Sister Minnie Mears ARRC
Photo: courtesy Newcastle Museum

Parcels from home contained sought after items and were a reminder that the nurses were in people’s thoughts though far away.  This thank you letter published in the Maitland Mercury 18 March 1916 was from Sister Minnie Mears, No 1 Australian General Hospital in Egypt.

Note:  It is important to remember that letters home were censored so nurses and soldiers had to be guarded in what they wrote about and that newspapers may have been selective in which parts of a letter they published.

“Jan. 27 1916  Dear Mrs Rutter, – your parcel arrived on Tuesday.  None the worse for delay in getting here and very well appreciated. … The contents were lovely and what a quantity you managed to pack in.  I opened it amidst several of my patients and they were quite as excited as I was and [I] shared the eats and sweets with them.  What was most acceptable was a writing pad and envelopes.  Men in hospital cannot get out to buy things and paper and envelopes are always hailed with delight.”

[Accessed through the Edgeworth David Museum Library, Kurri Kurri]

Click here for other first hand accounts.

© Christine Bramble 2013