Military nurses left first hand accounts of their experiences through diaries, letters and interviews.  Click on the links below to find out more.

Gallipoli

“It is like fireworks from here. But when we get the wounded it is heart-breaking.”  On a hospital ship off Gallipoli (Sister Emily Beatrice Taylor, of Maitland)

France and England

“I was in the Resuscitation Ward, and it was extremely sad.”  A Casualty Clearing Station on the Western Front  (Sister Amy Mathews, of Hamilton)

“Dirty, unshaven, and very forlorn”– patients at a Red Cross Hospital in England (Sister Gertrude Faddy ARRC, of Wingham and Paterson)

“the quietness was short-lived” – an air raid on London (Sister Blanche Cresswick,  Newcastle)

“our hours off duty fluctuated with the stress of work” (Sister Pearl Nowland, Muswellbrook)

Egypt

“Am having a lovely time off duty” – the opportunity for sightseeing (Staff Nurse Ilma Lovell, Wallsend)

“paper and envelopes are always hailed with delight” – a thank you letter (Sister Minnie Mears, Maitland)

‘Singleton Jam’ – a taste of home (Staff Nurse Dorothy Traill, Cassilis)

The Salonika Front

“The hours of duty were very long …” – a hospital in northern Greece (Sister Susan Arnold, matron of Dungog Hospital before the War)

“We felt the extremes of weather very much indeed…” – on the Salonika Front (Staff Nurse Ivy Robbins, Newcastle)

India

“the heat was so great that we were worn out by the middle of the day” – nursing in India (Sister Hazel Lowrey, Stroud)

 

© Christine Bramble 2013