Mary Anita "Neta" Snook Southern (1896 –1991) - pioneer American aviator

Mary Anita Snook (known as "Neta")  was born on 14th February 1896 in Mount Carroll, Illinois, USA.  She became interested in machinery at an early age, spurred by a fascination with her father's cars. At the age of four, she would sit on her father's lap and help him steer his Stanley Steamer on the hills of their Illinois town. As she grew older, he taught her the inner workings of cars. Anita  attended the Frances Shimer School, which later became Shimer College, graduating in 1912.

When the family moved to Ames, Iowa, in 1915, Snook attended Iowa State College (now Iowa State University), taking courses in mechanical drawing, engines and farm machinery repair. She became fascinated with literature related to aviation and soon wanted to learn to fly.

During her second year at college, Anita applied to the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station and the Curtiss-Wright Aviation School in Newport News, Virginia but was denied admittance, as no women were allowed.

The following year, an advertisement for the Davenport Flying School in Iowa brought her back home, where she became one of the first female student pilots.

After a major crash in which the school's President was killed, the school closed and "Curly," as Anita had been dubbed by fellow students, began searching for another flight training school. 

In 1917, Anita eventually gained entry into the Curtiss-Wright Aviation School and put in many hours in the air until civilian flights in the United States were banned for the duration of The First World War. In 1918 Anita worked briefly for the British Air Ministry in Elmira as an expeditor putting her mechanical skills to good use, inspecting and testing aircraft parts and engines on their way to combat in Europe.

In 1918 Anita worked brieflyfor the British Air Ministry in Elmira , Chemung County, New York as an expeditor, putting her mechanical skills to good use, inspecting and testing aircraft parts and engines on their way to combat in Europe.

In 1922, at the age of 25, Anita married William Southern. She] became pregnant and gave up flying, selling her business. Not much was heard about Neta Snook Southern in the years following her retirement.

Anita died at the age of 95 on March 23, 1991, at her *adobe home, built by Neta and William in Los Gatos, California.

*An adobe house is a structure built using sun-dried bricks made from earth, water, sand, and organic materials like straw or dung. Known for thick, sculptural walls with high thermal mass, these durable, fire-resistant homes stay cool in summer and warm in winter, making them ideal for arid climates.

Sources:  Mastermind Television Programme, Wikipedia. 

 

A new book about the British Red Cross in Italy during the First World War : "Vado con la Britannica!"

 

Sergio explains: “I wrote this book after a long research. In four years of study I was able to consult many documents from Italian and British archives, including those of the Imperial War Museum and the Archives of the Historical Office of the General Staff of the Italian Army, and read several books and diaries that described the contribution given by the women and men of the British Red Cross on the Italian front during the First World War. I thought that their story, little known but of great interest, had to be told. They were truly a wonderful "band of brothers" and their story inspired Ernest Hemingway in writing his novel A Farewell to Arms. The volume was among the winners of the competition promoted by the publishing house Tralerighe of Lucca in 2022 and was published in 2024. The volume is available to purchase on Amazon and on several other online platforms.”

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