A weeks go by. Soon the dreary time will be over. In the meantime the hospital was slowly emptying itself, & still no sign of fresh cases. Night after night I sit behind the screens, & listen to the signals & occasional mutterings of the patients. One man wants a drink every now & again & that is all there is to be done. So I have to spend my time working, & have made a smock for Michael, a coat & a frock for Dorothea Juliana & am making a very choice first coated frock for the expected one...
There has been an advance in the Dardanelles but with fearful loss of life. Constantinople is as far off from being taken as it ever was & to think that at one time we thought its fall was only a matter of a few days. Great efforts are to be made now over the making of munitions, & there is to be a registry of every man, woman & child above the age of 15, so as to see what labour there is available for munition making. In the meantime my life of a hospital goes on as usual, except...
Yesterday fresh wounded, who came from the Dardanelles & as a matter of course were all convalescent & so still there is nothing to do but sit for hours together reading & working & struggling against sleep. One or 2 days this week I have been unlucky, & have not slept. This job is getting on my nerves & making me feel very depressed. If only there was something to do. Still this is a trial of patience. Lemberg has been taken by the Austrians but the Russian line has not been broken. Reginald spent the night here last week...
This week has gone by very quickly & is now a month of this night’s job has passed. If only there was more to do, the time would not be so irksome. For 2 nights I was shifted down again to the medical wards, but I got nurse Skinner to say a word to night Sister & now I am back again in Ward 3. In this hospital we nurses seem to be able to arrange a good deal ourselves as to where we go. The matron is very easy going & lets us do what we like. In some...
Yest morning, Sister Ker Grey came to me whilst I was making beds & said I could have a night off. Very kind of her & especially was I glad of it as Father & Dorothea were both coming to spend the week end. Also I have had very little sleep this week during the day, one day never a wink all the time. So off I rushed & after breakfast at the club with Marker, went to bed & slept until 2.30. Had tea with the Worthington’s in their garden & then went to the station, met old D...
There is a rumour going about that the passage of the Dardanelles has been forced but there is a mystery about it. Mr Churchill in a speech at Dundee, made a statement on Sat that in a short time there would be a great victory out there. It seems almost too good to be true.
Life goes on so monotonously that there is very little to regard. I go to the hospital at 8.30 p.m., we have a meal & then go to our wards at 9. & Except when we go to other meals during the night we do not leave them. I am in ward 3 which is a very nice one, as it opens into ward 2 & I can go & chat to the other nurse. On the 2nd night we had wounded in. 2 very bad cases came into my Ward, & for a night or two these kept me...
On Saturday evening I got off & in great excitement went home, & spent a most glorious & absolutely perfect weekend. I have sent Miss Walsh to Kelly on Monday to have a rest, she seems to have enjoyed it much & looked a different person. Yesterday there [was] a great confusion in packing of Frank & his family to Bude, thanks to Ellis the children were got ready in time, but Michael was dressed on the doorstep. Father went off as his custom is, to the Devon Guild of Ringer’s meeting, & then on to London for the Central...
Yesterday we had 17 fresh cases. 14 cot consequently I did not get off all day, but was on from 8 to 8.30 p.m. One boy was brought into Ward 7, shot right through the stomach & with pneumonia & bronchitis as well, so he entailed a good deal of work. Some of the cases were only wounded on Sunday midnight. To day has also been a very hard day, but I got off in the aft. There has been a political crisis. Lord Fisher has resigned from 1st Lord of the Admiralty, & a coalition government is to be...
Last week was a terrible one as regards the war, what with the loss of the Lusitania & in the fearful fighting in Belgium. Huge long list of casualties, yesterday’s list the longest that has appeared. 400 officers. One day last week Leonard Morshead’s name was among the wounded but I hear from home that it is only a slight wound in the arm. Had a letter from Agnes yesterday saying that Ruth was still very ill. Poor child it is now 3 weeks since Agnes’s first letter came, saying she was ill. On Sunday a man died in the...
A really lovely & perfect day. I have a morning off & have been to service at St Glaves. On Friday evening we heard the news that the Lusitania had been torpedoed & has sunk at 2.30, but it was not until Sat morning that further details were known. She went down near Cork & great loss of life is feared. A useless & wicked crime, & one that is of no military importance. I was saying yest that if the Germans continue to use these asphyxiating gases, which are strictly against the Hague Convention, the French will bring into...
Yesterday I saw in the list among those killed the name of John Fielder, 2nd Lieutenant, Seaforth Highlanders. He took part in the Sydenham pageant of last July, & was a friend of Guy Newman. Only 19 & the only son. Our troops have had some success in the Dardanelles. There will be heavy fighting out there. An appeal has been made for doctors to go out to the east. Rob Worthington & one or 2 others here are debating if they ought to go, & yet what is to be done in England if the best go. Even in...
One of the men in the ward had a bad op on Friday, and as he wanted watching our times off on Sunday were altered. I was given from 10-2. The weather has been hot & I have felt rather tired, so was glad to get off then. Went to St Glaves in Fore St. very nice service, matins followed by a sung Eucharist. The church is very old and small & although it is on the street yet there is a sort of country feeling about it. There was no sermon which was a comfort. In the aft. sat...
Yest we had a fresh batch of wounded, some of them very bad cases, but those in my ward are slight ones, none really ill. Matters went a lots more smoothly, and to day all has gone well, but it was a rush all the morning. I was off at 2 & went with a girl called Loveband for a drive in a tram. The weather was perfect, quite hot & this evening it is very warm, with a beautiful full moon. Nearly all our fresh cases were in the Hill 60 fight, they say it was a fearful business....
A lovely morning with brilliant blue sky. Morning off duty.Bfast at 9.30, then off to the Cathedral for a parade service, to which we were ordered to go. The nave was full of soldiers. Mary & I joined on to the company from our hospital & by good luck got into most excellent seats, just behind the nave choir stalls. The service itself was dull & lifeless. A huge congregation more than half of which was there under compulsion & the rest for sight seeing, is not a very inspiring sight nor conducive to worship. After the service we were...
Both yest & to day have been very bad days. I have made several stupid mistakes & in return have been told that I take no interest in my work. Sister Chiltern has been terribly fussy lately. It is rather distressing when one tries all one can, but my wretched memory plays me such tricks. There has been more fighting in France, with heavy losses on both sides. Hill 60 near Ypres has been taken by the Allies. We have also landed a large force at the Dardanelles. The fall of Constantinople seems a long way off yet. Yest eve...
Just come back for a meeting at the Basenfield Hall, at which spoke Dr Mabel Ramsay & a Miss Burke, all about Serbia & the hospital units that the N.U.W.S. has sent out to that place & also to Belgium. Really it makes one rather disgusted with the little one is doing here, when there is so much wanted out there. Here we are fussing over men who are hardly poorly even, while out there, the men have not even beds to lie on, & very few nurses to look after them. Miss Burke spoke beautifully, & described the work...
Yest aft I met Bob outside Poples & we spent the afternoon together, trying to find Mary, which we succeeded in doing at last, & had tea together at Shapley’s. There has been more severe fighting at Ypres or Wipers as the men call it, but only the scantiest information about it.
A lovely morning. Had a letter from Ursula who has measles, but is on the mend. Fortunately Aunt Ella is with her, so she is being properly looked after. At 2 I was told I could have the half day. As I was walking down High St, who should I see saluting me, but Goeffrey Coleridge, in the uniform of a sergeant. It was a surprise, so I walked down the street with him. He belongs to the OTC and is trying to get a commission in the Devons. He has come up for the day from Gloucestershire. Kalki does...
Very little to do in the ward. At 2 went off duty, met Mary at Queen’s St & Went to Exmouth. It was a lovely afternoon, and when we reached the Sands we suddenly wished to go for a row so we hired a boat & a boatman & had a lovely peaceful time. We had an old boatman, who had lived at Exmouth all his life, so had his gdfather before him. When I said that it would be terrible if the Germans bombarded the place, all he said was “Well I suppose if they came, we should have...
