Description
Object description
Papers relating to their work and experiences in India, Burma and China with the Friends' Ambulance Unit China Convoy during the Second World War. Miss Connie Bull's papers include her ms diary (70pp, some pages have been torn out) covering details of her journey to China mentioning encounters with South African soldiers at Port Said, describing the streets and shops in Aden, her observations on arriving in China on 29 March 1944, noting the marked houses where Cholera sufferers lived, her social activities - cinema, food and drinking, observations of the different culture and customs, and with good descriptions of the hospitals in Kutsing, her journey to Tali on the Burma Road, the behaviour of the American soldiers, the general conditions of the patients and the places she saw, the shortage of women and their treatment by the men, and containing the stamp of the Chinese seal bearing her name; Tribunal papers (4pp with envelope) dated 1942, relating to her application to be registered as a conscientious objector on humanitarian grounds, and her copy of National Service Acts 1939 to 1941 Position of Women Explanatory Note; a partly fictionalised ts account (7pp) relating the story of a doctor who intervened in the life of a driver who was to be shot following a collision with a General's car; ts farewell letter (1pp) dated 23 April 1945 from Rhoads Murphey; Friend's Ambulance Unit membership card, dated September 1941, and her Red Cross & St John War Organization identity card; and a letter from the Ministry of Labour releasing her from her National Service (1p, April 1946). Mr R G Condick's papers include letters to Miss C Bull (1942-1945, some undated) mainly philosophical in content and covering plans for their marriage (they were married in October 1944) and for Connie to join him in China, but also containing details on his social activities, the difficulties of maintaining the trucks and procuring supplies, and his work as garage manager; ms letter (1p, with envelope) dated 20 April 1945, from Llewelyn Evans recommending his bearer that served him in India; ms/ts untitled poems (5pp); various other documents including three identity cards for the FAU (in Chinese and English), passport showing his travels to China and India, British India Motor Driving License, ms/ts Inoculation record cards (3pp), certificate of inoculation against Yellow Fever dated 1942 (2pp), a military permit to leave India (5pp), a FAU agreement for members acting as drivers of the China Convoy, and a ts "Report on a truck" (3pp) written by Ron Condick as Transport Officer reporting the need and use of the truck in their medical work in Calcutta and describing the conditions in that city. Also with the collection is a copy of "A China Convoy Anthology" (103pp) printed in Chungking in 1945 and containing poems which mention Condick and Bull including "Swan Song" (pp 36-37) and "Soliloquy" (pp 62-64), and also containing a list of members of the China Convoy up to December 1945; as well as some newspaper cuttings relating to COs.
Content description
Papers relating to their work and experiences in India, Burma and China with the Friends' Ambulance Unit China Convoy during the Second World War. Miss Connie Bull's papers include her ms diary (70pp, some pages have been torn out) covering details of her journey to China mentioning encounters with South African soldiers at Port Said, describing the streets and shops in Aden, her observations on arriving in China on 29 March 1944, noting the marked houses where Cholera sufferers lived, her social activities - cinema, food and drinking, observations of the different culture and customs, and with good descriptions of the hospitals in Kutsing, her journey to Tali on the Burma Road, the behaviour of the American soldiers, the general conditions of the patients and the places she saw, the shortage of women and their treatment by the men, and containing the stamp of the Chinese seal bearing her name; Tribunal papers (4pp with envelope) dated 1942, relating to her application to be registered as a conscientious objector on humanitarian grounds, and her copy of National Service Acts 1939 to 1941 Position of Women Explanatory Note; a partly fictionalised ts account (7pp) relating the story of a doctor who intervened in the life of a driver who was to be shot following a collision with a General's car; ts farewell letter (1pp) dated 23 April 1945 from Rhoads Murphey; Friend's Ambulance Unit membership card, dated September 1941, and her Red Cross & St John War Organization identity card; and a letter from the Ministry of Labour releasing her from her National Service (1p, April 1946). Mr R G Condick's papers include letters to Miss C Bull (1942-1945, some undated) mainly philosophical in content and covering plans for their marriage (they were married in October 1944) and for Connie to join him in China, but also containing details on his social activities, the difficulties of maintaining the trucks and procuring supplies, and his work as garage manager; ms letter (1p, with envelope) dated 20 April 1945, from Llewelyn Evans recommending his bearer that served him in India; ms/ts untitled poems (5pp); various other documents including three identity cards for the FAU (in Chinese and English), passport showing his travels to China and India, British India Motor Driving License, ms/ts Inoculation record cards (3pp), certificate of inoculation against Yellow Fever dated 1942 (2pp), a military permit to leave India (5pp), a FAU agreement for members acting as drivers of the China Convoy, and a ts "Report on a truck" (3pp) written by Ron Condick as Transport Officer reporting the need and use of the truck in their medical work in Calcutta and describing the conditions in that city. Also with the collection is a copy of "A China Convoy Anthology" (103pp) printed in Chungking in 1945 and containing poems which mention Condick and Bull including "Swan Song" (pp 36-37) and "Soliloquy" (pp 62-64), and also containing a list of members of the China Convoy up to December 1945; as well as some newspaper cuttings relating to COs.
History note
MP