| Title | Dorothy (Dolly) Vernon Powell |
| Date | c1941 |
| Location | Guiseley |
| Photo ID | W016A |
| Comment | Information and photographs donated by Edith Maud Bell’s nephew. Mark Pontin. Additional research Helen M. |
Dorothy (Dolly) Vernon Powell lived with her mother and father Lily and Edwin Powell at 19 Otley Road, Guiseley, and during WW2 she worked at the Cotopa Mills Munitions Factory on Back Lane, Guiseley, as a cartridge filler.
W015 – Edith and Dorothy, c1941.
Dorothy (Dolly) Vernon Powell – c1941
A photograph of Dorothy (Dolly) Vernon Powell with her cousin Edith Maud Bell on the doorstep of 13 Silverdale Avenue, Guisley, where Edith, her sister May and her widowed mother lived having moved from Newcastle after the bombing raids had started there. Edith also worked with Dorothy as a cartridge filler at the Cotopa Mills Munitions Factory.
During September 1941, Edith and Dorothy together with three other young women, Mrs Elizabeth Dale, aged 24 years, Mrs Rose Green, aged 21 years, and Miss Constance Mary Calvert, aged 16 years, were caught in an explosion whilst working at the munitions factory.
It would appear that all the young women involved were taken to Leeds General Infirmary for treatment, however, only Miss Calvert survived with severe injuries to her legs and hands.
Dorothy died at Leeds General Infirmary and was subsequently buried at Guiseley Cemetery on 8th October 1941. Dorothy’s and Edith’s maternal grandmother Phyllis Telford was also buried in the same grave in October 1951.
See also Round & About Aireborough, volume V, pages 122 – 124 by Martin Rigg.
To view further details of the Cotopa Mills Munitions Factory disaster please – Click Here. To view further details of Edith Maud Bell – Click Here.
It would be a fitting memorial to the four young women who died and to the young woman who survived, to have a memorial stone on the site of the incident in remembrance.
Consolidated by Jack Brayshaw. 07 October 2023.
Last updated: 07 October 2023.
