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
A Yeomanry officer, badly shot in both arms, had one hand still quite
useless; but I hope an operation may improve matters. He had had a
dreadful time in the jolting ambulance waggons, unable to hold on, or to
save himself with either hand.
Then, there was a young doctor who once, when our men were surprised and
many of them taken, was going round dressing the wounded, when some
Boers came up and shot the wounded as he was dressing them, and
afterwards led him out several times saying they were going to shoot
him, but eventually he got safely away. There were two officers shot
through the lungs, but I think they will recover in time; and there was
another young fellow shot in the region of the spine, and paralysed all
down one side and leg; and yet another (quite a boy) shot in the thigh
and paralysed on that side. Neither of these two could move without
assistance; and, though they were all wonderfully bright and cheerful, I
know I often found them lying awake for hours together, and it is hard
for a young Englishman to face the thought that he may never be able to
walk or ride again, even when he _has_ received his wound in defence of
his country.
As I finish this letter, we are just anchoring for the night in
Southampton Water, off Netley Hospital; and, curiously enough, it is
March 3rd, the very day I sailed for South Africa two years ago.
To-morrow we hope to land at Southampton.
After a little time at home, I hope to persuade a sister of mine to pay
a visit with me to another brother in the United States, and to some
relations in Canada and Nova Scotia; then I must settle down to some
steady work in England.
I would not have missed nursing through this war for a great deal. We
have often had rough times, and anxious times, and of course I have not
been able to do much, but I have been able to help a few men to recover
their health and strength; and, perhaps, also to help a few in their
last hours, men whose own relations would have given much to have been
in my place, where it was not possible for them to be. And, however
busy I was, I could at least find time to remind them that ... "God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more
_pain_."...
Still no one, who has not seen it, can realise the sorrow and the
suffering that war entails; and I am _almost_ inclined to agree with a
man who was in Kimberley during the siege, who helped Mr. Cecil Rhodes
in his work there, and who afterwards, when asked if he was not glad
that he had had the chance of assisting Mr. Rhodes in his great work,
said, "Yes, but when I think of all the suffering those unfortunate
women and children had to endure, I think if I was ever again in a
country where war was imminent, I should take a ship to the other side
of the world, and stop there till it was over!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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