A Nurse's Life in War and PeaceLaurence, E. C. (Eleanor Constance)
History
A Nurse's Life in War and Peace
Laurence, E. C. (Eleanor Constance)
Military nursing; Nursing -- Great Britain; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Medical care
Really, if it was not that the men suffered for them, some of our
difficulties would be amusing. When this hospital was a "Field
Stationary" all the men had warm, grey flannel shirts; when it became a
"General" they were given instead white cotton shirts and white flannel
vests. That was all right at first, but recently the hospital has been
enlarged, and, though there are plenty of the cotton shirts, they have
run out of the flannel vests. Now the winter has begun, and we have many
men in with rheumatism and chest complaints, and the tents are very
cold, but the poor chaps are only given cotton shirts. I know there are
plenty of the old "greybacks" in the store, but because this is now
called a General Hospital they are not correct, and so cannot be issued,
and the men must wait till more vests arrive! We have all fussed about
it as much as we could, and we bought flannel shirts at the store for
our worst cases (a man is always most grateful for an extra shirt to
take with him when he goes away, so they won't be wasted), and now, at
last, the old greybacks have been dealt out. At last they have got some
boilers on wheels, so that we can get hot water in the tents; but _why_
should we have to wrestle so long to get things that make so much
difference to the health and the comfort of the men? The Lady
Superintendent is always saying that she does not know how we should
have done in Ladysmith; but we all reply that we should have tried to
make shift, but we can't see why we should have to "make shift" here
quite so much, with an open line to the base.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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