Photo of nurse's grave

[Michael]

I thought I'd share this with you

[Guest Pete Wood]

Obviously this nurse was a civilian....??

[Guest Pete Wood]

From the Times, Saturday 2nd September 1916....

[Jonathan Saunders]

Mick,

1) Jim Strawbridge will be interested in this.

2) Fancy a beer soon - we could dovetail it with an evening EuroChamps game somewhere?

Jon

[Sue Light]

Her civilian status [or not?] raises an interesting point about the staffing at St. Thomas' at that time. Although there had been no particular intention to use the hospital for soldiers, it's proximity to Waterloo Station meant that it soon began to receive large numbers of casualties. Early in 1915 the War Office decided to designate it 'No.5 [City of London] General Hospital, and in addition to using three of the wards, Florence, Alexandra and Seymour, six huts were built on the greens between the ward blocks, accommodating more than 600 men in total.

The wards and huts were all staffed by 'Nightingales' - past and present nurses of the hospital, transformed into Territorial Force nurses. The women who were probationers [student nurses] at the outbreak of war, were allowed to work on the three military wards, but not in the huts, but shortage of staff soon led to those probationers who had already completed three years training, to work a fourth year in the huts, in military uniform, as Territorial probationers. There were also some VADs working in all the wards and huts.

So if Miri Haines definitely does not have war grave status, it seems that she must have been a probationer in her first three years of training at St. Thomas', working on Florence, Alexander or Seymour - anything else would have made her 'military' in one way or another.

I shall now wait for Jim to come up with some amazing facts and prove me very wrong!

Sue