In memory of Jennie Williams
Jennie Williams was one of 10 children born to John and Ellen Williams of Plas Coch, in Llanberis High Street. She was born in 1874. She was a staunch Methodist, attending Capel Coch.
© IWM (WWC H2-170)
As a young woman she attended Red Cross classes run by Robert Mills-Roberts. He was the surgeon at the quarry hospital (which is still a prominent landmark on the opposite side of the lake from the town). He had been a goalkeeper for Wales and was part of Preston North End’s FA Cup-winning team in 1889.
Her years of attending the classes paid off in the First World War, in which she served as a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment. In 1915 she looked after wounded servicemen in Brighton and Birmingham. She went to France in 1916.
She returned to visit her family in Llanberis in March 1917, by which time she had suffered a serious illness. She returned to France and was still at a military hospital in Le Havre two months after the war ended.
She contracted influenza, like many others in Europe that winter. This led to pneumonia, from which she died on 31 January 1919 in the hospital where she had worked. She was 45 years old. She is buried at Ste. Marie Cemetery in Le Havre.
Return to Llanberis war memorial page
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