Mary Annesta Anwyl was born in Lligway, Machynlleth on 9 October 1887. Her father was Robert Charles Anwyl (1851). He was a Justice of the County, living on private means. Her mother was Harriet (1868). She had a brother, Maurice Ifan Hamilton (1889-1942) and four servants, I D Robinson, aged 32, a Parlour Maid, Jane Williams, aged 28, a Housemaid, Anna Jones, aged 17, a Kitchen Maid and Lucy Jones, aged 42, a Cook.
She became a VAD Nurse in 1915 and served until 1917 in a Belgian Hospital in Rouen. During her time there she worked for one year providing Electrotherapy to wounded soldiers and then 18 months on a surgical ward. Her payment was 1 franc per day.
Mary was awarded the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the Queen Elisabeth Medal. The Queen Elisabeth Medal (Medaille de la reine Elisabeth) is a Belgian decoration created by royal decree in October 1916 to recognise exceptional services to Belgium in the caring of their citizens in WW1. The red cross was added for those who cared for the wounded.
After the end of WW1, Mary continued to travel and completed the following journeys:
5/2/1915 ‘Antonia’ to Halifax and New York
11/1/1923 ‘Britannia’ to Bombay, India
5/3/1927 ‘City of Canterbury’ Calcutta to London
Mary married Douglas Fraser Corson (1890-1978), a Tea Planter in West Bengal, India on 12 March 1930. In 1931 she gave birth to a son Robin Hamilton Corson. In 1935 she travelled from ‘Narkunda’ Bombay via Australia to Plymouth with her husband and son.
According to the 1939 census her address was listed as Church Cottage, Lingfield, Surrey and the family were living on ‘private means’. Mary died in 1980 in Kent.
Sources: www.ancestry.co.uk, British Red Cross Archives and museum, Border Counties Advertiser