First World War

Oct

2018

21st Battalion (4th Public Schools) Royal Fusiliers

Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, Noel Downing enlisted and joined the 21st Battalion (4th Public Schools) Royal Fusiliers. In early Oct 1914 he arrived in Ashtead, Surrey where he was billeted. Noel kept a series of postcards that illustrate the new recruits’ arrival and early training and the construction of a vast encampment of huts in Woodcote Park, Epsom. Continue reading →

Mar

2018

RAF Band Concert in Dunkirk, 4 Oct 1918

The Royal Air Force was formed on 1 Apr 1918. On 15 Apr Walford Davies was granted a temporary commission as Major to become the RAF’s first Organising Director of Music. In Molly Evans‘s Scrapbook there is a programme for a concert given by the RAF Band at the Casino in Malo-les-Bains, Dunkirk on 4 Oct 1918. Continue reading →

Mar

2018

Wilmot Evans’ Service Records, 1909-1916

This is a timeline of Wilmot Evans‘ military career. He was commissioned into the South Staffordshire Regiment at the age of 19. He served in Gibraltar and South Africa during peacetime and fought on the battlefields on the Western Front during the First World War until he was killed at the age of 25. Continue reading →

Feb

2018

A.K. Gibbs to Mary Downing Letter, Nov 1917

Annie Katharina Gibbs’s letter to Mary Downing dates from 17 Nov 1917. She congratulates Mary on receiving her decoration (Royal Red Cross) and as an ‘old friend’ uses the opportunity to catch up with the family’s news. The letter is part of a number of congratulatory letters preserved in Mary’s Writing Box. Continue reading →

Feb

2018

Women’s Suffrage Society, Stourbridge

In April 1913 Mary Downing became an active supporter of the national campaign for women’s suffrage and is recorded as being Stourbridge NUWSS Secretary. Continue reading →

Jan

2018

WW1 Artworks

Molly Evans‘s scrapbook contains a number of artworks, created not only by professionals like British artist Ernest Procter or Flemish artist Joseph Dezitter, but also by her fellow servicemen, patients and herself. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Joseph Dezitter’s Pictures of Bergues

During the First World War, Joseph Dezitter (1883-1957), a Flemish artist, was mobilised and participated in the Belgian campaign where he was seriously wounded in 1914. After recovering he joined the ambulance auxiliary services in Northern France. Travelling between military hospitals, he took the opportunity to paint the places he visited. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Friends’ Ambulance Unit, Dunkirk

The Quakers ran the Friends’ Ambulance Unit including the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Dunkirk for most of the duration of the First World War. One of its purposes was that members of the Society of Friends should be able to carry out their patriotic duty without having to serve in the Military on conscientious grounds. However, it also recruited from beyond the Quaker community. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Ernest Procter’s WW1 Drawings

Ernest Procter (1886-1935), an artist and member of the Newlyn School, was probably the most prolific and well-known of the Quaker artists serving at the Friends’ Ambulance Unit during the First World War. Continue reading →

Dec

2017

Xmas 1917 at the Queen Alexandra Hospital

Molly Evans spent the last Christmas of World War 1 in Dunkirk, France working as a VAD nurse at the Queen Alexandra Hospital run by the Friends’ Ambulance Unit. 100 years on we would like to share her personal account of the events which happened that day. Continue reading →

Nov

2017

Studley Court Hospital, Stourbridge, 1914-1915

Studley Court Hospital in Stourbridge was opened in Nov 1914 as a direct response to the outbreak of war. The building is now owned by the council and forms part of Mary Stevens Park. Continue reading →

Oct

2017

Armoral Olive Morgan

Armoral Olive Morgan was born ion 13 Jul 1896 the youngest daughter of Thomas and Margaret Morgan. Continue reading →

Oct

2017

Noel Downing to Mother Letter, Mar 1915

This is the only war letter that has survived written by Noel Downing to his mother Hannah Pitt Downing. It has no date but it seems to recount his early experiences at Ashtead as a private with the Royal Fusiliers and that would make it most probably around Mar 1915. It would seem to post date the other letter address-headed Ashtead to his sister Mary as the Public School boys are being moved from billets (like Mrs Drew) into the new camp. Continue reading →

Oct

2014

No 2 General Hospital, Le Havre

In July 1915 Molly Evans, a VAD nurse, left Studley Court Hospital and in Oct 1915 moved from Stourbridge to Le Havre, France to join the No 2 General Hospital. Continue reading →

Jun

2014

Ladas Lewis Hassell

Ladas Lewis Hassell was a fellow officer and good friend of Wilmot Evans in Jersey throughout May 1915 to early 1916. Lieutenant Hassell was born in Kent in 1894 and joined the army via the Jersey Militia. Continue reading →

May

2014

Richard Hellier Agard Evans

Richard Hellier Agard Evans, known as Hellier, was born on 19 Jan 1898 in Saxony, Germany, the son of Ernest Agard Evans and Jean Playfair Gow-Gregor. He was a great grandson of Richard Evans and Mary Shaw-Hellier. He is recorded as being at boarding school in Clifton in Bristol in the 1911 census. His only brother Archibald Agard Evans was born in 1906. Continue reading →

May

2014

Daisy Walker

This newspaper clipping and announcement of the wedding of Daisy Walker was kept by Molly Evans. Wilmot Evans describes Daisy affectionately in one of his letters to Mary Downing. At the time Daisy was living with her parents in Jersey. Her father was a military man. Continue reading →

May

2014

Molly Evans’ trip to Jersey, Oct 1915

In Oct 1915 Molly Evans made a trip to Jersey and spent about 10 days with Wilmot Evans. It was the last time she saw her brother. At that time she had already left Studley Court Hospital, Stourbridge and was awaiting orders for the next appointment. Continue reading →

May

2014

Molly Evans’ Telegram and VAD Resignation

This telegram is sent on 6 Sep 1916 to Molly Evans at Le Havre No 2 General Hospital, advising of her brother Wilmot’s death, her mother Florence Evans’ illness and the need to return home immediately. Continue reading →

May

2014

John Franks Vallentin

John Franks Vallentin was a Captain in the 1st Battalion South Staffordshire regiment. He appears alongside 2nd Lieutenant Wilmot Evans in the photos taken at the parade before King George V in Gibraltar in January 1912. Continue reading →

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