Carve her name with pride
Tue 19 Jun 2018My Great Aunt (Ethel Frances Mary Parker) was born in London in 1897 and lived in Adisham and then East Street in Canterbury with the rest of her family. She enrolled in the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) after it was formed in 1917-1918 and she became Worker 9048.
Women were not expected to serve in the Great War and I have read that it was a hard work for them to be recognised as being able to contribute to the war effort. It was almost as hard a slog as the suffragette movement wanting womens right to vote.
Ethel arrived in Abbeville, France in February 1918 where she was in Camp 1 at Mautort. I was always told that she was a nurse but this is proving to be untrue as many of the WAAC were drivers, telephonists or signallers, mechanics, secretaries to the officers, cooks etc. She may have been a waitress. They released men from more menial jobs so that the men could be sent to the frontline.
The women came under attacks, as did the men, whilst in camp. They sheltered in basic trenches during these attacks but slept in their wooden huts. The women had basic rations, were hard working, had to put up with negativity at first from the solders and were treated very differently.
During the Third German Offensive battle 1918, leaflets were dropped from the skies by Germans, telling them that bombs were going to drop. On the night of 22nd May, Abbeville came under attack and Camp 2 received a direct hit, but thankfully no one was killed or hurt.
On the night of 29-30 May 1918, however, my Great Aunt’s camp was hit. A torpedo made a direct hit on the trench where she and other women were sheltering. Eight women died immediately, (including my Great Aunt) and one died later. Six women were injured and all remaining women were transferred to another camp. These nine women from the WAAC were the first British women in the military to die on active service.
Ethel was buried on 31 May 1918 along with her colleagues in Abbeyville Cemetery, with full military honours. Being the first women to die the Army were keen to be seen making a massive contribution to their final resting place. The RAF flew over and soldiers saluted and lined the route as the coffins passed by on gun carriages. The Last Post was also sounded. Her gravestone as inscribed with ‘In Honour lived – For Honour died’.
After her death she was included on the war memorial outside Canterbury Cathedral, where she was known by her initials EFM Parker. Rules at the time meant that she should not have been included on the memorial, as it was considered that only men were on active duty. However, Ethel was considered the first woman in this country to be included on such a memorial. Within the Cathedral records it does state that they knew she was a serving woman.
Ethel was awarded the British War Medal and also the Victory Medal posthumously – unfortunately we do not know where these are now. I have Ethel’s bible which she carried and also the ink stamp that she had which stamped her initials onto most things. I also have a letter from a male friend who had written to Ethel at about the same time as her death. This friend, we presume, was also on active duty and so the family received the letter after her death – not knowing if she had read it. My own Grandmother and her sisters did not really speak about her before they all died – probably as they were only little when she died (14, 9 and 5 years old) – maybe they didn’t know much information or maybe their parents didn’t talk about Ethel.
The more that I find out about Ethel, the prouder I become. She battled against society’s negativity towards women in work, proving herself to be extremely valuable and worthy of doing men’s work. In a society where women had no rights but eventually ‘were allowed’ or ‘were given permission’ by men – I think she helped pave the way for equality of sexes in todays society.
Dawn Garbutt, great niece of Ethel Parker.
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