Driver: August 1914
August 1914
Monday 3rd
Volunteered for foreign service at War Office.
Saturday 8th
I joined the Q.A.I.M.N.S.R. & was called up for active service at once with instructions to collect a Camping Kit & Uniform within the next seven days, for which I was allowed £23 by the War Office, and to present myself with my baggage at Charing X Hotel at 6 p.m. on Sunday the 16th.
Sunday 16th
My colleagues & I arrived at Charing X Hotel where we were interviewed by the Matron of the No. 8 General Hospital, Expeditionary Forces, to which division we found that we had become attached. We were told that we were being billeted at the Hotel Victoria, Northumberland Ave. to await further orders & that we were allowed 13/- per day for mess & we were to report ourselves 4 hrly to Miss Lang[1] the Sister in Charge.
Monday 17th
We report ourselves at stated hours but glean no news.
Tuesday 18th
Still nothing doing.
Wednesday 19th
A slight rise in temperature in the Camp owing to the fact that we may go tomorrow & rumour says that our destination may be the Continent. Told to get knapsacks in which to carry two days provisions.
Thursday 20th
12 o/c noon sent to Charing X Hotel for provisions - each has the care of a package of stores en route - my lot proved to be 4 pkts of table jelly. 7 p.m. all collect on Charing X Station with baggage (43 nurses in all, 13 regular and 30 civil reserve). 7.15 GWatkins[ref]Gladys Watkins QAIMNS WO 399/ 8743[/ref], Easby[2], & I have our last dinner together in Charing X Restaurant - Chicken & Tongue & Salad, Claret cup.8 p.m. Entrain for Woolwich & on arrival are taken by motor busses to the Arsenal. Here we found light refreshments awaiting us in Mess Room. The 44 of us all slept in one large ward & it was a funny sight indeed. Lights had just been put out when word was sent in that unless we each wanted to carry our own holdalls we must put them outside the ward then. So we all jumped out of bed with one accord & a great chattering & commotion of packing & running down the ward with our holdalls [?]. Then once more to bed as we were to be called at 2.30 a.m. for breakfast at 3 a.m. Silence reigned but nobody slept as the turning over & over of one's neighbours proved - probably the beds were none too soft or comfortable for each had only one sheet & the pillow was as hard as Mother Earth in the heat of Summer - or was it the excitement? Anyway, sure it was we were wide awake when the Night Sister switched on the light & shouted 2.30.
=Friday 21st
3 a.m. Breakfast & then after waiting about for 3/4 of an hour we went by special car to Dockyard station where a special train was waiting. In we got & again waited until at last the Army Medical Corps of the No. 8 General Hospital joined us & at 5 a.m. Finally left Woolwich. 9.40 Arrived at Southampton and embarked on "City of Edinburgh" with 900 troops, horses etc. 1.30 Sailed, cheered by the inhabitants of surrounding vessels. Saw a waterplane fly above us just as we started. 2 p.m. Hear that we are making for Havre but know nothing further - sealed orders. 4.30 Tea. Served by Lascars.5 p.m. GWatkins[3], Adam[4] & I who are sharing a cabin decide to get to bed as we hear we are to breakfast at 4 a.m. Glad to say I'm in the top berth, near the port hole. 8 p.m. Sister looks in to say breakfast will not be until 7 a.m. All three wide awake so borrow Easby's spirit lamp & make bovril which we have with biscuits. We are sailing under muffled lights.1 o/c Midnight, awaken to find we have come to a stand still in mid-ocean. Peeping through porthole we find that search lights are playing all around.
Saturday 22nd
8 a.m. Still standing still - no land in sight anywhere - Man O'War to right of us. Just had breakfast - a very good one too - porridge, fried sole, Onions & Steak, Tomatoe, Omelette, Toast, Rolls, marmalade, Honey, Coffee or tea. 8.20 a.m. Sand sighted - Hooray! We seem to have been at sea weeks instead of hours.8.30 Just entering harbour - a sight not to be missed. From nearly every house overlooking the wharf are people waving anything from a handkerchief to a sheet & shouting a welcome. Our Tommies replied with one accord, & such a mighty "No!" to the query of are we downhearted from the Frenchmen. Our men's singing lustily of "Tipperary" as we pull into the inner harbour is great. On getting in we find the "Gloucester Castle" just crammed with Tommies also, and this ship by the way, we left behind us in Southampton. We have just heard that 20 of No. 8 Gen. Hosp. is reported lost - what a lie! Here we are just longing to steam ahead & wondering why we've been held up so long. The streets to be seen from harbour are a glorious sight - one mass of flags.10.30 Disembarking of troops & horses.11.35 The "Turcoman" loaded troops - highlanders - [?]. Other troop ships in harbour also - "Norseman", "Cawdor Castle". 12.30 Lunch - Soup, Cottage Pie, Veal, Curry, Salad, Pudding, Coffe, Apples. Matron has just arrived to say that we are to be billeted at Joan of Arc School & has taken four nurses with her, the rest are to await the return of the Taxi. Just down below is an amusing scene - which were I an artist I would like to put on canvas under the title "Tommy's first French lesson" - the R.H.A[5] men who have just disembarked are waiting under the sheds with their horses. The men look tired out & are lying about on the floor in all positions for the most part sleeping. Two little French boys come along & a Tommy whips a little "Parlez-vous Francais" book from his pocket & begins questioning the boys through this medium. They soon collect quite a crowd of Tommies all eager to pick up what French they can & the boys seat themselves on the floor & give them their first lesson. 3.45 At last leave dock & taxi to Jeanne d'Arc L'ecole which is some two miles distant. The Ecole d'la Jeanne d'Arc is evidently a Convent which has ben turned into a hospital for British Officers & pat of it is given over as sleeping room for nurses. What a sight to be sure! There are trunks to the right of us, trunks to the left of us, trunks everywhere in fact, on the terrace & it is with difficulty we manage to gain admittance to the building at all. Two hundred nurses are sleeping in this place. At last we gain the floor to which our 20 of the No. 8 Gen Hosp. are allocated & find that all of us are to sleep in a room which in the ordinary course of events would accommodate 2 persons. Already about 16 beds have been put up & they are so close together that we decide that it is impossible & encamp in the corridors. What a business it is putting up the beds to be sure. How we laugh. Easels prove good wardrobes & when they are crowded the rest of our clothing gets hung up on the floor. At last the beds are up and we decide to get some tea. So Easby & Simmons[6] go off & purchase food, whilst Gwatkins, Adam & I go in search of an ironmonger or locksmith as the padlocks on our kit bags have been broken en route & we wish to replace them. At last after a lot of haggling re price the locks are purchased. Adam who is a pretty good French linguist acts as interpreter & we trust to her honesty over the money question. Back to the school again to our picnic tea & plenty of merriment there is over it too. 7.10 p.m. We go to the Hotel Moderne in the Ave. Strasbourg for dinner, where the various hospitals & officers are being messed. Get lost coming back & have to ask the way of two Frenchmen. 9.30 p.m. To bed - Washing accommodation is very funny & it is marvellous what ingenuity one displays in getting a bath in private in a roomful of people - it can be done, but it takes a Sister in the Service to do it.
Sunday 23rd
Just a week since we started to get here. My first night on a campbed was not bad, although I had sundry struggles to keep myself in my rugs & off the cold surface of the bed. 8 o/c We refuse to get up, but "arise" as Adam puts it. Have breakfast in picnic fashion but we all agree the game is not worth the candle & in future will walk down to the Hotel for coffee & rolls. 10 a.m. Report ourselves at the Hotel Centrale, when Miss SuartCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag our new Matron & then go to the English Church. At lunch we hear that No. 8 is to be reunited & that we are not to leave our rooms until further orders. In the afternoon 12 "Tommy" nurses met over tea & the amount of gossip & talk of "things & bits" that went on was indeed very funny. Easy snapshotted the party. Upon coming out from dinner we see some poor refugees who had come into the town from Cambria - Poor old things they had no hats on their heads & just all they out cherished of this world's goods tied up in a bundle. It was pitiful to see them & we collected amongst ourselves & gave them some coins. On reaching the School we find ourselves in state of excitement. The PO headquarters have packed up and gone. No. 10's baggage is being taken away by the orderlies but they have no idea where they are going beyond the dock. The Sisters of No. 10 expect to get marching orders at any moment, the poor things have nowhere to lie down for the night & Adam finds one lying on two hard boxes with nothing to cover her, so takes Easby's big coat for her. We are told to be ready to go at 10 minutes notice & that the town is to be fortified & that all the General Hospitals are to leave the town within 24 hours. 10 p.m. We all turn in but do not feel inclined to sleep as we may be called up at any moment. We are indeed roughing it, Sisters sleeping on the floor outside the building - some with not even a rug to cover them.
Monday 31st
Unable to leave the School as we were awaiting orders, I altered my "party frocks". Afternoon we went & looked over a French School which had been turned into a Military Hospital - this was a most interesting visit. A sister took us over most of the wards which were small classrooms transformed & held from 9 to 10 beds. The patients of various nationalities - French, Negro, Arabian & Algerian - all looked very happy & well cared for & very proudly showed us bullets which had been removed from various parts of their bodies. They were busy eating their evening meal of bread & meat when we went in & most of them had fruit on their lockers & some were smoking. We took them some cigarettes with which they seemed very pleased. The Sister who showed us round was in charge of 59 its & had the help of two orderlies. The nurses wore military caps with a Red + in the front. We were very interested in the sterilising room & theatre. The head surgeon was busily arranging fruit & flowers for the patients but very graciously showed me around. The tins used for sterilising dressings are smaller than those used in England & are bound with different coloured strapping to indicate what kind of dressing is in the box. The instrument cupboard looked very similar to ours. The theatre was small but scrupulously clean & the surgeon said he averaged 4 to 5 ops daily, but only operated in the morning. There were between 3 to 4 hundred pats in the hospital. Gwatkins and I took one or two snaps of different wards. On our way to the hospital we fell in with two French regiments who were marching down the Rue Maillison with all their kit on their backs. An order was suddenly given causing the men to halt & left turn, & we found ourselves entrapped much to the amusement of soldiers and Sisters. There was an outburst of merriment from all & a gangway was made though which we passed to the saluting apologies of the Officer and men.One officer greatly admired or uniforms & remarked "Nice dresses" in English, much to our amusement. GWatkins took a snap of them.
