ANZAC',nutses This'lliear,rnarks 100 years since the ANZAC offensive at Gallipo!i. As the soldiers fought at the front lines, behind thb,scenes:nurses undertook their own battle - keeping alive the'many wounded soldiers who came into their care. Jessiea Gadd shares some of their stories.
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Dawn 25 April 191 5: the ANZAC trooPs landed at Anzac Cove, charged with the task of capturing one of two Turkish forts located on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The troops soon realised that the campaign would be much more di{ficult than first thought: the fierce resistance they encountered resulted in a stalemate that would last for eight months, with heavy losses incurred on both sides.
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Treating the ANZAC casuaities ferried from the peninsula to the hospital ships were allied nurses, among them Sister Ella Tucker Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), who records on that fateful April morning on board the hospital ship Gascon just seven nurses treated 557 patients with "shells bursting all around". "The wounded from the landing commenced to come on board at 9am and poured into the ship's wards from barges and boats," Sister Tucker wrote. "The majority still had on their field dressing and a number of these were soaked through. Two orderlies cut off the patient's clothes and started immediately with dressings. There I
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were 76 patients in my ward and I did not finish until 2am." (quoted in Baker 1989). ln May, a month later, Sister Tucker was still becoming accustomed to the ghastly nature of her duties on board. The wards were crowded and poorly ventilated, particularly on the lower decks, and both nurses and patients often suffered from seasickness. In her diary she records:
"Every night there are two or three deaths, sometimes five or six; it's just awful flying from one ward into another ... each night is a nightmare, the patients' faces all look so pale with the flickering ships lights." (quoted in Baker 1989).
Another nurse to work with the Gallipoli casualties, Sister Alice Kitchen, was horrified by the conditions endured by the soldiers before they received treatment. On 12 August 1915, she wrote in her diary: "To leave injured soldiers in the blazing sun for days without dressing their wounds or giving them water is mass murder. Our
poor boys. lf only the world knew how badly they are treated." (quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald 2004).
Serving on hospital ships brought the Australian nurses into close contact with the fighting at Gallipoli. Although the Turkish and German forces generally refrained from attacking the hospital ships, they occasionally did come under fire and in one case a bullet narrowly missed a nurse, Daisy Richmond, who stepped aside just in time to avoid being fatally shot - the bullet instead hitting one of the patients in the leg.
Wounded soldiers were generally only on the hospital ships for a short time before being transferred to stationary hospitals - initially in Alexandria, 1,050km away in Egypt - and then on the Greek lsland of Lemnos, much closer at just 60km by ship, where a number of hospitals were established by countries such as Britain, Canada and Australia. Records show that at least 130 Australian nurses were stationed on Lemnos. About 25 of these served in the second Australian General Hospital; the rest served at the third Australian General Hospital, known as 3rd AGH. Both hospitals were located on the Western Shore of Lemnos' Mudros Bay, one of the largest natural harbours in the eastern Mediterranean. a*m{.org.au
INJUSTTwoMONTHS,FROMAUGUSTToOCTOBER, irCr AND 37,OOO WOUNDED WERE EVACUATED FROM TH E BEAC H Es oF .frHi|Txl.Jir#kJ5?
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would prove as much a danger to the soldiers as fighting on the front line: diggers were as likely to die from dysentery aM dehydration as they were from bullet or shrapnel wounds. There was little or no triaging on the piers at Anzac Cove in the firstmonths of the campaign - it was often a first come, first serve basis when it came to getting on to the hospital or transport ships off the peninsula. lllness
"Unlike the few official hospital ships, the transports were often filthy, having carried horses and mules, and they were known as 'black ships' - legitimate targets because they could be carrying soldiers or
ammunition," explains historian Jim Claven'
Despetole doYs Nurses experienced many
of the same
privations the soldiers experienced,
including the terror of being under attack, harsh climatic conditions, inadequate water and food supplies, overwork due to understaffing, dysentery, and the psychological repercussions of enduring the horrors of war. One of their biggest challenges was to maintain good cheer for the benefit of their patients, despite often being unable to do much to help them or ease their suffering. This frustration was felt keenly by Brisbaneborn Matron Grace Wilson, who was en route to serve in France with the entire
3rd AGH unit when a request for further assistance treating the wounded from Gallipoli saw them transferred to Lemnos' They arrived on 8 August only to learn that although their medical supplies had not yet arrived, wounded soldiers were alreidy awaiting their care, lined up on the bare hillside above the bay. Matron Wilson records the hospital's desperate first days: Found 150 patients lying on whatever " ' - no equipment had no water to drink or wash. Still no water .. ' convoy 10 August arrived at night and used up all our private things, soap etc, tore up clothes ffor
9 August
-
the ground
bandagesl.
about ConvoY arrived 11 August .. whatever ' Just laid no equipment 400 gave them a and ground on the men the
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-
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drink. Very many badty shattered, nearly all stretcher cases ... Tents were erected over them as quickly as possible ' ' - All we can do is feed them and dress their wounds " ' A good many died .. - tt is iust too awful one could never describe the scenes - could only wish all I knew to be killed -outright. (quoted in Bassett 1992) It would be nearly three weeks before the promised supplies arrived, during which time the nurses cared for the wounded with no sanitation and almost no water, using their own torn-up petticoats for bandages. Once the hospital tents did arrive, the nurses had to learn new skills in keeping them upright, for they were often blown over during wild weather' These skills mastered, and supplies finally in hand, the nurses at 3rd AGH were tending
to more than 900 wounded by the end of August, and they managed to achieve an overall mortality rate of lust 2.5% during the hosPital's time on Lemnos.
"To give an idea of scale, in iust two months, from August to October, 57,000 sick and 37,000 wounded were evacuated from the beaches of Gallipoli to the allied hospitals on Lemnos, and from August more than 100,000 casualties were shipped from Mudros to other medical facilities in Egypt, Malta and England," saYs Mr Claven. "Despite these numbers and a
scarcity of medical supplies, some 98% of the patients recovered. The main way they achieved this was through sanitation The nurses helped patients stabilise and recover largely by maintaining cleanliness and
good hydration. "The nurses were commended at the time by Australia's senior medical commander; Lieutenant General Featherstone, who wrote: 'l believe that the hospital would have collapsed without the nurses They all worked like demons and were led and guided by Miss Wilson"'
After the evacuation of Gallipoli, 3rd AGH and its staff were transferred to Abbassia, Egypt. ln 1916 Matron Wilson was reiommended for the Royal Red Cross, First Class for 'distinguished service in the field', among other honours (Bassett 1 992)'
Grave
of
Nurse Clarice DaleY E
Love linds o woy What's an ANZAC nurse to do when her former beau shows uP in an armY hospital off GalliPoli? She marries him,
of course!
Third Australian General Hospital nurse Clarice DaleY, {rom Box Hill, Melbourne, married Sergeant Ernest Lawrence on Lemnos on 21 October 1915. The marriage was witnessed by
Matron Grace Wilson, who must have turned a blind eye to the rules because Sister DaleY remained on Lemnos working as a nurse (at the time. murri"i*om"n were not Permitted to nurse) until Gallipoli was evacuated' Sergeant Lawrence continued to serve until he returned to Australia in late '1 91 8. The two are buried together at Melbourne's St Kilda cemetery'
Aprit 2015 Vo!ume 22, No.g anmf.crg"au
and
rnest Lawrence, St Kilda Cemetery' PhotograPh Jim Claven, 201 4' Sergeant
COMMEMORATING THE
WWI NURSES'SERVICE IS ONE OF THE MAIN
INTENTIONS BEHIND A MEMORIAL STATUE THAT WILL BE ERECTED LATER THIS YEAR IN MELBOURNE'S ALBERT PARK, NOT FAR FROM PRINCES PIER, WHERE MANY OF AUSTRALIA'S NURSES AND DIGGERS MADE THEIR DEPARTURE. The Minister and witnesses gather around the
bride
and
groom after their wedding at
the Church camp, West Mudros [Lemnos]. 21 October 1915.
Women ol wol The Australian War Memorial reports over 3,000 civilian nurses volunteered for active service during WWI, many of them through the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), which was formed in 1903 as part of the Australian Army Medical Corps. Overall during WWI more than 2,000 AANS members served overseas alongside Australian nurses working with other organisations, such as the Queen Alexandra's lmperial M ilitary N ursing Service (QAIMNS), the Red Cross, or privately sponsored facilities, and 423 served in hospitals in Australia. During the war 25 of
these nurses died and 388 were honoured for their service (Australian War Memorial). The Gallipoli campaign began to wind down in December 191 5, with all of the troops and medical staff evacuated by January 1916. Many of the nurses who served at Gallipoli went on to serve elsewhere in the war - Matron Grace Wilson would even go on to serve in WWll. Dr Kirsty Harris, author of More than bombs and bandages: Australian Army nurses at work in World War l(Big Sky Publishing, 201 1), says that while many military nurses had been given the opportunity to develop a wider set of nursing skills and roles. it is not obvious that they were able to use them in civilian nursing on their return.
"Certainly, military theatre nurses had a greater knowledge of trauma management and emergency operations, useful for dealing with increasing numbers of casualty
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April 2015 Volume 22. No.g
patients from vehicle and industrial accidents," Dr Harris writes in her essay Work, Work, Work: Australian Army Nurses after the First World Vllar "War nurses were able to carry out anaesthetics, surgical work and dispensing, normally the domain of other medical professionals." Dr Harris points out that while some historians believe that the AANS set the standards for Australian hospital nursing after WWl, on return many nurses actually left hospital nursing and went on to pioneer other fields such as infant welfare, repatriation nursing, industrial and school nursing. Many would also go on to open private nurses' homes.
"lt is evident that army nurses did not draw significant attention to their military nursing. From a historical perspective, many were singularly silent or'self-forgetful'," Dr Harris writes. "Others related that'no words could adequately describe'the great services they rendered, so they also said nothing. Not enough is known about these First World War days of military nursing - as an article in the Victorian nursing journal Una in 1911 recorded, they might well be called 'the Silent Service'. " Commemorating the WWI nurses' service is one of the main intentions behind a memorial statue that will be erected later this year in Melbourneb Albert Park, not far from Princes Pier, where many of Australia's nurses and diggers made their departure. The memorial's other intention is to celebrate the island of Lemnos' connection with the nurses and soldiers who served at Gallipoli.
"
Despite the hardships, Australians
obviously had good memories of their time on Lemnos," Historian Jim Claven says. "There were many streets and houses across Australia called Lemnos or Mudros - and there5 even a soldier settlement town called Lemnos near Shepparton, in Victoria. There is evidence that the famous Simpson's donkey was from Lemnos. lt's a story that needs to be told."
The Lemnos GalliPoli Memorial is planned to be unveiled at Albert
Park,8 August,2015, the centenary of the arrival of the Australian nurses on Lemnos. For more information: http://lemnosgallipolicc. blogspot.com.au/ Rererence: Australian War Memorial: Great War nurses
www.awm.gov.au/exhibiiions/nurseilttwl
I
Australian War Memoriai, Royal Red Cross, Frrst Class: N/atron G M Wilson, 3 Australian General Hospital: www.awm.qov.aulcollectioniRELAWM3 1 B 1 6 002/ Barker, M.,(1989) Nightingales in the Mud: The Digger Sisters of the Great War, 1914-1918 www.anzacsite
gov.aulsenvironment/nurses. html Bassett J.,(1 992) Guns and Brooches : Australian Army nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War, p.46 www.anzacsite. gov.aul5environ menVnurses.htmi Harris K., 'Work, work, work: Australian Army nurses after World War l', in Martin Crotty (ed.) When the Sol diers Return: November 2007 Conference Proceedings, School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 2009, pp 183-193'
Time to Salute our unsung heroes: The Sydney Morning Herald, nlA4/2A04 wmv.smh com.au/ arlicles/TAohl A4l 1 1 I 1 OBl 62 1 83517 9. html ?f rom=storyrhs% 26oneclick=truE
anmf .org,au
