'Last' female WWI veteran dies

[Kyt]

BBC NEWS | England | London | 'Last' female WWI veteran dies

A woman thought to have been the last surviving female veteran of World War I has died, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

Gladys Powers died aged 109 in British Colombia, Canada, earlier this month.

Originally born in Lewisham, south London, she emigrated to Canada at the end of the war.

She served with the Women's Auxiliary Corp and later the Women's RAF. Her funeral was held in Canada on Friday, the MoD confirmed.

Little remains of the service records of the women who served during WWI as they were destroyed during the Blitz in 1940, making it impossible to formally confirm her time in the military.

Veterans Minister Derek Twigg said he was "saddened" by her death and paid tribute to her military contribution.

"Over 80,000 women served in our armed forces during that war," he said.

"Although they may not have realised it at the time, these early women volunteers did much to break down the barriers for all those service women who have come after them and who continue to serve their country today so proficiently and professionally."

Mr Twigg has written a letter of condolence to Greg Thompson, the Canadian Minister for Veterans Affairs.

[liverpool annie]

Originally Posted by Kyt

BBC NEWS | England | London | 'Last' female WWI veteran dies

Charlotte must have been the last American veteran !

Navy Ceremonial Guard carries the casket of Charlotte Louise Berry Winters the last known female veteran and former Navy Yeoman of World War I out from All Saint's Episcopal Church in Frederick Maryland. Winters who enlisted in the Navy in 1917 and was a founding member of the National Yeoman veterans' organization died at the age of 109 on Tuesday, March 27th 2007. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brien Aho

Winters served in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a yeoman, including service at a gun production facility at the Washington Navy Yard. She continued to work for the Navy in Washington until her retirement in 1953.

The Naval Reserve Act of 1916 enabled the Navy to begin enlisting women in mid-March 1917. Nearly 600 were on duty by the end of April 1917. That number grew to more than 11,000 by December 1918, shortly after the armistice. These women were popularly known as "Yeomanettes."

They all held enlisted ranks and served in support positions, mainly secretarial and clerical, and almost all served in the U.S. Many worked in government and naval offices, in defense companies and hospitals. They were all released from active duty in July 1919. Two of them ultimately became Naval officers in the Reserve, Capt. Joy Bright Hancock and Lt. Eunice Whyte.

Women & the U.S. Navy -- World War I era Yeomen (F)

[liverpool annie]

Found a bit more !!

Gladys Stokes Luxford Powers May 10 1899 – August 22 2008 was, at age 109, the last female veteran of the First World War following the March 27, 2007 death of fellow 109-year-old Charlotte Winters from the US. She was also the last veteran living in Canada following the death of Dwight Wilson on May 9, 2007, the day before Powers' 108th birthday. The last Canadian-born veteran, 108-year-old John Babcock, lives in the US.

Powers was born in Lewisham, County of London, the daughter of Frederick Charles Stokes. During her childhood she lived in both Turkey and Australia. In 1915, she volunteered as a barracks waitress for the WAAC despite the minimum age being 17. Later she transferred to the WRAF. In 1920, she married Edward Luxford, a Canadian soldier, whom she had met while visiting her older brother, Cyril, in hospital, where the latter was recovering from shell shock incurred during the war.

The Luxfords moved to Calgary that year, and walked almost 1000 kilometres along the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks to British Columbia in 1925. They later divorced and Powers remarried and was widowed twice, before meeting and marrying Andrew Powers in 1973, whom she also outlived. She lived in Abbotsford from 1992 until her death in 2008.

( Apparently Gladys and her husband Edward went to Canada in August 1919 on the troopship Baltic )

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...okesPowers.jpg