quieten rampant unrest and began working with Erasmus Piltz, Henry Sienkiewicz, Wincenty Lutosławski, Józef Wierusz-Kowalski, Jan Kucharzewski and other Polish exiles for Polish relief.

In January 1915, Paderewski planned a three-month trip to Paris, London and the United States, initially thinking he and his wife could lobby for Polish relief, as well as continue his concert career. However, they soon realized the difficulty of the task they had undertaken. Russia's ambassador in Paris, Count Alexander Izvolsky, was anti-Polish, though a politically necessary member of any relief committee of Polish exiles in that country. 

Helena was able to visit Polish conscript prisoners from the German army, as well as start a doll-making project among nearly destitute Polish students and artisans in Paris. For the next few years, she hauled trunks of dolls and sold them in conjunction with her husband's concerts to develop profits to buy milk for Polish babies and do other good works. In London, Russia's ambassador Count Alexander Benckendorff helped Paderewski's Polish relief efforts both in Britain and its overseas colonies. However, the English public knew little about Poland, so Paderewski began writing letters to newspaper editors and some were published. So began his role as Polish spokesman. In April 1915, the Paderewskis boarded the transatlantic steamship Adriatic for the United States, but the sinking of the Lusitania the following month transformed their short trip into one of more than three years.

Dolls made by WW1 Polish refugees in France for sale through Helena Paderewska.  These are on view in the Edinburgh Museum of Childhood and the photograph was taken by Dr. Margaret Stetz.

During their three years of travels in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean, Helena Paderewska organized help for the war's victims in Poland, as well as for Polish soldiers, who first fought in France and later on the Eastern Front. With the help of Polish emigrants in the United States, Paderewska founded the Polish White Cross in February 1918 (initially the Red Cross would not permit use of its name since Poland was not a country), and also helped found the Relief Society for Intelligence.

Helena died on 16th January 1934

From the Museum of Childhood
in Edinburgh - photo by
Dr. Margaret Stetz

Ignacy Jan Paderewski 

NOTE

Paderowski was a Polish pianist, composer and statesman 

who became a spokesman for Polish independence. 

In 1919, he was the nation's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, 

during which time he signed the Treaty of Versailles, 

which ended the First World War. 

Professor Margaret Stetz is the Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and Professor of Humanities at the University of Delaware in America. 

The Hush WAACs of the First World War

Found on Twitter from Dr Helen Fry | WWII Historian @DrHelenFry

The first women in uniform ever posted to the front line during the First World War was in Septembret 1917.

They were called "Hush WAACS" and were posted to the front line in France. Their top secret, primary work was to decode messages. They were the early codebreakers and Mabel Peel was one of them.

Mabel Dymond Peel (1879 – 1938) was born in Barton upon Irwell, Lancashire, UK, in 1879 – the birth being registered in September of that year. 

The Hush WAACs were a group of seventeen British women who worked on the front line as codebreakers in France during World War One. After the war, two went on to work on diplomatic codebreaking for MI1b. Although women were already working as codebreakers in Room 40 and MI1b, the Hush WAACs were the only women to serve as codebreakers at the front line during WW1.

In 1917, the British Army in France was short of manpower, and members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps were asked to volunteer for front line service in supporting roles. Six women were identified as capable of supporting the I(e)C front line codebreaking work at Saint-Omer in northern France and arrived there on 28th September 1917. They had not been told what their duties would be.

They were joined by another three women who found conditions too difficult and returned to England. Between 1917 and the end of the war in November 1918, a total of seventeen women were sent to work in the I(e)C codebreaking team. There were typically around 12 women in the team at any time. They were aged between 22 and 55 years old, and had all volunteered for front line duty. All were middle or upper class, and spoke German.

Sources: https://www.gchq.gov.uk/information/hush-waacs

Wikipedia, Find my Past, FreeBMD https://welwyngarden-heritage.org/news/miss-mabel-dymond-peel

Dr Fry has written a book entitled “Women in Intelligence” :

The book is a history of women in British military intelligence from 1914 to 1945 – available to purchase from https://www.helen-fry.com/women-in-intelligence      

Kate Manley, OBE (1866 – 1945)

Born in Bridport, Dorset, UK in 1866, Kate Manley became the UK Ministry of Food’s Chief Culinary Scientist in 1917.  

In November 1917, Kate started a programme to train hundreds of women to work as supervisors in national kitchens.  For her war work, Kate was awarded an OBE in 1919. 

Sources: Information skindly ent to me by Michael Downes, a retired teacher living in East Devon with an interest in local history.

Find my Past, FreeBMD, Imperial War Museum, Western Morning News, 15th August 1945

An image sent to me by Michael Downes

From Imperial War Museum

Western Morning News, 15th August 1945

Vesta Tilley - stage name of Matilda Alice Powles (1864 - 1952) – British music hall star - one of the best-known male impersonators of her era.

With thanks to John Daniel for this information 

Matilda Alice Powles was born in Worcester on 13th May 1864. She was the second child of thirteen children born to Henry Powles, a musician known as Harry Ball, and his wife, Matilda Powles (nee Broughton).

With her father's encouragement, Matilda made her stage debut when she was three years old.  By the time she was six, she was performing songs dressed as a man. She began her professional career in 1869. – her first character of note was "Pocket Sims Reeves", spoofing the act of the then-famous opera singer Sims Reeves by performing his songs such as "The Anchor's Weighed". 

She was billed as Vesta Tilley for the first time in April 1878 when performing at the Royal Music Hall in Holborn, London. As a male impersonator, Alice performed as a dandy or a fop, a famous character being "Burlington Bertie", although she also played other roles such as policemen and clergymen.

In 1890 Alice married Sir Abraham Walter de Frece (7 October 1870 – 7 January 1935) - a British theatre impresario, and later Conservative Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1920 to 1931.

Alice and her husband ran military recruitment drives during the First World War and Alice sang at charity events dressed in khaki fatigues  performing numbers written by her husband such as "Jolly Good Luck to the Girl Who Loves a Soldier", "The Army of Today's All Right", "Six Days' Leave", and "Your King and Country Want You" (also known as "We Don't Want to Lose You but We Think You Ought to Go"). She was nicknamed "England’s greatest recruiting sergeant" since young men were sometimes asked to join the army during her shows. Over the course of a week in Hackney, she enlisted so many people they became known as "The Vesta Tilley Platoon".

After the war, music halls declined in popularity. Walter de Frece was knighted in the 1919 King's Birthday Honours List for his services to the war effort, with Alice becoming Lady de Frece. Walter decided to run for Parliament and Alice chose to end her stage career. Her farewell tour took a year to complete, between 1919 and 1920. All proceeds were given to a local children's hospital.  She made her final appearance at the Coliseum Theatre, London on Saturday 5th June 1920. In their review, "The Times" newspaper called it a "wonderful night" and commented that at the end she was "gradually being submerged under the continuous stream of bouquets".

Alice died in St James's, London on 16th September 1952, aged 88. Her body was buried alongside her husband, at Putney Vale Cemetery.

Image:  A postcard of Vesta Tilley dressed in Army uniform during WW1.  These cards were sold in aid of the War Relief Funds.

Music Hall in WW1

The First World War may have been the high-water mark of music hall popularity. The artists and composers threw themselves into rallying public support and enthusiasm for the war effort. Patriotic music hall compositions such as "Keep the Home Fires Burning" (1914), "Pack up Your Troubles" (1915), "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" (1914) and "We Don't Want to Lose You (but we think you ought to Go)", were sung by music hall audiences, and sometimes by soldiers in the trenches.

Many songs promoted recruitment ("All the boys in khaki get the nice girls", 1915); others satirised particular elements of the war experience. 

Sources: Information supplied by John Daniel, 

Additional sources:

Find my Past, FreeBMD, Wikipedia 

The Hewins Sisters in WW1 – Dorothy Hewins (1894 – 1949) and Margaret Nancy Hewins (1902 – 1978) - self-published authors of ‘Lest We Forget: Being Some Account of the Smaller Incidents in the Great War’.

 With thanks to Historian Debbie Cameron* for posting a portrait of Nurse Dorothy Hewins in WW1 on her Facebook Group Remembering British Women in WW1 – The Home Front and Overseas 

Nurse Hewins by Helen Margaret McKenzie

Dorothy Hewins was born on 24th Febuary 1894 in Oxford, UK, where her Father, William Albert Samuel Hewins was a Professor of Economics.  Her Mother was Margaret Hewins, nee Slater.  Dorothy and Nancy had a brother – Maurice Gravenor Hewins - who was born in Chelsea, London, UK in 1897.  Margaret Nancy Hewins was born on 14th February 1902 in Putney, London, UK in 1902.

Maurice served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Middlesex Regiment T.F. Res., attached to the Colonial Office.

During the First World War, Dorothy volunteered to work at the Surgical Requisites Association (SRA)** in Mulberry Walk, Chelsea. In this role she trained and eventually became a fulltime member of the first ever team to develop and apply plaster casts to the injured.

Dorothy struggled with ill health for most of her life and died in 1949.  

Nancy studied at Oxford Unversity and became a theatre director and actress.   In 1927  Nancy created a women’s theatre troupe called Osiris, which toured the country for some four decades.  Nancy died in 1978. 

Sources:  Initial Source: Debbie Cameron’s Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468972083412699/

Additional Sources: Find my Past, FreBMD, Wikipedia and

https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/stories/womens-history-month-the-hewins-sisters

http://www.bathwarhospital.org/articles/surgical-requisites-association/

“Gloucestershire Echo”, 19 March 1940

NOTE 

**The Surgical Requisites Association was an offshoot of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild, who undertook to supply surgical dressings. Two women, Anne Acheson and Elinor Halle, who were both sculptors, devised a way of making splints out of papier mache that were both lighter and cheaper than those made of traditional materials. Old sugar bags were found to be the best material, and these were collected from grocers and members of the public with the help of boy scouts. The Bath branch of the association, believed to be one of only 6 outside London, was established in January 1918, and formally opened later that year by HRH Princess Beatrice accompanied by Lady Crutchley, the head of the first depot in Mulberry Walk, London.

Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild

In 1885 Princess Mary Adelaide of Teck (mother of the future Queen Mary) had became patron of The London Guild, beginning an unbroken line of Royal patronage.  In 1897 her daughter, the Duchess of York (the future Queen Mary) became the patron, having helped her mother with the charity since childhood.

The Guild was established in 1882 when the matron of an orphanage in Dorset asked Lady Wolverton for 24 pairs of knitted socks and 12 jerseys for the children in her care.  She started a small Guild amongst her friends to provide not less than 2 garments for each child at the orphanage and to supply clothing for other charitable institutions.  The Guild grew quickly and by 1894 The London Needlework Guild (as it was then known) was making and distributing over 52,000 garments a year.

On becoming Queen Consort in 1910, Queen Mary renamed the charity Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild and in 1914 established St James’s Palace as the headquarters.

(The portrait of Nurse Hewins was painted by Scottish artist and etcher Helen Margaret MacKENZIE (1881-1966) who was born in Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland - the daughter of an architect. She studied at the Royal College of Art with Gerald Moira, gaining her diploma in 1906.)

*https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468972083412699/