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...

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...

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...

Last day of holiday. Finished the smock I have been making for Una, and as last evening I finished copying out the accounts, I feel the time at home has not been wasted. At 11.45, D & I & Hector went in the car to Milton, where I took out the money for the choir fund, from the T.O. Bank & handed it over to D, to put in in her name. Then I went on to Lezant to see Mrs Cardwell. She was out in her Bath chair down the lane, so I went on to see Una, &...

I had a nasty cold last week & was not able to return to the Hospital. Spent Thursday in bed. On Friday Jack Trelawney & his Reginald came over from Buckfastleigh in time for lunch. Jack had to go to Lanson to see Mr Cowlard. The Radcliffe’s called in the afternoon. Reginald T is waiting for his commission. He hopes to get into the DCLI (Devon & Cornwall Light Infantry), he has been home a month & is getting weary of waiting, life at Buckfastleigh is very dreary as there are no young men of his age there. On Saturday...

Hello since last Wednesday, & a very lovely time. Since I last wrote anything Frank & his family have returned. Four children, the two elder very wild & unruly. Philippa a quaint little independent person, Michael exactly like the old picture of Arthur. On Easter Day we had lovely weather. I played for the morning service. We had a Choral Celebration & the choir sang it very well, thanks to Dorothea’s superhuman efforts. With all the difficulties she has to contend with, and all the touchy tempers to smooth down, she keeps the choir together in a way that is...

Mary has gone homes for a weekend. On Thursday I got a wire from Father to say that Frank & his family had arrived safely, and on Friday morning a letter came from good old Dorothea who found time to write & describe the children. Nicholas who is just as lovely as ever & Elizabeth much improved in looks. Both are very glad to get back to Kelly. Life in the hospital has this week been just as usual, as the men are mostly convalescent the work has not been heavy. I have unfortunately had a streaming cold, one of...

On the way to the hospital this morning, I overtook Nora Bolitho returning from the D & E. She had just bought a paper & read in it of the bombardment of the Dardanelles. Alverin’s ship, the Irresistible, being one of the battleships. She said she had not heard from him for 3 weeks & did not know until that moment where he was. This shelling of the Dardanelles by the Anglo-French fleet will mean the downfall of Constantinople. Some people say that it will fall one day this week. Robert Worthington told us to night that Charlotte had told...

Yest aft we heard that more wounded were expected, but they had not arrived when I left in the evening. They did not come until midnight and it was nearly 2 AM before the Drs made their rounds. In the ward I am looking after we have 4 new cases. One is a Middlesex man & knows Tom Woolocombe. They are none of them serious cases. I was off again in the morning & met Mary at the club. Nora Bolitho turned up & we went out together and in High St ran against Mary Dickinson walking with Sir Ernest...

A whole month and nothing written. The fact is I am too tired to write in the evening, and the days go by so alike with the routine of my work that there is little to write. Last Friday I went home for the weekend, rushed off by the 7 PM train. It was lovely being home again & the weather was just perfect. The week before Father came up here & spent the Sunday with Mary & me, Mary being off in the morning, went with him to church, and in the aft. he & I went to Exmouth...

This evening as I was returning I came across Mrs Worthington just outside at garage waiting to go out in their new car, she asked me to go to, and after a little time Dr W started off in it & took us for a little run. It was very delightful, the car is a beauty and goes so smoothly & easily.