GERTRUDE MAYNE
QUEEN MARY'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS
9TH APRIL 1918 AGE 29
BURIED: ARMLEY (ST BARTHOLOMEW) CHURCHYARD, YORKSHIRE, UK
In January 1910, Gertrude Sadler married George William Mayne. Their son Harry was born in February the following year. George was a printers' machine feeder in Armley, Yorkshire. He was called up in 1916 and served with the 2nd/8th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment. On 20 February 1917 he died of wounds at a Field Ambulance Dressing Station in Aveluy, France.
Gertrude joined Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps. This was instituted in 1917 in order to release men for the front line it having been decided that women could do the jobs that had kept men on home service and working in the base camps abroad. They could cook and clean, fill roles in military offices and stores, and even drive and repair vehicles.
There is no evidence that Gertrude ever served abroad. She died at home on 9 April 1918 and was buried in Armley. There is nothing to indicate the cause of her death, but it's too early to have been the flu pandemic as this didn't really hit the UK until the following month.
Harry Mayne, his parents seven-year-old son, was now an orphan. His grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth Sadler chose both his parents' inscriptions. His fathers' says:
We could not spare you
Daddy dear
In God's keeping
Harry