Acid Free is North East Wales Archives’ recently launched digital series that explores real life experiences and themes from our collections. Our archivists and featured guests take a closer look at the people and stories from our collections and bring fascinating stories from our records to life. The second instalment of Acid Free explores the recently acquired Welsh Bibles Collection.
In 2023 North East Wales Archives catalogued the Welsh Bibles Collection and began to unravel some of the stories connected to items from this collection. Not only is it the largest collection of Welsh Bibles outside of the National Library of Wales, it also contains very rare volumes including the earliest translations by William Morgan, a William Salesbury New Testament of 1567 and the Bible Mari Jones used before famously walking 25 miles to purchase her own copy.
In our podcast episode we are joined by Hedd ap Emlyn and Bethan Hughes who discuss the origins of the collection, the different ways various bibles came to be collected and the significance of the collection for North East Wales. Hedd and Bethan’s discussion is in Welsh, but an English translation of the episode is available on our website. Listen to the podcast episode here:
To accompany our podcast episode, we have also produced a digital story which provides a visual glimpse of the collection. This is available to view on YouTube here:
Thank you to everyone involved in recording and researching our latest digital content, with a special thanks going out to Hedd ap Emlyn and Bethan Hughes. Our next instalment will be focused on the Courtauld’s factories in North East Wales. Keep an eye on our social media for an announcement of when this is live.
Beatrice Ellis of The Rectory, Ysceifiog who joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1917
Beatrice (full name Angelina Beatrice) was the daughter of Evan Lodwick Ellis, the Rector of Ysceifiog. She was one of four children still living at home in the 1911 Census, aged 20. The living of Ysceifiog was fairly wealthy at this time, with a stipend of £371 per year and nine acres of glebe land to be rented out. (Rhyl Journal, 28th March 1908). The Rectory was a huge, imposing house in Georgian style, which housed the Rev Ellis, his wife Elizabeth, daughter Marjorie (aged 23); son Hugh Lodwic Maldwyn (aged 22); daughter Angelina Beatrice (aged 20); Trithyd Mancel Lodwick (aged 11); and a servant, Elizabeth Anne Jones (aged 16).
Beatrice’s younger brother, Trithyn died suddenly in 1915 at the age of 15 years, after contracting pneumonia at boarding school. (‘Funeral of the Rector’s Son’, Flintshire Observer, 8th July 1915).
Her elder brother, Hugh Lodwick Ellis, was training for the priesthood but when war broke out in 1914, he enlisted in the army to serve his country. He joined the 1st Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in August 1914, becoming 2nd Lieutenant. He sadly died of his wounds at the battle of Bullecourt, France in May 1917. The full story of his army career can be found on the Flintshire War Memorials website: https://www.flintshirewarmemorials.com/memorials/ysceifiog-memorial/ysceifiog-soldiers/ellis-hugh-lodwick-maldwyn/
However, little is known about Beatrice Ellis herself. Perhaps inspired to action by the tragic loss of her brothers, Beatrice joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on 6th September 1917 (aged 26). Mrs Philips of Rhual, near Mold, was heavily involved in recruiting for the WAAC (later known as Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, or QMAAC) in North Wales and may have played a part in Beatrice’s enlistment. We have a letter to Mrs Philips, thanking her for all her hard work in recruitment, at NEWA, Hawarden (Ref: D/WW1/8/2/6).
Letter to Mrs Philips, Rhual from Chairman of the North Wales Recruiting Committee, thanking her for all her hard work in recruitment for QMAAC (NEWA, Hawarden (Ref: D/WW1/8/2/6).
The Women’s army corps was set up to try and meet growing demand for service personnel, since the supply of men of serving age was quickly running out. An advert for WAAC recruitment in 1917 stated that there was great demand for all kinds of women as bakers, storehouse women, driver-mechanics and gardeners to tend to the soldiers’ graves. (Barry Dock News, 12th October 1917). There was also a call for hundreds of women clerks to work in France, releasing men from desk jobs to go to the Front. Recruitment interviews were held in North Wales in June 1917. (The North Wales Chronicle, 18th May 1917).
By 1918, demand for women to join the WAAC was growing and in a letter to a local newspaper it stated that ’20,000 Women a month for Home and Overseas Service will be required until further notice’. The writer asked ‘Are there no Women in this District who will come forward to help their Country in this grave crisis’? (Letter to the Editor, by L. Lloyd John of Corwen, Yr Adsain, 19th March 1918).
Beatrice was keen to serve her country and stepped forward to play her part. Unfortunately it has not been possible to locate records of her exact role but she served 2 years in the armed forces, being discharged on 11th July 1919, months after the First World War had ended. She was awarded both the Victory Medal and the British War Medal for her service to the country.
British War Medal and Victory Medal, from First World War collection at NEWA, Hawarden (Ref: D/WW1/29/1/4).
Her father died in 1919 and the family moved away from Ysceifiog. In a 1939 Electoral Register, following the death of her mother in 1837, Beatrice was living with her sister Olive Augusta Lodwick Ellis in Fossil Road, Lewisham, Kent. In the December Quarter of 1939, a marriage took place of Angeline B. Ellis to Stephen Morgan in the Lewisham (London) district. It is nice to think that she may have found happiness later in life, after her dedicated service to her country during its hour of greatest need.
Angeline Beatrice Morgan died in 1964 at the age of 83, in Ashford Hospital, Stanwell and her estate (worth over £3,000) was left to her youngest sister, Emily Matilda Lodwick-Ellis, a spinster.
The Flintshire First World War Memorial Index is housed in a wooden cabinet containing over 10,000 cards, as a card index of Flintshire men (and a handful of women!) who served in the 1914-1918 war. The index is on specially printed cards, arranged by place, and then in two sequences in alphabetical order of surname. There are cards headed ‘L’ (Living) for soldiers who survived the war, and cards headed ‘F’ (Fallen) for those who were killed or died of wounds. Most of the information on the card was supplied by the man himself, and is usually signed by him or, if he was killed, by his next of kin. The card will always give an address, regimental number, unit, period of service, and rank on demobilisation. In some cases, a section headed ‘special remarks re service’ gives dates of postings, battles, wounds, etc. and for those killed the date and place of burial may be noted. Exceptionally, when the filling in of the cards was supervised by someone such as the incumbent of the parish, much more detail is given on the back of the card.
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