Miss Thurstan’s life with the workers of the motor ambulance unit was remarkable. They were always on the move, and only just behind the front trenches, using any available building as a hospital. At one place they worked in a theatre attached to a hunting-box belonging to the ex-Tsar, and of the work there Miss Thurstan wrote: “The scenery had never been taken down after the last dramatic performance, and wounded men lay everywhere between the wings and drop-scenes. The auditorium was packed so closely that you could hardly get between the men as they lay on the floor.” At another dressing station, established near the trenches, 750 patients passed through the hands of the small unit in little over twenty-four hours. Miss Thurstan was shortly afterwards wounded when attending to soldiers in the trenches; and as pleurisy developed later she had to give up work for a time and come home to England. Before leaving Russia she was awarded the medal of St. George “for courage and devotion.” In 1915 Miss Thurstan returned to Russia on work of a different character--to assist in organising the hospital units which were being sent from England to work among the refugees. For three months she travelled all through the country, inspecting the arrangements which had been made in Petrograd, Moscow, Kiev, Kazan, Nijni, and the remote districts to cope with the bewildering influx of over five million dazed and terrified people who fled from their homes before the great German advance into Russia. As a result of Miss Thurstan’s inquiries and the information which she was able to obtain, several units with doctors, nurses, and supplies were sent out to Russia, and have done fine work for the refugees. Help for these unfortunate victims of war was badly needed, for their numbers were so overwhelming and their condition so appalling, that, in spite of the noble effort made by the Russian authorities to cope with such an immense problem, many difficulties connected with the welfare of the refugees continued to arise. Writing of them, Miss Thurstan said: “Verily the English language lacks words to express the suffering that these people underwent, and nothing that we can imagine could be worse than the reality.” On returning to England Miss Thurstan was engaged for a time in organising and secretarial work for the National Union of Trained Nurses. She was then asked to accept the post of Matron at the Hôpital de l’Océan at La Panne in Belgium, where she is still on duty. This hospital has over 1000 beds occupied by patients of Belgian, French, English, German, and even Russian nationality. It is established five miles from the front, so the work is far more acute than is usual in a base hospital, the severest cases being dealt with straight from the trenches. Miss Thurstan presides over a staff of Belgian and English sisters and V.A.Ds. under Belgian doctors.