Mary O’Connell Biaconi MM (Combined Irish Regiments Associations)
Mary was born into a prominent family in County Clare, Ireland in 1896.
Known to family and friends as “Molly” she attended a convent school in Limerick followed by finishing schools in Paris and Belgium.
When war came like thousands of other women she wanted to play her part and in 1915 joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), formed to provide nursing and medical care to the military.
An important role undertaken by the VAD was driving Ambulances carrying the wounded from dressing stations close to the front back to Hospitals near the coast. Such work regularly put the drivers in harm’s way being within range of enemy artillery.
At the age of 21, having completed her medical training and been taught how to drive and maintain an ambulance Molly arrived in France in August 1917.
The historian Lyn MacDonald described girls like Molly thus
“She’s called Elsie or Gladys or Dorothy, her ankles are swollen, her feet are aching, her hands reddened and rough. She has little money, no vote, and has almost forgotten what it feels like to be really warm. She sleeps in a tent. She is twenty-three. She is the daughter of a clergyman, a lawyer, or a prosperous businessman, and has been privately educated and groomed to be a lady. She wears the unbecoming uniform of a VAD. She is on active service and as much a part of the war as Tommy”.
Molly soon transferred to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry but continued to drive ambulances.
It was during the German offensives in the spring of 1918 that Molly and her fellow drivers faced the greatest danger as they continually ventured close to the advancing enemy to evacuate the wounded.
On the night of 18-19May 1918 heavy German bombing raids in the St Omer area caused extensive damage and many casualties. Rather than taking shelter, Molly and her comrades busied themselves rescuing and evacuating the wounded while bombs continued to fall.
For her actions that night Molly was awarded the Military Medal (MM).
“She worked for long hours under fire in the brave attempt to save the lives of those who had been buried in caves, dugouts and hospitals that had been hit.”
According to a document in the National Archives during the First World War the extraordinary women of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry were awarded 135 decorations including 18 Military Medals; 32 French Croix de Guerre; one Legion d’Honneur, and 11 Mentions in Despatches.
Molly survived the war and returned to Civilian life. She married in December 1919 and set up and ran a Hotel with her husband.
At the start of the Second World War she once again joined the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and later became a Junior Commander in the Auxiliary Territorial Service for the duration of the war.
Molly died in Guildford, Surrey in 1968 aged 72.
Above written by The Combined Irish Regiments Association.
Alan Malcher 