DURING the Great War as the men from the Bournemouth area enlisted to fight for the cause abroad, women also played their part, including Mrs Alice Fry and Miss Mary Jefferies.

“My Aunt Alice Fry was the first ever lady postwoman in Britain when the boys were called up and posted in France in 1914”, said Mrs Elsie Mary Daines from Wallisdown.

Alice was born in R.L. Stevenson Avenue then known as Middle Road, Westbourne.

She took over from her husband Charles Fry when he joined up.

His career at the Post Office had begun as a telegraph boy when he was a teenager.

“Alice worked at the Westbourne Post Office and also at Bournemouth.

“She was one of the few women who could drive a car,” said Elsie who celebrated her 100th birthday in February this year.

When Charles returned home from the war they moved to Hampshire to work together at the Alton Post Office.

Alice was in her 80s when she died in 1989.

Mrs Doreen Bowsher of Broadstone knows little about the time her mother Miss Mary Jefferies spent in the Royal Flying Corps.

“I think she might have been a cook.

“She looks very smart in her Royal Flying Corps uniform,” said Doreen proudly.

Mary from Hillington in Norfolk met Doreen’s father Arthur Barrington from Poole during the conflict when he was serving with the Royal Marines.

After the war they married and lived in Hamworthy and had three sons and a daughter, Doreen.

Mary died in 1961 aged 65, and Arthur followed seven years later.