By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
The life story of a Canary girl who returned from New York to Gloucestershire and worked in the munitions factory during the First World War has been shared by her granddaughter.
British women who worked in munitions factories during the two world wars were called Canary Girls due to the colour of their skin turning yellow from exposure to dangerous chemicals.
Gloucester City Council is looking to commemorate those who worked at the now demolished munitions factory in Quedgeley.
The Naas Lane Farm site, known as Kingsway now, was requisitioned for the location of National Filling Factory Number Five by way of land acquired by compulsory purchase.
The site was first occupied in 1914 and would later become a RAF site before closing in 1995. The factory produced over 10.5 million 14″ and 16″ shells, 7 million cartridges and 23 million fuses and other components.
The site also included a horse convalescence unit.
The workforce, predominantly women, filled millions of shells and cartridges at the factory before operations ceased when the armistice with Germany was signed in November 1918.
The women workers were known locally as canaries, because many across the country suffered toxic jaundice caused by the phosphorus used to make TNT.
This turned their skin yellow and caused the premature death of untold numbers.
And while the buildings were demolished between 1924 and 1926, City Councillors wish to commemorate their efforts.
Diana Simon, the granddaughter of one of the Gloucester Canary Girls has suggested a stained glass window, mosaic wall or a flock of yellow birds suspended from a ceiling would make a fitting tribute.
Her grandmother Elizabeth Niblett, née Etheridge, was born in 1872 to William and Zippora Etheridge at Bollow, near Westbury-on-Severn.
She died January 1944 at 35 Station Road, Gloucester, where she lived for most of her married life.
She had a brother and a sister and was taken by her family to New York at a young age.
Her granddaughter Diana Simon says she was part of the huddled masses, but pined for the green hills and valleys of Gloucestershire and managed, somehow, to come back to England.
“This was around the time of the Gangs of New York film – the family lived in Brooklyn,” she said.
“On her return to England, she took domestic work in various large country houses.
“She met and married my grandfather, Alfred George Niblett and by 1905, they had settled into 35 Station Road.
“By the time World War One broke out, she had had four children including my mother, Alfreda.
“Money was tight, so when the munitions factory opened in Quedgeley, she was keen to do her bit, support all the husbands, brothers, fathers and lovers fighting to defend family and country overseas, and so became a Canary.
“Trains ran from Gloucester out to Quedgeley in those days and this is how the flightless Gloucester canaries were able to commute.
“I think she was one of the lucky ones and didn’t take up the pigment.
“She lived until she was 72. Not bad for the age in which she lived and very good considering she did not live a life of ease.
“If there is to be a memorial to these extraordinary ordinary women, I really feel that the time for a statue has long passed.
“And in these straightened times, it would cost a great deal of money and become just a perch for pigeons.
“May I suggest a stained glass window for a public building? Or a mosaic wall in suitable colours?
“A flock of yellow birds suspended from a ceiling? Something light and feminine. These ladies were doing men’s work and had little time to indulge that side of their personalities.
“Gloucestershire is heaving with creative people. What about a competition for young artists or students?”
If you have a relative who worked at the munitions factory in Quedgeley and would like to share their story, please get in touch via email at carmelo.garcia@reachplc.com