Lydia Grant (1880 - 1917) - Australian VAD who died serving and is buried in Manchester Southern Cemetery, Manchester, UK

 With thanks to Marjorie Earl for finding this poem about Australian WW1 VAD nurse Lydia William Falconar Grant, Elder daughter of Peter G. and Emily Grant of Brisbane, Queensland.  Member of the Brisbane Branch of the Red Cross Society of Australia. Nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment - 2nd General Western Hospital

GRANT, LYDIA WILLIAM FALCONAR VAD – Nurse, Red Cross Unit: BRCS VAD AUSTRALIAN DETACHMENT BRISBANE  Born in Scotland in 1880  Died 1 April 1917 - aged 37 - at the military hospital on Ducie Avenue (this was part of 2nd Western General Hospital) on 1st April 1917.

Her Brother, Chesborough G F Grant was in attendance and he gave on the death certificate an address of Whytecliff, Albion, Queensland, Australia. In 1903 and 1905 Lydia was living at Lynton, Norwood Street, Toowong, Brisbane with Emily Mary Graham Grant, Peter George Grant and John Macdonald Grant. She was buried in Southern Cemetery, Manchester, UK.

A Poem (In Memory of the Late Miss Lydia Grant.) published in the Cairn Post, Tuesday, 1st May 1917

Feeling compassion for. the sick and the wounded caused by the nations at strife.

Brought ardent desire to be up and doing her share in the battle of life.

Seeing no longer a reason why she should indolent be,

Announced she had found her vocation-"War work as a V.A.D.

Oft times her work became strenuous and sometimes irksome, too;

But she was ever ready patriotic work to do;

For had she not two brothers fighting "somewhere in France,"

She felt she could not be idle and miss so ennobling a chance.

She was one of the V.A.D.'s chosen the wounded and sick to attend;

Did she flinch when she knew 'twas in England? No! to ask it was but to offend.

Thoughts flew to her home and her mother, had fears lest she'd not give consent;

This was the answer: "God bless you and the mission on which you are bent"

That day on the quay when they parted, her tender emotions were stirred.

Though not regretting the step she was taking, she mingled her tears with theirs;

Then reminding them of the dear ones at the war who were doing their part,

She whispered, "Good-bye, mother dárling," the boat was preparing to start.

Then after anxious weeks of waiting a cable came to tell:

"Safe arrival, uneventful journey, happy and well."

Then letters followed, telling of, the wounded and dead, but

The sorrows of life are teaching a lesson, for which I am thankful," she said.

News of her serious, illness came, brothers sent for by doctor's request;

"O, God"! cried the mother in anguish, grave fears it had stirred in her breast.

In vain was the skill of the doctor, and the nurses who all did their best;

"Thy will be done," sobbed the mother, when she heard they had laid her to rest.

By L.E.R.

"Caringa," Townsville.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find out who L.E.R. was.

Eleanor Charles Warrender (1862 – 1949) - British nurse in the Boer War and in the First World War

 With thanks to Becky Bishop for suggesting I research Eleanor 

Eleanor Charles Warrender was born on 20th February 1862. Her parents were Sir George Warrender, 6th Baronet of Lochend and Bruntsfield, and his wife, Helen, nee Purves-Hume-Campbell.   Eleanhor’s siblings were: Alice Helen Warrender b. 1857 d. 23 Sep 1947, Julian Margaret Maitland Warrender b. c 1856, d. 5 Apr 1950, Captain John Warrender1 b. 5 Mar 1859, d. 12 Jul 1894, Vice-Admiral Sir George John Scott Warrender of Lochend, 7th Bt. b. 31 Jul 1860, d. 8 Jan 1917 and Lt.-Col. Hugh Valdave Warrender b. 14 Sep 1868, d. 8 Mar 1926.

Eleanor must have studied nursing because she nursed on hospital ships during the Boer War and served with the French Red Cross during the First World War.  She was involved with the Guide Movement and was a supporter of local causes. She was awarded the French Croix de Guerre avec palmes and was appointed Dame of Grace, Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem (D.G.St.J.). 

In 1894, Eleanor and her siblings inherited a house called High Grove in Ruislip, Ruislip-Northwood U.D., Middlesex from her mother’s stepfather, Sir Hugh Hume-Campbell. In 1935, Eleanor sold 10.5 acres (4.2 ha) of the grounds of the house to the local council to establish a new playground and park, now named Warrender Park, and 13 acres (5.3 ha) to Ideal Homes for a residential development. During the Second World War, she made Highgrove available to the military, and British and American personnel from RAF Northolt stayed there.  

Eleanor never married and died in 1949.

If anyone has a photograph of Eleanor, please get in touch. 

Rosamund Essex (1900 – 1985) – British journalist, author and lay reader

Rosamund was one of the “forgotten generation” of women who forged lives for themselves in the Aftermath of the First World War.

Rosamund Sybil Essex was born in Bournemouth on 26th July 1900.  Her parents were Herbert James Essex, a church minister, and his wife, Rachel Bissett Essex, nee Watson.  Rosamund had a brother, Philip Louis George Essex, who was born in 1895.  Educated at Bournemouth High School for Girls, Rosaumund went on to study at St. Hilda's College, Oxford, where she obtained a Master of Arts Degree (M.A.).  Her brother, who went to study medicine  at the College of Medicine in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1912, abandoned his studies and joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1914, was promoted to the rank of Temporary Sub Lieutenant in March 1916 and died in 1917.  He is remembered in St Clements Church, Bournemouth, WW1 (WMR 51401).

In 1917, Rosamund’s headmistress told the girls that only one in every ten women could hope to find a husband “Nearly all the men who might have married you have been killed. You will have to make your way in the world as best you can. The war has made more openings for women, [but] you will have to fight. You will have to struggle."

Rosamund wanted to become a priest like her Father, but that was not possible for a woman back then.  She had also hoped to marry and have children.  In her book “Woman in a Man’s World” (Sheldon Press, 1977), Rosamund tells us of her struggles to overcome the difficulties faced by women during that time and how she realised her dreams by adopting a little boy, becoming Editor of “The Church Times” from 1950 to 1960 and becoming a lay reader.

 “The highlight of all my work in the Church came in 1969 when quietly, almost unnoticed by the Church at large, a canon law was given royal assent which allowed women to be readers.  

Rosamund died on 11th April 1985.  Her book was an inspiration to me when it was published in 1977. 

The photograph shows Rosamund with her adopted son, who was ordained as a priest. 

Cover of the book "Woman in a Man's World"

Sources: 

Find my past, Free BMD, “Woman in a Man’s World” 

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/singled-out-by-virginia-nicholson-464239.html and

http://www.universitiesatwar.org.uk/explore/essex-philip-louis-george

Lady Diana Manners (1892 - 1986) - British WW1 nurse who later became famous as socialite and writer Lady Diana Cooper

Diana Olivia Winifred Maud Manners (show in the photograph - on the left, holding the cross collection box) was born on 29th August 1892.  She became a member of The Coterie, an influential group of young English aristocrats and intellectuals during the 1910s.

Lady Diana was one of the most famous members of the Coterie. She wrote to Edward Horner on 7 August 1914, claiming that she thought it was "...up to the Coterie to stop this war.  Members included Duff Cooper, Raymond Asquith, son of the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, Maurice Baring; Patrick Shaw-Stewart, a managing director of Barings Bank, war poet Nancy Cunard and her friend Iris Tree; Edward Horner, Sir Denis Anson, Hugo Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho and Yvo Alan Charteris.  

During the First World War, Lady Diana worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse at the Rutland Hospital in Charring Cross and Guy's Hospital in London and was Mentioned in Despatches.  She later worked at a hospital for officers set up by her mother in London.   She also worked briefly as editor of the magazine "Femina" and for Beaverbrook newspapers, before becoming an actress. Her war work as a nurse increased her popularity.  Diana was mentioned in a WW1 parody of the music hall song “Burlington Bertie” - "I'll eat a banana/with Lady Diana/Aristocracy working at Guy's". 

Lady Diana Manners married one of the few survivors of WW1 from her circle of  friends - Duff Cooper – who went on to become an British Ambassador to France. She became became famous as the socialite and writer Lady Diana Cooper.

The photograph (photographer unknown) shows Nancy Cunard (centre) and Lady Diana Manners (left) at a sale in December 1915, held in Harrods department store, Loneon, UK in aid of the Red Cross Fund.   Photograph from “The Tatler” Magazine, 8th December 1915. 

Photograph found by Zoe Lyons and posted on Sue Robinson’s Facebook Group Wenches in Trenches https://www.facebook.com/groups/381631619655707/

Book Review "An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War 1" by Chris Dubbs (Potomac Books, Nebraska, 2020)

If, like me – in spite of having commemorated the First World War for years – you thought that the role of women during that conflict was to stay at home, knit and “keep the home fires burning”, then - oh boy - is this book definitely for you!   Many of the exploits of the American women (and 1 British) journalists who braved the dangerous, U-boat infested waters of the Atlantic to travel to Europe during WW1 are, to say the least, hair-raising.   

I found so much of interest in Chris’s magnificent book that I could write a very long review – but that isn’t the point as reviews need to be fairly brief.  The front cover – a photograph of photojournalist Helen Johns Kirtland inspecting an exploded naval mine on the Belgian coast - sets the scene, heralding Chris’s research into the remarkable exploits of 39 women writers.  Due to my research during the centenary years for a series of commemorative exhibitions about the role of women in WW1, I already knew about Nelly Bly, Inez Milholland Boissevain and Louise Bryant but I had never heard of the others. 

In order to get round the restrictions involving travel in the war zones and the reluctance to allow women anywhere near the front lines, many of those journalists volunteered with the many American agencies, such as the YMCA, who sent personnel, equipment and money to the countries fighting for their freedom.  Some of them nursed too.  And they did not just cover the Western Front but, as you will discover, they travelled to many of the other countries involved in the conflict. Once there, they reported on conditions for civilians and troops alike while at the same time recording their own experiences and feelings.  I found the exploits of Peggy Hull, who was the first woman to be officially accredited by the U.S. Army (p. 243), and Eleanor Franklin Egan in Russia 1918 - 1919 of particular interest because my Grandfather was there with the British Army at that time.  Egan survived a tragic incident involving a Greek passenger ship and an Austrian U-boat near the Island of Crete (p. 189)

As well as quoting from the reports sent back to the various newspapers and magazines in America, Chris also tells us a good deal about the women themselves and includes photographs of the journalists, some of whom were not young women when they set out on their incredible journeys.

With superb illustrations, maps and biographies of the women journalists, plus a very detailed and impressive bibliography, this is a book you will return to again and again.

I could not put this book down, and I read it from cover to cover with great enjoyment. You must read it. With thanks to Chris Dubbs for a truly remarkable book and for mentioning me in the acknowledgements for Chris contacted me during the preparation of the book about some of the events included. 

Lucy London, October 2020 

Josephine Letitia Denny Fairfield CBE (10 March 1885 – 1 February 1978) - British doctor

Josephine Letitia Denny Fairfield CBE, known as Letitia, was a doctor, a lawyer, a war-worker, and the first ever female Chief Medical Officer for London. She received a CBE for her outstanding achievements in medicine following her contributions during the First World War. 

Despite initially having been rejected by the War Office, Laetitia went on to work for the London County Council, where she campaigned for the initiation of new Public Health departments relating in particular to women's and children's health, and defending who she believed were the most vulnerable members of society. 

When the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was formed in March 1917, Fairfield was appointed as their Medical Officer. A year later, she was appointed Chief Medical Officer to the Southern Command, and was subsequently elevated to Inspector of Medical Services for the Woman's Royal Air Force.

Elisabeth Jalaguier (1890 - 1918) – French nurse (one of the few women commemorated on a war memorial)

Elisabeth was born in the Château du Lac in the rue d’ Avignon in Nimes, France into a wealthy family. 

Educated in the Ecole Normale in Nimes, Elisabeth was planning to become a teacher but at the outbreak of WW1, she trained as a nurse instead, with the la Société de Secours des Blessés Militaires in Nîmes.  In 1916 Elisabeth volunteered to serve closer to the fighting and went to look after the wounded on the Somme, on the Marne, the Meuse and in Italy.  

In 1918 Elizabeth was sent to Pierrefonds in the Oise, where the Red Cross had set up a field hospital.  There she met a military doctor and they became engaged.  On the night of 20th August 1918, the Germans began to bomb the area.  While her colleagues took shelter, Elisabeth refused to leave her post and her patients.  She was killed by a shell splinter while she was giving a soldier an injection.

Elisabeth’s bravery was acknowledged with the posthumous awarding of the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d’Honneur.  When the war memorial was unveiled in Nimes in 1924, Elisabeth’s name was among the 1,312 men from Nimes who died for France during the First World War.   Her body, which had initially been buried in the civilian cemetery at Pierrefonds, was transferred to the Military Cemetery and a memorial was erected on the place where she died. 

Sources:

https://www.objectifgard.com/2018/11/11/fait-du-jour-elisabeth-jalaguier-lheroine-nimoise-de-la-guerre-14-18/

http://anecdotes-gardoises.over-blog.com/2018/12/elisabeth-jalaguier-morte-pour-la-france.html

https://le-souvenir-francais.fr/la-quatrieme-armee/

Dr Elizabeth Ross (1878 - 1915) – Scottish Doctor and WW1 heroine

Born in London in 1878,  Elizabeth’s Ross’ family came from the Ross-shire town of Tain and returned there after her father’s death. Her brother, James, also qualified as a doctor and served as a Naval Surgeon during WW1. Elizabeth also had four sisters.

Educated at Tain Royal Academy, Elizabeth went to Glasgow to study medicine at Queen Margaret College in 1896 - two years after the first woman medical graduate, Marion Gilchrist, had received her degree.  Elizabeth graduated in 1901 and went to work in Persia – now Iran –  as assistant to an Armenian physician, before setting up her own practice. While there she spent time in the Iranian mountains, working with the powerful Bakhtiara tribe, who were so impressed with her they made her a chieftainess. Part of her job during this time was to be a doctor to a harem of women.

After a brief period as a take up an appointment as a ship's surgeon, travelling to the coast of India and Japan, she returned to Persia. She is now widely believed to be the worlds first female ships' surgeon.  

At the outbreak of the First World War, Elizabeth responded to an invitation from the Russian government to go and help in Serbia. During the winter of 1914-15 a deadly epidemic of typhus had broken out, killing over 120,000 Serbs, including a third of their doctors.

Elizabeth volunteered to work in a fever hospital in Kragujevac. Conditions were grim, the hospitals were overcrowded; there was insufficient food and heating, wards and patients alike were filthy and there were no trained nurses. She worked day and night to improve the patients' lot but was soon infected herself. She was cared for by members of the Scottish Women’s Hospital who had recently arrived in Kragujevac but  died on the 14th February 1915 on her 37th birthday.

A letter from a Miss Helen McDougall tells the brief sequel: "We met Dr. Ross on her way up country at Nish; as one of our doctors knew her well, she spent quite a while with us in the evening while we were there... She used frequently to come over and have tea with our unit and tell us all about her work. We all got so interested and I must say appalled that one after another we went over to see her typhus block. One afternoon another member of the unit and I went and we shall never forget our visit... It would be very difficult to realise the terrible odds against which this brave woman was fighting and I may say her one cry was how little she was able to do. When we went in, she welcomed us warmly but was very loath to show us round. Again and again she said, "Are you sure you are not afraid?" When we were leaving, I turned and said to her, "Oh Dr. Ross, how can you go on here?" She only answered, "Six of the doctors are down and who would look after them if I left?".... A few days after this, we heard that she was down."

Dr Elizabeth Ross died in Kragujevac Serbia of Typhus while nursing victims of the epidemic which killed 300,000 in 1915 and were casualties too of the First World War. She is buried alongside nurses Mabel Dearmer and Lorna Ferriss.  Except for a small plaque in Tain’s St Duthus Church, she is almost forgotten.  However, this is definately not the case in Serbia. Each year she is commemorated in a ceremony attended by Serbian high ranking dignitaries and many thousands of people. 

 In 1977, the local Red Cross in Kragujevac was given some money, and decided to use it to restore the grave of Elizabeth Ross. She is buried next to two British nurses who also died in Serbia of typhus - Mabel Dearmer and Lorna Ferriss. Altogether, 22 British women lost their lives to typhus in Serbia during the First World War, attempting to aid wounded soldiers.

Photographs:  Dr. Ross at graduation, as a ship's surgeon and the graves of Dr. Elizabeth Ross, Mabel Dearmer and Lorna Ferris 

Sources:

https://sheroesofhistory.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/dr-elizabeth-ross/#more-2015

https://www.tainmuseum.org.uk/dr-elizabeth-macbean-ross.asp

https://inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.com/search?q=mabel+dearmer

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

Dr. Vivien Newman links Covid to WW1

Dr Vivien Newman, who, as I am sure you all know, has written some wonderful books about the women of WW1, sent me links to a project she is working on, drawing comparisons with WW1 [women] and COVID and has kindly given me permission to share them with you.

Funnily enough, I began thinking of those comparisons myself as I've just finished reading "The Daily Telegraph Dictionayr of Tommies' Songs and Slang 1914-1918".

Here are Dr Newman's links :
We’ve nursed like this before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tcwwtoQcHE&t=4s

Corona poetry - echoes of the Great War. https://youtu.be/9i5HJof6Vy4


Dr. Newman’s WW1 books are all available through Amazon and Pen and Sword:

We Also Served: The Forgotten Women of the First World War
Nursing Through Shot and Shell: A Great War Nurse's Diary
Tumult and Tears: The Story of the Great War Through the Eyes and Lives of its Women Poets
Régina Diana: Seductress, Singer, Spy
Suffragism and the Great War
Children at War 1914-1918
For a review of Children at War please see https://fascinatingfactsofww1.blogspot.com/…/book-review-ch…

To find out more about Dr Newman’s books please visit www.firstworldwarwomen.co.uk

Clara Frances Winterbotham MBE, JP (1880 - 1967) - five times Mayor of Cheltenham, UK

Clara Frances Winterbotham was born on 2nd August 1880 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK.  Her parents were James B. Winterbotham, a solicitor, and his wife Eliza Hunter Winterbotham, nee McLaren.

Cyril William Winterbotham, the poet, was a younger brother of Clara’s.  He was killed in action in 1916. See Forgotten Poets www.forgottenpoetsofww1.blogspot.co.uk

Clara was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College,.

During the First World War, Clara joined the local Voluntary Aid Detachment in June 1915 and worked at St John’s Hospital, Cheltenham. 

Clara became a member of Cheltenham Town Council in 1918 and later became Mayor of Cheltenham, a post which she held in all five times.

Clara's WW1 Red Cross Record Card:

Sources:

https://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/news/article/2118/the_return_of_cheltenhams_forgotten_ww1_painting

https://cheltenhamremembers.org.uk/wp-content/files/2018/09/WinterbothamPainting_Brochure.pdf

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BIq8IROixF4C&pg=PA249&lpg=PA249&dq=clara+winterbotham&source=bl&ots=YcF9DA64Jz&sig=ACfU3U3LWy5z-I7KIY1AGb3pdfAKxf-R3A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi0x8iw-ODnAhW8TxUIHeayCjoQ6AEwB3oECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=clara%20winterbotham&f=false

Florence B. Olphert ( - 1917) - British Nurse

Nurse Florence B. Olphert died on 13th January 1917. A copy of Florence’s Imprial War Museum memorial photograph was posted by Sandra Taylor ‎on the Facebook Group page Remembering British women In WW1 -The Home Front & Overseas 13.1.2020 https://www.facebook.com/groups/1468972083412699/
 
I contacted The Rector of St. Thomas’s Church - The Rev. Canon Gillian V. Wharton – to see if I could find out more and she sent me this reply: “Please let me assure you that we have not forgotten Florence Balfour Olphert in our parishes.   One of our parishioners, Michael Lee, researched each of the forty-one men and one woman from our parishes who died as a result of World War 1.   On the Sunday nearest the 100th anniversary of their deaths, we had a biographical note with a photo (if available) of each person, and we remembered them.   On Sunday 15 January 2017, we remembered Florence Balfour Olphert - please see attached service sheet (latter part). 

On each Remembrance Sunday in November and on the National Day of Commemoration, she is remembered by name with the others from our parishes who died in World War One.    She is not forgotten.”

Kind regards,

Gillian

The Rev'd Canon Gillian V. Wharton
Rector of Booterstown and Carysfort with Mount Merrion, Diocese of Dublin, Ireland.
Clerical Honorary Secretary of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland.

The Rev’d Wharton forwarded my message to Historian Michael Lee, official historian of Mount Merrion, who sent me the following: “I have researched extensively 42 names from three war memorials in a Booterstown parish. My project for the period 1914-1918 was to research and write short biogs and to include a photo if possible in the service sheet, for the nearest Sunday to the 100th anniversary of each of their deaths. All were mentioned and prayed for on the appropriate Sunday. Florence was of course included in the commemorations. The St. John’s Ambulance sent a representative to the church on the 100 anniversary Sunday nearest her death and it was a very moving occasion.  Florence died of a fever and was buried in the family plot in Mt Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.  I have attached  photos for you.”

Florence's Grave