Gertrude E. Jennings (1877 – 1958) – British actress and playwright

With thanks to Historian Debbie Cameron for this information

Born in 1877, Gertrude’s parents were Louis Jennings, a journalist who became Editor of the “New York Times” from 1870 until 1876 and who later became MP for Stockport, and his wife, Madeleine Louise Henriques, an American actress known for her work at New York’s Wallack’s theatre. Gertrude began her theatrical career as an actress, performing in New York under the name Gertrude Henriques and then touring in productions of English classical works with the Ben Greet Players. In the UK, Gertrude  lived in South West London (The Boltons) and began her theatre career as an actress before taking up her pen to write plays. Her 1912 play, “A Woman’s Influence” brought her recognition within the Actresses Franchise League and it became one of the organisation’s most popular and frequently performed plays.

Gertrude played a very important role in the women’s’ theatre movement in the early part of the 20th century. She had the sheer guts and determination to take a theatre company to France to entertain the troops there during the First World War.

When war broke out in 1914, the Actresses Franchise League disbanded and activists such as Lena Ashwell – manager of the Kingsway Theatre London – led the drive to provide entertainment to the troops. By 1917 there were 25 companies performing over 1400 shows a month. Material was drawn from classic and contemporary writers such as Shaw, Sheridan and Barrie, with Lena Ashwell being particularly enthusiastic about taking Shakespeare to the front line soldiers.

Gertrude Jennings formed her own company and travelled to France to entertain the troops.  In 1914 Samuel French published a collected volume of her plays under the title “Four One Act Plays”. The plays were also performed for the home front in London with full professional casts. “No Servants”, for example, was performed in April 1917 at the Princes Theatre with Lilian Braithwaite starring in the lead role as Victoria.

“Five Birds in a Cage” opened on 19th March 1915 at the Haymarket Theatre, then returned as part of the evening bill on April 20 and ran for 284 consecutive performances. The play was broadcast on the wireless (radio) in the first year of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s wireless broadcasts on 29th November 1923, with subsequent productions on 11th April 1924 and 23rd July 1926.

Gertrude died in Midhurst, Sussex, UK in September 1858.

Sources:

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

https://everydaylivesinwar.herts.ac.uk/2016/03/gertrude-jennings-human-comedy-human-conflict/?fbclid=IwAR3ZkveXLAXHJ8c1DJYy_4MKaIy-G0a_sBkiOdmGe0cbpdUUWWtCcOVMxFM

https://ww1richmond.wordpress.com/2015/10/07/who-was-gertrude-jennings/?fbclid=IwAR2n8pyIRJHr-o5Ii7qpwDQFp8XD5jizDKJBjdtXobHeV5ZrWPOp4kyCSEc

Florence Oppenheimer (1882 - 1980) – British WW1 Nurse

With thanks to Martin Sugarman, Archivist of AJEX  for telling me about Florence.

Born on 13th April 1882 in Islington, London, UK, Florence’s parents were Alexander Oppenheimer and his wife, Eliza Oppenheimer, nee Pool.  Florence had the following siblings: Cicilia, b. 1879, Rozalie, b. 1880, Eva, b. 1881, Violet, b.1883, Michel 1885, Beatrice, b.1886 and Eric Bernard, b. 1903.

Florence was educated at The Lady Eleanor Holles School in Middlesex.
She joined the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service and served throughout the First World War, gaining Mentions in Despatches, Metirorious Service Medals and Territorial Force Efficiency Medals.  Florence kept a diary in which she recorded her experienced of the conflict.

Florence was serving in Egypt in November 1918.  After the Armistice, she signed on for a further six months and was posted to Palestine. In December 1919, Florence decided she wanted to return home, “After 5 years of really hard work I was very tired and thought I would be wise to return home.”

In 1920, Florence married Leopold Jacob Greenberg in Marylebone, London.  She became a journalist, lecturer, BBC broadcaster and food writer, with her book “The Jewish Chronicle Cookery Book” being published in 1934.  Widowed in 1933, Florence worked for the Ministry of Food during the Second World War.

Florence died on 4th December 1980. 

Florence Oppenheimer’s WW1 Diary has been digitized by AJEX (Association of Jewish Ex Service Men and Women) and much of this is available if you follow the link:

http://www.letters.thejmm.org.uk.gridhosted.co.uk/biography_florence

Sources:

https://www.jewsfww.uk/florence-greenberg-115.php
Find my Past and Free BMD

Thank you Martin.

Mildred Aldrich (1853 – 1928) – American Writer and Journalist

I first became aware of Mildred Aldrich through looking through Matt Jacobsen’s wonderful website OldMagazine Articles.com

Mildred was born in Providence, Rhode Island, USA on 16th November 1853.  Educated  in Boston, Mildred became a school teacher and then a journalist.  She wrote for the “Boston Home Journal”, “The Boston Journal” and the “Boston Herald”.

In 1898 Mildred went to live and work in France as a foreign correspondent and translator.  She lived initially in Paris, where she met fellow ex-patriate Americans Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.  When she was 60, Mildred decided to retire from the busy city life and, in search of peace and quiet, looked for a house in the countryside around Paris.  In June 1914, she moved to Huiry, where she found a delightful house overlooking the River Marne.  She moved in and began to renovate the property but her dreams of a quiet life were shattered in August 1914.

Mildred’s accounts of what life was like for a civilian American woman in that part of the world in the early days of WW1 are fascinating and can be read on line:

“A Hilltop on the Marne”
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11011/11011-h/11011-h.htm

“When Johnny Comes Marching Home”
https://archive.org/details/whenjohnnycomesm00aldr/page/n15

After some hair-raising adventures, Mildred and a friend visited the graves of many of the soldiers killed in the early days of WW1.  They travelled on 5th December 1914 by car, following the line of the fighting that took place on 6th and 7th September 1914.  Pilgrimages to the cemeteries had begun on All Souls Day – 2nd November – 1914 but Mildred and her friend preferred to wait until the crowds had thinned out.

Mildred was awarded the French Legion of Honour in 1922, for it was widely felt that her books, which were very successful in America, had contributed to America joining the war.

Mildred died on 19th February 1928 and is buried in the churchyard of the Church of St. Denis in Quinchy-Voisons.

After our exhibition and book about some of the Inspirational Women of WW1, I received this message from John Stevens:

"I have been reading through your most fascinating book "No Woman's Land".  It may be of interest to you that on page 57 Lt Edwin [Eddie] Allen James Edwards was the youngest brother of my Grandfather [my Great Uncle!] Sadly, Eddie was badly wounded on 15th October and died back in England aged 19.  His older brother, Capt Gerald John Edwards of Kings Royal Rifle Corps was also killed in 1917 aged 34."

It is astonishing how many of the threads in my project are linked.

My grateful thanks to John for getting in touch and letting us know what happened to his Great Uncle Eddie after he met Mildred who looked after his troops when they were near her house on the banks of the River Marne, giving them tea, bread and butter and biscuits.

Here is a brief extract from Mildred’ account of her meeting with a British Army Officer:  A conversation followed and Mildred showed the officer round her garden.  As he left, she asked:

“ "Is there anything I can do for you, captain?"

He mounted his horse, looked down at me. Then he gave me another of his rare smiles.

"No," he said, "at this moment there is nothing that you can do for me, thank you; but if you could give my boys a cup of tea, I imagine that you would just about save their lives." And nodding to me, he said to the picket, "This lady is kind enough to offer you a cup of tea," and he rode off, taking the road down the hill to Voisins.

I ran into the house, put on the kettle, ran up the road to call Amelie, and back to the arbor to set the table as well as I could. The whole atmosphere was changed. I was going to be useful.

I had no idea how many men I was going to feed. I had only seen three. To this day I don't know how many I did feed. They came and came and came. It reminded me of hens running toward a place where another hen has found something good. It did not take me many minutes to discover that these men needed something more substantial than tea. Luckily I had brought back from Paris an emergency stock of things like biscuit, dry cakes, jam, etc., for even before our shops were closed there was mighty little in them. For an hour and a half I brewed pot after pot of tea, opened jar after jar of jam and jelly, and tin after tin of biscuit and cakes, and although it was hardly hearty fodder for men, they put it down with a relish. I have seen hungry men, but never anything as hungry as these boys.

I knew little about military discipline—less about the rules of active service; so I had no idea that I was letting these hungry men—and evidently hunger laughs at laws—break all the regulations of the army. Their guns were lying about in any old place; their kits were on the ground; their belts were unbuckled. Suddenly the captain rode up the road and looked over the hedge at the scene. The men were sitting on the benches, on the ground, anywhere, and were all smoking my best Egyptian cigarettes, and I was running round as happy as a queen, seeing them so contented and comfortable.

It was a rude awakening when the captain rode up the street.

There was a sudden jumping up, a hurried buckling up of belts, a grab for kits and guns, and an unceremonious cut for the gate. I heard a volley from the officer. I marked a serious effort on the part of the men to keep the smiles off their faces as they hurriedly got their kits on their backs and their guns on their shoulders, and, rigidly saluting, dispersed up the hill, leaving two very straight men marching before the gate as if they never in their lives had thought of anything but picket duty.

The captain never even looked at me, but rode up the hill after his men. A few minutes later he returned, dismounted at the gate, tied his horse, and came in. I was a bit confused. But he smiled one of those smiles of his, and I got right over it.

"Dear little lady," he said, "I wonder if there is any tea left for me?"

Was there! I should think so; and I thought to myself, as I led the way into the dining-room, that he was probably just as hungry as his men.

While I was making a fresh brew he said to me:—

"You must forgive my giving my men Hades right before you, but they deserved it, and know it, and under the circumstances I imagine they did not mind taking it. I did not mean you to give them a party, you know. Why, if the major had ridden up that hill—and he might have—and seen that party inside your garden, I should have lost my commission and those boys got the guardhouse. These men are on active service." 

German Uhlans WW1

Then, while he drank his tea, he told me why he felt a certain indulgence for them—these boys who were hurried away from England without having a chance to take leave of their families, or even to warn them that they were going.

"This is the first time that they have had a chance to talk to a woman who speaks their tongue since they left England; I can't begrudge it to them and they know it. But discipline is discipline, and if I had let such a breach of it pass they would have no respect for me. They understand. They had no business to put their guns out of their hands. What would they have done if the detachment of Uhlans we are watching for had dashed up that hill—as they might have?" ”

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11011/11011-h/11011-h.htm

Photo of Uhlans from WW1 Buffs Facebook Page

Edith Smith Memorial Award For Widnes Wild Women's Ice Hockey Team - Season 2019/20

Widnes Wild Women's Ice Hockey Team

Pauline Hayward shows off the Edith Smith Award

As you know, I’m trying to spread the word about the unsung heroes and heroines of the First World War. Among the ideas to do this, is the naming of the Most Valued Player Awards for our local women’s ice hockey team – Widnes Wild Women - in memory of a WW1 heroine. Last year’s MVP Awards were in memory of Sarah Macnaughtan (1864 – 1916) a writer who was famous at the time of the war and who went to help out in Belgium, France and Russia. Sara died of exhaustion in July 1916.

This season’s MVP Award for the Team commemorates Edith Smith, who became Britain’s first Warranted Woman Police Officer during WW1. Edith is of particular interest to the Widnes-based Team as she was born in Oxton, Merseyside (formerly in Cheshire) and was buried in St Mary's Church and Halton Cemetery, Runcorn, Cheshire, which is close to to the Widnes ice rink where Widnes Wild Women play their home games.

Here are the details of the exciting match that launched the 2019-2020 MVP Award in memory of Edith Smith:

Widnes Wild Women 8 – Solway Sharks Ladies 8

Widnes Wild Women’s Ice Hockey Home matches 2019 – 2020

Sunday, 6th October 2019

Sunday, 15th December 2019

Sunday 5th January 2020

Sunday 16th February 2020

Sunday 1st March 2020

Other matches may be arranged.  Face Off: 5.30 p.m.

You can find out more by reading the Match report: CLICK HERE

Watching the Video highlights: CLICK HERE

and

There is now a special Edith Smith Awards website:  CLICK HERE 

Widnes Wild Women's Team player Catherine Bowen-Fell receiving
the MVP Award from Wirral Historian Bob Knowles

A.K. Foxwell - Agnes Kate Foxwell (1872 - 1957) – British writer, nurse and munitions worker WW1

Agnes Kate Foxwell was born in 1872, in Paddington, London, UK.  Her parents were Alfred William Foxwell, a wine merchant, and his wife Mary Ann Foxwell, nee Ford.  Agnes had the following siblings: Edith E., b. 1865, Lina, b. 1867, A.W., b. 1869, C.H., b. 1870, Mabel L., b. 1875, F.M. b. 1876 and Ida, b. 1877.  The family lived in Paddington.

Agnes studied literature at the University of London and was awarded an MA.  By 1911, she was a teacher at Cheltenham Ladies College.

During the First World War, Agnes joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and, as her Red Cross WW1 Record cards show, from Oct.1914 - April.1915 she worked at the Auxiliary Hospital, Harrow; 1915 (period unstated) in Charing Cross Hospital; May - Aug. 1915 at the Officers' Hospital in Rouen, France; from Oct. - Nov. 1915 at the Military Hospital in Wandsworth andMarch - Sept. 1916 at St. John's Gate, Devonshire House.

Agnes then worked for six months as Principal Overlooker in Danger Buildings at the Munitions Factory in Woolwich.  She wrote about her time in Woolwich in a book entitled “Munition Lasses: Six Months Principal Overlooker in Danger Buildings” which was published by Hodder & Stoughton, London in 1917.  This is available as a free download from Archive https://archive.org/details/munitionlassessi00foxwuoft

Sources:
Find my Past
British Red Cross WW1 Archive
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100762258

Commonwealth War Graves Commission seek relatives of WW1 VAD Ada Jones who died on duty in 1918

Historian Debbie Cameron has just posted this on her wonderful Facebook Page Remembering British Women in WW1 - the Home Front and Overseas
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468972083412699/?fref=nf

Ada Jones WW1 Red Cross Record Card

Ada Jones – WW1 VAD nurse from Florence, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent

Worked at Knighton VAD Hospital, Evington, Leicester from 10.01.1918 – 26.11. 1918 died of Pneumonia on service. Ada was apparently buried in Longton Cemetery, Spring Garden Road, Stoke-on-Trent ST3 2QS

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission continue to this day to erect headstones for those who fell in war. They are looking for relatives so that they can attend a dedication.  Unusually there is a WW1 VAD among newly granted headstones. I found the record card and cause of her death . It seems a headstone is being erected at long last. RIP. Ada Jones who died serving her country in the Great War.

https://www.cwgc.org/…/32/appeal-for-relatives---august-2019

Please spread the word in the hopes that we may find relatives of Ada Jones.

Louisa Brandreth Aldrich-Blake (1865 - 1925) – British Physician and Surgeon

With thanks to Historian Debbie Cameron for researching Louisa.

Born on 15th August 1865, in Chingford, Essex, UK, Louisa’s parents were Anglican Church Minister the Reverend Frederick James Aldrich-Blake and his wife, Louisa Blake, nee Morrison.

Louisa was brought up in Welsh Bicknor, Herefordshire, where her father was Rector of the Parish.  Louisa had the following siblings: Agness B., b.1867, Annie Elizabeth, b. 1869, Margaret B., b. 1872 and Robert Charles, b. 1874.

Educated initially privately at home, Louisa went on to study at Cheltenham Ladies' College, before graduating with first-class honors with a Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Medicine, and a Degree in Medicine from the London School of Medicine for Women.

With an unimaginably intense workload at home too, Dr Aldrich-Blake travelled to France on her holidays between 1914 and 1916, where she spent her time saving and mending lives in military hospitals.

Not content with just being a ground-breaking female surgeon in her own right, Louisa also wrote to every female clinician on the General Medical Register and helped to organise overseas postings for those who replied volunteering their services.

In addition to her military aid in World War One, Dr Aldrich-Blake also worked on clinical research and helped to innovate treatments of cervical and rectal cancers, whilst working as a volunteer at the Canning Town Women's Settlement Hospital.

A memorial statue of Louisa, designed by Cenotaph designer Edwin Lutyens and unveiled in 1926, is in Tavistock Square, London WC1H.

Sources: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/who-louisa-aldrich-blake-british-18938232?fbclid=IwAR3IKI4B3Ejg31LuESd_9YXLQN5KFF6AD2QBu8zGzWFhrPd8LPZPtYc-HyI
and Find my Past

Sara Bonnell (1888 – 1993) – British; member of the Canadian Army Service Corps and the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in WW1

With thanks to Historian Debbie Cameron for this post

Sara Bonnell – known as ‘Sadie’ – was born in January 1888, daughter of American dental surgeon Bentley Jay Bonnell and his English wife Harriet.
Sadie learned to drive in 1915 in the hope of being of service during the Zeppelin raids on London that began that year. She was told that this was not something a woman should be doing. From June 1917 she managed to get a role as a driver for the Canadian Army Service Corps, driving an ambulance car in London.

By the end of the year, she had joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) and was out at the front in France driving field kitchens, mobile baths for troops and supply lorries. This soon developed into an ambulance-driving role.

On the night of 18/19 May 1918, Sara was serving near St Omer when a German air raid caused an explosion at an ammunition dump at Arque. The bombing destroyed the only ambulance at the site, so three extra ambulances were called for, driven and staffed by five FANY women, who – as the London Gazette (8/7/1918) described :

"… despite the danger arising from various explosions, succeeded in removing all the wounded. Their conduct throughout was splendid".

This dangerous work took five hours and resulted in 18 Military Medals being awarded – included Bonnell’s. The diary of the Matron in Chief in France and Flanders records the incident, from the point of view of number 10 stationary hospital at St Omer, is glowing in its praise of the women:

"Great credit is due to the FANY Convoy for it was their night on duty and these girls worked continually bringing in the wounded and dead from whatever place they were instructed to go."

In 1919, Sadie returned to the UK and married Major Herbert Marriott, a Railway Transport Officer who had been gassed during the war and awarded the OBE. Sadly, he died – possibly weakened by his war wounds – in the influenza epidemic in 1921.

She remarried in 1948, to Charles Leslie Talbot. Talbot died in 1967 but Sadie lived to be a centenarian and died in 1993.

Lucy London is this lady remembered in your Inspirational Women Pages?

https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/…/sadie-bonnell-brave…/

Agnes Maude Royden, CH (1876 – 1956), later known as Maude Royden-Shaw - author, public speaker, suffragist, lecturer at Oxford and lay preacher

Born in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, UK on 23rd November 1876, Maude (as she was always known) was the youngest of eight children and the sixth daughter of Sir Thomas Bland Royden, 1st Baronet, a ship owner, and his wife Alice Elisabeth Royden, nee Dowdall.

Maude grew up in the family home Frankby Hall in Frankby on the Wirral Peninsula, with her parents and seven siblings.  She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

In 1905 Maude began parish work in South Luffenham for the Reverend George William Hudson Shaw, who she had met at Oxford. She became friends with him and his second wife Effie.

In 1909, Maude was elected to the Executive Committee of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. From 1912 to 1914 she edited “The Common Cause”, the Union’s magazine.

The First World War brought a halt to most suffrage activity in England, as it was felt more important to support the British troops.  Being a pacifist, however, brought Maude into conflict with a number of her colleagues in the movement.  She promoted the idea that the women's movement should stand for peace and refuse to support the war effort. Maude joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Women's International League and wrote and spoke on pacifism. Pacifism was not popular during the First World War and Maude found herself alienated and under attack. After an especially ugly incident outside a small town in the Midlands, she changed her focus to one of structuring a peaceful society once the war was over.

Maude had intended to attend the Women's Peace Congress in The Hague in 1915 but was unable to do so when travel via the North Sea was forbidden. When the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom was established, she became their vice-president. Maude continued to campaign for women to be allowed to vote through the National Council for Adult Suffrage and when a limited franchise was granted in 1918, she was asked to address the celebratory meeting organised by the older group at the Queen's Hall.

In 1918 Maude adopted a baby girl (Helen) orphaned by the war, and, as a response to the terrible plight of children during the postwar famine in Europe, she fostered a young Austrian boy, Friedrich Wolfe, for several years.

In 1928, Maude toured Australia, lecturing about religion.

In 1935, Maude was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Liverpool.   In 1939, she renounced pacifism believing Nazism to be a greater evil than war.

In 1944, Maude married her recently widowed friend, the Reverend Hudson Shaw.

Maude died at her home in London on 30th July 1956.

A blue plaque was unveiled in June 2019 by the Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Tony Smith, at Maude’s former home in Frankby Hall on the Wirral Peninsular, UK.

Sources:
https://biography.yourdictionary.com/agnes-maude-royden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maude_Royden
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312066635_Religion_for_the_Modern_Girl_Maude_Royden_in_Australia_1928
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b6vu29e0Ss
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/e0238de8-da38-432b-812c-97bd81f00951
“Wirral View” newspaper, July 2019
Find my Past and Free BMD

Milunka Saviç (1888 – 1973) - Serbian

Milunka Saviç was born on 28th June 1888 in the Kingdom of Serbia.

When her brother was served with his call-up papers for the Second Balkan War in 1913, Milunka elected to take his place.    She cut her hair, wore men's clothes and fought bravely, receiving a medal and promotion for her bravery.   She was wounded and only then was her subterfuge discovered.

During the First World War, Milunka earned medals from France, Britain, Serbia and Russia for her bravery.  After the War, Milunka turned down an offer to go and live in France and receive a French pension in recognition of her contribution. 

During the Second World War she was imprisoned by the Germans in Bajinca Concentration Camp for ten months.    After the Second World War, Milunka  adopted three orphaned children.    Her bravery was finally recognised in the 1970s when she was awarded a pension and an apartment by the Belgrade City Assembly.  She died in 1973 and there is a street in Belgrade named after her.

The Great Fire in Salonika, William Thomas Wood (1877 - 1958)

During the First World War, British artist William Thomas Wood served as a kite-balloon observer in the Royal Flying Corps. He was appointed Official War Artist in 1918. Largely as a result of his war experience, Arthur J. Mann hired William to illustrate his book “The Salonika Front” ( A. & C. Black, London, 1920)..

Milunka featured in the first exhibition of Inspirational Women of World War One which you will find in the book "No Woman's Land A Centenary Tribute to Inspirational Women of World War One", available here https://www.amazon.co.uk/No-Womans-Land-Centenary-Inspirational/dp/1909643076/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540990347&sr=1-4

The Balkan Wars took place in the Balkan Peninsula in 1912 and in 1913.

Helen Hagan (1891 - 1964) – American pianist, composer and teacher

Helen Eugenia Hagan was born on 10th January 1891 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of John A. and Mary Estella Neal Hagan. Helen’s mother taught her to play the piano and she went on to study at schools in New Haven, Connecticut. She began playing the organ for the Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church in New Haven when she was nine years old.

Helen studied at Yale University with Stanley Knight and graduated in 1912 with a bachelor's degree in music, playing her own Concerto in C Minor in May 1912 at Yale. She was the first known African American woman to earn a degree from Yale University.

Awarded the Samuel Simmons Stanford scholarship to study in Paris, Helen travelled to France to study with Blanche Selva and Vincent d'Indy, and graduated from the Schola Cantorum in 1914. She returned to the United States when war broke out in 1914 and began a career as a concert pianist, touring from 1915 to 1918. In 1918 she was music director (meaning music department chair) at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College.

In early 1919, Helen travelled to France to entertain black troops of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), along with Joshua Blanton and the Rev. Henry Hugh Proctor, under the auspices of the YMCA.

In 1920 Hagan married John Taylor Williams of Morristown, New Jersey but continued her concert career (they divorced ca. 1931).[3] She had a music studio in Morristown for at least a decade and was the first African American woman admitted to the Morristown Chamber of Commerce.[4] She taught at the Mendelssohn Conservatory of Music in Chicago and pursued a Masters of Arts degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. In the 1930s she served as dean of music at Bishop College in Marshall, Texas. She also continued to work as a choir director and church organist. She died in New York City on 6th March 1964, after an extended illness.

On September 29, 2016, a crowdfunded monument for Helen Hagan's previously unmarked grave was unveiled at New Haven's Evergreen Cemetery, and the day was declared "Women Making Music Day" by New Haven mayor Toni Harp.

Works
The only work by Helen Hagan that survives is the Concerto in C Minor for Piano and Orchestra. Her other compositions, including piano works and a violin sonata, have been lost.

Source:  Wikipedia

Freda Winifred Hooper (1902 – 1971) – British singer, dancer, comedienne and impressionist

With thanks to Debbie Cameron for posting the link that led to finding this information

Freda was born on 19th December 1902 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, UK.  Her parents were Albert Hooper, a master butcher, and his wife, Lilie Hooper, nee Stamp.  Freda had a brother Albert Kennerley Hooper, who was born in 1909.

As she grew up, Freda developed a flair for entertaining. She was a talented singer, dancer, comedienne and impressionist. During the First World War, Freda put these talents to use and entertained wounded soldiers at the Hooton Pagnell Hall hospital, overseen by Julia Warde-Aldam.

Freda was only around 14 years old when she entertained these soldiers, but with the photographs kept by Julia, there was a small business card with Freda’s address on it. Freda also entertained inmates and troops at the Balby Union Workhouse. The Hooper family were close personal friends of the Owen family who ran the workhouse, and Freda often entertained there with their son Frank. During Christmas 1915 Freda entertained inmates and soldiers at the Workhouse.

Freda also entertained the population of Doncaster, including one show at the the Divisional Office on South Parade, fundraising for the Christmas Gifts for Soldiers at the Front fund.

In 1928, Freda married Arthur Clifford Cooper.  Their first child, Peter, was born in 1929.  By 1939, Arthur, Freda and their family were living in Balby Road, Doncaster, and Freda was a dance teacher.

Freda died in Doncaster in March 1971.


Sources:
Find my past
http://www.doncaster1914-18.org.uk/story/child-star-freda-hooper/
Loads more photos and info here, with photo info and credits
http://www.doncaster1914-18.org.uk/…/child-star-freda-hoop…/
https://museumcrush.org/the-story-of-doncasters-forgotten-…/

Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant (1881 – 1965) American journalist and writer; war correspondent WW1

With thanks to our friend Marks Samuels Lasner for reminding me

that I had not yet researched Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant

Elizabeth (Centre) at the
American Hospital, Paris
1918

Known to friends and family as Elsie, Elizabeth was born on 23rd April 1881 in Winchester, Massachusetts, USA.  Her parents were Charles Spencer Sergeant, an executive with the Boston Elevated Railway, and his wife, Elizabeth Blake Shepley Sergeant.  Elizabeth was educated at Miss Winsor's School (now called The Winsor School) in Boston from 1894–1899 and Bryn Mawr College from 1899–1903.

Elizabeth’s younger sister, Katharine Sergeant Angell White, became an editor for the “The New Yorker” and married E. B. White, author of “Charlotte's Web”, who also wrote for “The New Yorker”.  Elizabeth’s nephew Roger Angell, became another writer for “The New Yorker”.

Elizabeth’s first article, "Toilers of the Tenements," was published in 1910 in “McClure's Magazine”, edited at the time by Willa Cather, thus beginning a lifelong friendship between the two women. When the “New Republic”,  an American magazine dealing with politics and the arts,was founded in 1914, Elizabeth became one of its first contributors.

During the First World War, Elizabeth was a war correspondent for the magazine “New Republic”.  She travelled to the Western Front and in 1916 her first book was published – “French Perspectives” – about her experiences in  wartime France.

On 19th October 1918, Eliizabeth was badly injured when her companion picked up a hand grenade that exploded. Elizabeth wrote about her treatment and recovery in her second book, “Shadow-Shapes: Journal of a Wounded Woman, 1920.

After the war, on the advice of her doctor, Elizabeth went to live in Taos, New Mexico in 1920. She wrote about the Pueblo Indians and New Mexico until the mid-1930s. Her work was published in the “New Republic” and the “Nation” magazines. She spent extensive time in New York City and at the Macdowell Colony.

In the mid-1930s, John Collier, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, hired her to report on Pueblo social conditions and reactions to the Wheeler-Howard Act. Sergeant moved to Piermont in Rockland County, New York. In the 1930s and 1940s and continued to publish magazine articles.

Elizabeth was staying at the Cosmopolitan Club in New York when she died on 26th January 1965. Her wish was to be cremated and have her ashes buried in the Shepley-Sergeant plot in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Elizabeth’s sister Katharine held a memorial service for her on 12th April 1965 at the Cosmopolitan Club.

“Shadow-shapes; the journal of a wounded woman, October 1918-May 1919”
by Sergeant, Elizabeth Shepley (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York, 1920)is availabnload https://archive.org/details/shadowshapesjour00serg/page/10

Books by Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant

Non fiction

French Perspectives (1916)
Shadow-Shapes: Journal of a Wounded Woman (1920)
Fire Under the Andes: A Group of North American Portraits (1927)
Mr. Justice Holmes (1931)
Willa Cather: A Memoir (1953)
Robert Frost: The Trial by Experience (1960)

Fiction

Short as Any Dream (1929)

Sources:

 "Guide to the Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant Papers," Yale University Library
 "New York Times, October 24, 1918".
 Davis, Linda H. (1987). Onward and upward : a biography of Katharine S. White. New York: Fromm International Pub. Corp. ISBN 0880641096. OCLC 18559964.
Wikipedia

Mabel FitzGerald (1872 – 1973) - British physiologist and clinical pathologist

With thanks to Historian Debbie Cameron for telling me about Mabel

Mabel Purfoy FitzGerald was born in 1872 in Preston Candover, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK on 3rd August 1872. She was the youngest child of Richard Purefoy FitzGerald, a Magistrate, and his wife Henrietta Mary FitzGerald, née Chester.

Educated at home, Mabel moved to Oxford in 1895 after the death of her parents. She began to teach herself chemistry and biology from books, as well as attending classes at Oxford University between 1896 and 1899, even though women were not at that time allowed to receive degrees.  Mabel continued her studies at the University of Copenhagen, Cambridge University and New York University.

Mabel began to work with Francis Gotch at the physiology department in Oxford and he helped her to have one of her papers published by the Royal Society in 1906.

Mabel in her Laboratory

From 1904, Mabel worked with John Scott Haldane on measuring the carbon dioxide tension in the human lung. After studying the differences between healthy and ill people, the two continued to investigate the effects of altitude on respiration - it is this work that they are most famous for. Mabel's observations of the effects of full altitude acclimatisation on carbon dioxide tension and haemoglobin remain accepted and relevant today.

In 1907, FitzGerald was awarded a Rockefeller travelling scholarship, which allowed her to travel.  She went to work in NewYork and Toronto.

In 1911 Mabel joined C. Gordon Douglas and several other scientists in the now famous Pike’s Peak Expedition in Colorado, led by John Scott Haldane, to investigate human respiration at high altitudes. As the only woman, she was not allowed to travel to the Peak with the men. Instead she travelled alone with her mule around the high and remote mining towns of Colorado to measure the long-term effects of altitude on the people living there.  Mabel published her observations as ‘The Changes in Breathing and the Blood in Various High Altitudes’ in 1913, which is what she become most famous for.

Pike's Peak Expedition

In the summer of 1913 in North Carolina, Mabel made measurements on the breathing and the blood of a total of 43 adult residents chosen from three different locations in the Southern Appalachian chain.

Mabel returned to Britain in 1915 to work as a clinical pathologist at Edinburgh Infirmary, a position that had become vacant due to the war.

During the late 1930s, Mabel retired to Oxford to care for her ageing sisters, who, all unmarried, still lived together in a house in Crick Road.   She lectured in Bacteriology.

For more than two decades, Mabel FitzGerald was almost forgotten by scientists, until she was ‘rediscovered’ in the course of the centenary celebrations of the birth of her mentor, John Scott Haldane, in 1960.

On her 100th birthday, Mabel Fitzgerald finally received academic recognition for her scientific work, as she was awarded an honorary Master of Arts (MA) by Oxford University.

Mabel receiving her Degree

Mabel died in Oxford on 24th August 1973. Her papers (Nachlass) are held by The Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Sources:

Photo of Mabel as a young woman, in the Laboratory, The Pikes Peak Expedition and receiving her degree. Credits in the article in the links below.

https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/fil…/about-us/mabel-fitzgerald.pdf

http://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2016/03/03/mabelfitzgerald_1/

Find my Past

Elfriede Riote (1879 – 1960) – German Airship Pilot

Elfriede was born in Alsace on 12th April 1879.  At that time, Alsace was under German rule.
Elfriede's father was a senior civil servant.

In April 1914, Elfriede took her pilot's examination on the Parseval-Luftschiff P VI and in July of that year she gained her pilot’s licence.

Elfriede was not allowed to fly airships during the First World War, so she concentrated on l ecturing about flying.  She moved to Berlin after the War. Elfriede then had a guesthouse built on the Island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea and gave lectures about aviation.

Photo from:
https://www.lalsace.fr/bas-rhin/2017/09/15/nee-pour-dompter-les-airs

Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876 – September 22, 1958) - American writer and nurse

Mary Roberts Rinehart was born Mary Ella Roberts on 12th August 1876 in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, now part of Pittsburgh. After graduating from school, Mary enrolled at the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses at Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital, graduating in 1896. She described the experience as "all the tragedy of the world under one roof." After graduation, Mary married Stanley Marshall Rinehart (1867–1932), a doctor she had met during her training. They had three sons - Stanley Jr., Alan, and Frederick.

Mary began writing seriously after the stock market crash of 1903. She was 27 that year, and wrote 45 short stories. Her first mystery novel was published in 1906.  “The Circular Staircase”, published in 1907, was the novel that propelled her to national fame. According to Mary's obituary in the “Pittsburgh Post-Gazette” in 1958, the book sold 1.25 million copies.  In 1911, after the publication of five successful books and two plays, the Rinehart family moved to Glen Osborne, Pennsylvania.  Today there is a Mary Roberts Rinehart Nature Park in the borough of Glen Osborne at 1414 Beaver Street, Sewickley, Pennsylvania.

During the First World War, Mary worked as a war correspondent for “The Saturday Evening Post” on the Western Front, during which time she interviewed  KingAlbert I of Belgium, Winston Churchill and Mary of Teck, the wife of King George V.   Of that encounter Mary Rinehart wrote:  "This afternoon I am to be presented to the queen of England. I am to curtsey and to say 'Your majesty,' the first time!"   She reported on developments to the American War Department and was in Paris when the First World War Peace Treaty was signed.

Mary contributed regularly to “The Saturday Evening Post” and was a prolific writer. During her prime, she was reputed to be even more famous than Agatha Christie. When Mary died on 22nd September 1958, her books had sold over 10 million copies.

Lise Rischard (1868 – 1940) – Luxembourgish; WW1 British Secret Agent

Elise Melanie Meyer was born on 19th May 1868 in the town of Eech in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.  Her father was Jean Meyer. On 9th August 1900, Lise married Dr. Camille Rischard (1871-1939), who was the medical adviser to the Luxembourg Railway Company.

The Germany Army went into the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 2nd August 1914.  During WW1 people from Luxembourg fought on both sides.   Luxembourg was important as, due to its geographical position and the railway system, trains from Germany to France went through there.

During a visit to see her son in Paris during the First World War, Lise was recruited by the British as a secret agent to provide valuable information about the German troop movements and trains that travelled through Luxembourg. Lise put the information into carefully worded texts which were then published in advertisements placed in the local newspaper “Landwirt”.

Lise died on 28th February 1940 in Luxembourg City.

Lise’s story is fascinating - she travelled from her home in Luxembourg in the area held by the Germans via Switzerland to Paris, which remained a free city during WW1, and then set up a network to provide vital information to the British.

I mention Lise in the book of the Inspirational Women of World War One Exhibition "No Woman's Land" but you can find out the whole amazing story in the book “The Secrets of Rue St. Roch” by Janet Morgan (London: Allen Lane, 2004).

An exhibition held at the British Embassy in Luxembourg City in 2018 remembered Lise and her contribution.

Sources: “The Secrets of Rue St. Roch” by Janet Morgan (Penguin, London, 2004).
https://lb.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Rischard

The Contribution made by Women during the First World War

In June 1918, on the occasion of the Royal Couple’s Silver Wedding Anniversary, King George V made the following public declaration:

“When the history of our Country’s share in the war is written, no chapter will be more remarkable than that relating to the range and extent of women’s participation … Some even have fallen under the fire of the enemy.  Of all these we think today with reverent pride. “

Agnes Conway, “Women’s War Work” in the Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 23, pp 1054 – 1064, 1922 in “A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War” (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2018) p. 271.



The Congress of Allied Women on War Service was held in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris on 18th August 1918. The following message from the British Prime Minister (by then David Lloyd George) was read out:-

"I extremely regret that it is impossible for me to fulfil my undertaking to address the great gathering of women war workers in Paris. I regret it all the more because I was very anxious to bear testimony to the tremendous part which women have played in this vital epoch in human history. They have not only borne their burden of sorrow and separation with unflinching fortitude and patience; they have assumed an enormous share of the burdens necessary to the practical conduct of the war.

If it had not been for the splendid manner in which the women came forward to work in hospitals, in munition factories, on the land, in administrative offices of all kinds, and in war work behind the lines, often in daily danger of their lives, Great Britain and, as I believe, all the Allies would have been unable to withstand the enemy attacks during the past few months. For this service to our common cause humanity owes them unbounded gratitude.

In the past I have heard it said that women were not fit for the vote because they would be weak when it came to understanding the issues and bearing the strains of a great war. My recent experience in South Wales confirmed me in the conviction that the women there understand perfectly what is at stake in this war.

I believe that they recognise as clearly as any that there can be no peace, no progress, no happiness in the world so long as the monster of militarism is able to stalk unbridled and unashamed among the weaker peoples. To them this war is a crusade for righteousness and gentleness, and they do not mean to make peace until the Allies have made it impossible for another carnival of violence to befall mankind. I am certain that this resolution of the women of South Wales is but typical of the spirit of the women in the rest of Great Britain.

This war was begun in order that force and brutality might crush out freedom among men. Its authors cannot have foreseen that one of its main effects would be to give to women a commanding position and influence in the public affairs of the world. To their ennobling influence we look not only for strength to win the war but for inspiration during the great work of reconstruction which we shall have to undertake after victory is won.

The women who have flocked to France to work for the Allies are among the foremost leaders of this great movement of regeneration. My message to their representatives gathered together in Paris is this: "Well done; carry on. You are helping to create a new earth for yourselves and for your children."

D. LLOYD GEORGE.

Margaret Mayne, ARRC, NSI (1880 – 1917) – British nurse

With thanks to Heather Johnson for sharing this information about Margaret Mayne, who is not included on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission List of Female Casualties of the First World War.

Margaret, known as Madge, was born on 21st September 1880 in  Ballinamallard, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Her parents were George Wesley Mayne (born c1840) and his third wife Anna, nee Shepherd. The family were Methodists.

Margaret trained as a nurse at North Staffordshire Infirmary, Hartshill, Stoke Upon Trent. Immediately World War One broke out, she came down to the Harwich Garrison Hospital in Essex (Great Eastern Hotel) with two other trained nurses from Stoke Infirmary. Margaret took charge of the Surgical Ward.

On 29th April 1917, Margaret died of Cerebral-spinal meningitis, three days after admission to the local Infections Hospital.   She was buried on 3rd May 1917 in Colchester Cemetery – the local newspaper reported “Over 200 bunches of primroses were received from the patients at the Harwich Hospital.” The primroses were placed in the form of a cross over the grave. The following month the R.R.C. medal that Margaret had been awarded was sent to her mother in Ballinamalla.

A Memoral Plaque, designed by British sculptor Ellen Mary Rope (1855–1934), was commissioned in honour of Margaret (it gives 20th as date of death). It used to hang in the old North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary’s chapel but, when the new hospital premises were built, it was felt that the plaque and a First World War Memorial Board would not be appropriate in the new building and the plaque remained in situ! However, thanks mainly to the efforts of one significant local historian John Mason Sneddon, the plaque now hangs in the public Atrium of the new Royal Stoke University Hospital – for all to see.

Interestingly, the plot (which is in the area of our military graves) is not owned and it must have been felt appropriate to bury Margaret there and give permission for the Celtic Cross headstone to be erected.

Winifred Helen Butenshaw (1883 - 1919) – VAD

Winifred Helen Butenshaw was born on 5th April 1883.  Her parents were Agnes Harard Burtenshaw, nee Stone, and Ephraim Burtenshaw, who were married 5th June 1880 in Kent. Ephraim was a plumber and painter.  Winifred’s siblings were, Edith A., b. 1882, Mabel T., b. 1882, Charles J.G.H., b. 1888, Allan E., b. 1890 and Arthur, b. 1897.  By 1891 the family were living in Tilehurst, Berkshire.  They moved to Yew Cottage in Sulham, Berkshire.

During the First World War, Winifred joined the local Voluntary Aid Detachment and became a trained nurse.

Winifred’s Great-Niece Ann Langley says: “Growing up I heard various references to my Great Aunt Winifred which I was able to verify in later years. Speaking to various folk in the small village where she lived - Sulham, Berkshire - who still knew the story as it had been handed down and where she is buried with unusually a red cross on her headstone.

At some time she was kicked in the stomach by a soldier and during the operation for her injuries she died. Her death certificate says that she had cervical cancer.  This is where the story gets strange.
There are no Red Cross Records except the number of hours she worked. The R C journal for that month gives small obituaries for 2 other nurses but only that Winifred had died. 2 days after her death she was buried with full military honours by high ranking army officials. There is no record or death notice in a Reading paper, only an In Memoriam a year later.

The Imperial War Museum has a few photos.   Research was done by a member of Reading library where very little more was found.   On her gravestone it reads - Winifred Butenshaw who gave her life for her country on October 21 1919 aged 36. 'Ever strong and steadfast always kind and true . In all change and trouble helping others through'.”

With grateful thanks to Ann Langley for telling me Winifred's story.  Winifred is not listed on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission List of Female Casualties of the First World War.

The photograph of Helen is from the collection made for the nation by Agnes Conway of the Imperial War Museum's Women's Committee.

Inez Milholland (1886 - 1916) - American Feminist Activist and Journalist

Inez Milholland (1886 - 1916) was an American feminist activist and journalist. She was born on 6th August 1886 in Brooklyn, New York.

In 1913, Inez organised the March for Women's Suffrage held in Washington, D.C., U.S.A.  She led the parade on a white horse.

During the First World War, Inez was an official war correspondent for a Canadian newspaper on the Italian Front, where she had acces to the front lines. 

Inez died on 22nd October 1916 during a speaking tour of the United States.

Inez featured in one of the very first commemorative exhibitions we held and is in the book of that exhibition "No Wman's Land: A Centenary Tribute to Inspirational Women of World War One", which is available via Amazon.

Mary Ann Eliza Young (1884 - 1919) - British Nurse

Nurse MARY ANN ELIZA YOUNG. Mary was born in Cardiff in 1884 - baptized on 12th April 1884.  Her parents were John Roger and Mercy Young of Machen Place, Riverside, Cardiff, Wales.  Mary was an Assistant Mistress at Lansdowne Road Council School, Cardiff before the war.

Mary is the only female student to feature on the First World War Roll of Honour of Cheltenham Training College, where she trained as a teacher from 1903 – 1905. Mary joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment on 19th October 1915 and worked initially at the Western General Hospital in Cardiff.

Posted to the 57th General Hospital in France on 15th July 1917, Mary worked in hospitals in Boulogne and Marseilles.  Mary died of pneumonia on 13th February 1919 at the age of 35 and was buried in Mazargues War Cemetery, Marseilles, Bouches-du-Rhone, France - Grave Reference: III. A. 57.

Sources: British Red Cross WW1 Records and https://uniofglos.blog/specialcollections/ww1/mary-anne-eliza-young/

Marguerite Maude McArthur (1892 - 1919) - British

Civilian MARGUERITE MAUDE McARTHUR, a volunteer with the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). Marguerite was born on 25th March 1892 in Kensington, London, UK.  Her parents were Allen Gordon McArthur, a barrister and J.P., who was born in Australia, and Emma Maude Finley McArthur, nee Finlay, who was born in Canada. 

Marguerite had a brother, Alexander and a sister, Kathleen. Marguerite was educated at Norland Place School in Notting Hill Gate, London, Newnham College, Cambridge and then in Dresden in Germany.

When war broke out, Marguerite was visiting family in Canada.  She returned to Britain in October 1914 and immediately volunteered. She worked in the War Office Translation Bureau fro two years due to her language skills. From March 1918 Marguerite worked for the Army Education Service of the YMCA, teaching in Etaples, France.

Marguerite died of pneumonia on 13th February 1919, at the age of 26 and was buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais, France - Grave Reference: XLV. B. 7. After her death, Marguerite’s friend Josephione Kellett put together a book about her which is available here: https://archive.org/details/thatfriendofmine00kell/page/n7   I urge you to read it!

Doris Mary Luker

Worker DORIS MARY LUKER, No. 6947 of the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps.

Doris Mry Luker

Doris died of pneumonia on 13th February 1919 at the age of 21. Doris’s parents were James George and Mary Maria Luker, nee Ryder, of Woking, Surrey, and she had a sister called Effie, b. 1893 and a brother called James Ryder Luker b. 1896, who became a Private in the London Regiment in WW1 and died on 15th September 1916. 

Doris joined the QMAAC in January 1917, and had been in France for 12 months when she died. She was buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais France - Grave Reference: LXXII. B.15.

Doris's grave in Etaples

The photographs of Doris and her brother are from the "Woking News & Mail" and were kindly sent to me by Kevin Nicholas Smith.

James Ryder Luker

With grateful thanks to the Revd Stuart Jermy, Vicar of St. Martin's of Tours, St. Martins and St. Johns, Weston Rhyn for finding the grave of Eugenie Elizabeth Teggin and taking these photographs.

Staff Nurse EUGENIE ELIZABETH TEGGIN, No. 2/Res/T66 of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service. Staff Nurse Eugenie Teggin died on 25th December 1918, at the age of 28. Her parents were John and Mary A. Teggin, nee Wollam, of The Willows, St. Martin's Moors, Oswestry, Salop.  Eugenie had a brother called Harry, b. 1888 and a sister called Ada, b. 1883.  Eugenie was buried in St. Martin’s Churchyard, St. Martin’s Shropshire, UK -  Grave Reference: In old ground North East of Church. 

Wherever possible I try to contact the churches where WW1 women are buried and I ask for them to be remembered in prayers.  

I am extremely grateful to everyone who helps me with my commemorative project.