DARWEN lost more than 1,300 men in the Great War. And three women.

Local historian Tony Foster told the story of one of them, Emily Jenkins who joined the mercantile marine and was killed after the steamer Aguila was torpedoed in the Irish Sea, a couple of years ago.

And today he picks up the stories of the other two, Mary Betsy Walsh and Elizabeth Annie Challinor.

Emily died in the icy waters of the Western Approaches off the Pembroke Coast in March, 1915 when her ship’s lifeboat in which she had sought refuge was blasted by shellfire from a U-boat.

Emily and her family had left Liverpool for Darwen when she was a child and they lived on Kelvin Street.

She became a weaver and had been a voluntary nurse at Moss Bridge Hospital before joining the Mercantile Marine as a stewardess.

Mary and Elizabeth both died of Spanish flu in London towards the end of the war. Mary was a cook with the Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps and Elizabeth was a staff nurse with the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service.

Mary was born in Darwen, but Elizabeth was born in Oldham. The family moved to Darwen when she was a youngster.

They were both in their late 20s when they died; Emily was a few years older.

Mary was born at Holme Street, where Sainsbury’s car park now stands, and the family moved to Hacking Street. She was a weaver at Vale Street Mill. When her father died in 1914 she went to live with an aunt and uncle on Ratcliffe Street.

She joined the QMAAC in May, 1918 and, after completing her training as a cook – her rank was “worker” – she transferred to the Corps’ HQ at the Connaught Club in London. She developed pneumonia and died in Endell Street Military Hospital in Covent Garden in late June.

Her body was brought back to Darwen and she is buried in a Commonwealth War Grave in Darwen’s old cemetery, Section 2, just off the northerly curve from Lark Street.

Endell Street Hospital became famous as the only military hospital staffed entirely by women.

It was a great success, acknowledged as one of the best of all the war hospitals in London. It was demolished soon after the war.

Elizabeth and her family moved to Greenway Street, Darwen. Her mother died giving birth in 1904 and her father was left with six children.

Elizabeth was a health visitor in Darwen and, as the war raged, she trained as a nurse at Manchester Infirmary and offered herself for military service.

She was a staff nurse at a military hospital in Aldershot when she was taken ill in mid-October. She just had time to write to her family saying she was all right. “It’s nothing”, she wrote. Elizabeth died two days later.

Her father and most of the family had moved to Guildford, Surrey and she was buried there in a CWG in late October.