Description
Object description
British nurse with Voluntary Aid Detachment, British Red Cross at West of England Eye Infirmary Red Cross Hospital in Exeter, GB, St Andrew's Hospital in Malta and 2nd British Red Cross Hospital in Rouen, France, 1914-1917
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Broadclyst, GB, 1885-1914: family; education; employment; caring for and riding horses; charitable activities; Red Cross organisation in east Devon; memories of outbreak of First World War, 8/1914; call up of church verger as reservist, 8/1914. Aspects of period as nurse with Voluntary Aid Detachment, British Red Cross with West of England Eye Infirmary Red Cross Hospital in Exeter, GB, 1914-1915: training and initial work setting up hospital, 9/1914; first consignment of wounded; helping badly wounded patient; reaction to loss of patient; presence of Bandsman Thomas Rendle VC on ward, 11/1914. Aspects of period as nurse with Voluntary Aid Detachment, British Red Cross with St Andrew's Hospital in Malta, 1915: taking passage aboard HMHS Asturias; arrival in Malta; description of St George's Hospital on arrival; reaction to transfer to St Andrew's Hospital; fever cases and conditions at St Andrew's Hospital; arrival of batch of nurses.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of period as nurse with Voluntary Aid Detachment, British Red Cross with West of England Eye Infirmary Red Cross Hospital in Exeter, GB, 1914-1915: arrival at hospital, 9/1914; reaction to casualty lists; opinion of recruiters. Aspects of period as nurse with Voluntary Aid Detachment, British Red Cross with St Andrew's Hospital in Malta, 1915-1916: quality of patients; deaths during night shifts; relations between voluntary and professional nurses; role as mess sister; recreational activities. Aspects of period as nurse with Voluntary Aid Detachment, British Red Cross with 2nd British Red Cross Hospital in Rouen, France, 1916-1917: background to posting to France; opinion of conditions, winter 1916-1917; psychological state of officer patients; prior recollections of patients at St Andrew's Hospital; return to GB and employment; reaction to Armistice, 11/11/1918; attitude to service as nurse with British Red Cross during First World War.