A LEG wound during the First World War brought Meyrick Williams an unexpected bonus – romance.

In the field hospital, he was treated by nurse Hannah Mason and it wasn’t long before they fell in love.

No-one is sure where they met, but it was somewhere near the battlefields of Europe.

When the war was over, they married, had eight children and spent the rest of their lives together.

Memory Lane this week

Their youngest child, Marion, now Marion Maskell, of Gordon Close, Old Marston, Oxford, has treasured mementos of her parents’ war record – photographs and their medals.

Meyrick was born in Bangor, North Wales, in 1889 and after leaving school at 13 or 14, started work on a farm.

Oxford Mail:

  • Private Meyrick Williams

The family was always told that when he volunteered for the Army at the outbreak of war, he was turned away because he was too young.

That story, however, cannot be true because he would have been 24 or 25 in 1914.

At any rate, he persevered and eventually joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers.

Little is known of his war service, but it is clear he served abroad. After suffering leg wounds, probably in France, he appears to have recovered and returned to the battlefield, surviving to the end of the war with no further injury.

Hannah, who had trained as a nurse in her native South Wales before the war, married Meyrick at Barry in 1920.

They settled at Mountain Ash, about 20 miles from Cardiff, where Meyrick got a job looking after the pit ponies at the local coal mine. Meanwhile, his wife was fully occupied bringing up their five sons and three daughters.

Oxford Mail:

  • Nurse Hannah Mason in a field hospital

During the Second World War, she worked for the Women’s Voluntary Service helping to find homes in South Wales for evacuees.

Daughter Mrs Maskell recalls: “One day, she came home with four evacuees from Kent, who didn’t want to be split up. Our house was full to bursting with our own family, but we somehow made room for them.”


Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.