My mother’s mother and father met in France in WW1 – she was working as a nurse in Calais, and he was supervising Chinese labour battalions, having worked as a printer for British American Tobacco in Shanghai.
As the excerpt from her autograph book shows, Sister, and then Matron, Roberts was very popular.
Lottie and Frederick were married in Stroud Green, London on 10th February 1919 – she was 35 and he was 37. Judging by the photograph, it does not seem to have been a very jolly occasion – one can imagine the general feeling after the experiences of the previous years.
Frederick went back to Shanghai, and Lottie followed on her own, sailing on 25th June 1919 on the SS Gablonz – a modern ship, built in 1912 for Lloyd Austriaco, and eventually scuttled in Tripoli in 1943 where it remains as a wreck-site.
Letters from Lottie…
In Shanghai, Lottie was awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal for her work in France – she should have got it from George V, but instead it was awarded by the Consul in Shanghai – the write-up in the Shanghai Times is transcribed below.
The photos below show some life starting in Shanghai – being pulled in a rickshaw was quite a change from the level crossing in Aber.
And then it seemed a good idea to try chicken-farming in Canada….