Don’ts
1. Don’t smoke after 9a.m. unless the Sister’s back is turned. You will make her envious.
2. Don’t forget to stand to your bed when the doctor comes into the ward, or he might think you are a patient.
3. Don’t lie on the bed in the daytime if you are not feeling too good: remember, the floor’s more comfortable.
4. Don’t play the gramophone after 8p.m. The Night Sister has to get some sleep.
5. Don’t shave more that twice a week. Your visitors are more likely to believe your
First Impressions
“We want to go to London,” shouted those of us in the ambulance train capable of vocal exertion: others less fortunate, among which I include myself, were content to express mute disapproval according to our several physical disabilities. “We want to go to London,” reiterated the malcontents, thereupon expressing a pleasing ignorance of that city’s boundaries by adding, “and Clapham Junction ain’t London.”
Anyhow, we all had to quit; I borne by two Red Cross stretcher be
An Intake of Wounded
The façade of the hospital is like a dark cliff rising into the blackness of the sky. At the base of the cliff, faintly illuminated by some stray beam of light from a partly-curtained window, stand a double line of figures in khaki – orderlies. They chat and joke in subdued voices. Some puff the surreptitious cigarette.
Suddenly there is a stir. Someone has caught sight of the lamps of the first ambulance, creeping at a snail’s pace along the road on the far side of
Immediately prior to mobilisation, members of the Territorial Force Nursing Service were working as nurses in ordinary civil hospitals and private houses. But if mobilised, they had a commitment to put their lives and jobs on hold, leave their homes, and report to their pre-arranged unit within 48 hours. This is Edith Holden's account of her first meeting with 3rd London General Hospital.
Matron's First Day
It was very hot, and I was just starting for a holiday (which I considered I needed
During the early days of August, 1914, we were hourly expecting the word “mobilise,” but we had to carry on as though war were a thing remote. The Unit accordingly went to Aldershot for the Annual Camp on the Saturday night of August 1st, and, having pitched tents and made the camp as comfortable as possible on the first day, we went to bed tired out. At 11p.m. on Sunday a telegram was handed to me ordering our immediate return to London. On Tuesday night, at 11 o’clock, another telegram arriv
A mention today of the 3rd London Gazette gave me the motivation I needed to become one of the Forum's little Bloggers. The Gazette is crammed full of wonderful descriptive pieces, which give great insight into the running of a Territorial General Hospital during the War, the staff and the patients. The text is all taken from the Gazette, with a certain amount of editing on my part to make it digestible. Unfortunately the photos, art work and cartoons can't be included, unless I can work out
