大象传媒

Alice Thomasson was only 21 when she died along with eight other nurses and auxiliary workers when their trench was hit by a German aerial torpedo at their hospital at Abbeville in Northern France in May 1918.

Alice who was from Farnworth near Bolton had only been at the front for four days. She had enlisted in the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps after giving up her job at a mill. Alice was one of 57,000 women who served between January 1917 and November 1918.

Her widowed father couldn't look after her younger brothers and sisters because Alice, who was the main breadwinner, had been killed, so he sent them to live with an aunt in Farnworth. She is commemorated on the town's war memorial; Alice's is the only woman's name.

Her Great nephew Stuart Astley knew nothing about her.

Location: Farnworth, Bolton BL4 9DT
Image shows members of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps tending British war graves at Abbeville, 15 September 1917 (Photo by Lt. J W Brooke/ IWM via Getty Images)
Presented by Jonathan Ali

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