Description
Physical description
Simple field cutleery consisting of a three pronged fork, and short, non-serrated bladed knife. Both have wooden grips, inlaid into a brass-coloured frame.
Label
Items of 'field cutlery' associated with the active service career of Miss Florence Farmborough (1887-1980) on the Eastern Front during the First World War.
History note
Florence Farmborough was born in England in 1887 and moved to Russia in 1908 where she found work as an English Teacher. On the outbreak of the First World War, Farmborough immediately offered her services as a nursing sister at the hospital established by Princess Golitsin in Moscow. Later she accompanied Russian troops in Poland, Austria and Rumania. Forced to retreat with the Russian Army, Farmborough witnessed the Russian Revolution in 1917. Farmborough later fled Europe via Serbia where, with a Russian friend, Maria Bochkareva, she took ship to the United States of America. In 1926 Farmborough became a university lecturer in Valencia, remaining in Spain for the next ten years. A supporter of General Franco, Farmborough moved to Salamanca after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. During the Civil War Farmbrough made radio propaganda broadcasts to English speaking-countries. Her book, Life and People of Spain, was published in 1938. Farmborough returned to Britain in 1940. Her book of First World War memoirs, based on her war diaries, and entitled Nurse at the Russian Front, was published in 1974.
She presented a number of her papers and mementos to the Imperial War Museum in 1975, and died in Liverpool in 1980. The Museum's Dept of Exhibits & Firearms holds some her mementoes, which were presented in 1975. (Ref: EPH 3529-3532). The Dept of Documents holds Ms diaries (109pp) covering her service as a nurse with the Flying Column of a Russian Army medical unit in Galicia (July 1915), Poland (August-October 1915), Galicia (January-February 1916 and June-July 1917) and Rumania (August-September 1917), giving a good picture of her work and the conditions in which she was living; as well as many details of her Russian colleagues and of the Russian soldiers, and Austrian and Polish peasants, who were her patients. There are particularly interesting references to morale and discipline in the Russian Army, and to the volatile political situation in Russia. (Ref: 87/18/1)