We have received an interesting tale from Richard Francis about the eldest daughter of Alfred Cattell who was born in Cottesmore in 1857 and later became Lord Mayor of Sheffield.
Gladys Matilda Cattell was born in 1884 and in 1914 found herself in Russia as a governess to an aristocratic family. In 1918, forced to leave during the Russian Revolution, she journeyed by train from Moscow to Vladivostock, a distance of 5700 miles with Sarah Josephine Dowling from whose great niece we have also heard. In Vladivostok she met Lyndall Crossthwaite Pocock who was working for the Red Cross. The two girls travelled to Yokohama in Japan where ocean passenger lists show they travelled to Canada on the “Empress of Asia” and thence from New York to Liverpool on the Cunard ship “Orduna” in May 1918. We believe she had met up again with Lyndall in New York and they married in Woolwich, Kent and settled in North London, having 4 children.
