Nurses serving in Moscow/St. Petersburg 1914-18

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

My great aunt, Maud Mary Carter, served as a qualified nurse in Russia in WW1 in Moscow and St. Petersburg area, possibly in a field hospital and flying column, and fled the October Revolution alone by train to Vladivostok and on by ship to USA and back to Balham, London. Correspondence was found in National Archives addressed to British Consulate Moscow sending her a remittance and asking her whereabouts.

Her name is not listed in the Red Cross index, apart from a similar namesake.  I hope to be able to trace her activities - my father was sole executor of her Will in 1950's and no further trace beyond census of 1901, living with her family near Paddington.  She never married.  The Anglo-Russian Hospital in St. Petersburg does not have her name listed.

Thank you for any assistance.

Sally Carter

[alf mcm]

Hello Sally,

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

Could this be your Great Aunt? http://www.redcross.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/History-and-origin/First-World-War/Card?sname=CARTER&hosp=RUSSIA&id=37630&first=true&last=true

 

Regards,

 

Alf McM

[ForeignGong]

There is a Mary M Carter listed in "The Forgotten Hospital", re the Anglo Russian Hospital.

 

Peter

[Chris_B]

Sally, 

 

What an amazing story, I wonder if an official report of the evacuation of the ARH was ever written, akin to that for the retreat of Part of the British Hospital Units from Serbia.

 

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022541588.0x000002#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-955%2C-175%2C4011%2C3490

 

There is an entry in the British Committee French Red Cross BW&V medal roll for one Sister Maude Carter

Reference:    WO 372/23/6849
Description:    
Medal card of Carter, Maude
Corps    Regiment No    Rank
French Red Cross        Sister

 

Edited 2 December , 2017 by Chris_B

[alf mcm]

20 hours ago, Chris_B said:

Sally, 

 

What an amazing story, I wonder if an official report of the evacuation of the ARH was ever written, akin to that for the retreat of Part of the British Hospital Units from Serbia.

 

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100022541588.0x000002#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-955%2C-175%2C4011%2C3490

 

There is an entry in the British Committee French Red Cross BW&V medal roll for one Sister Maude Carter

Reference:    WO 372/23/6849
Description:    
Medal card of Carter, Maude
Corps    Regiment No    Rank
French Red Cross        Sister

 

 

 This medal roll refers to service in France or Belgium. It shows that your Great Aunt continued serving abroad after returning from Russia.

 

It also shows that I picked the wrong person in #3, since Maude is clearly a trained Nurse.

 

There is a family tree on Ancestry which shows Maud Mary Carter, living in London with parents Henry Carter and Florence Mary Nunn. She married James Washington Epps in July 1901, which is why you can't find her in the 1911 census. {I am assuming this is who you were referring to in #2}.

 

Regards,

 

Alf McM

[Chris_B]

This medal roll refers to service in France or Belgium. It shows that your Great Aunt continued serving abroad after returning from Russia. 

 

Without feedback from Sally, I'd put this down as only a might be.  There is no "Maude Carter" listed in the appendix of this book: For dauntless France, an account of Britain's aid to the French wounded and victims of the war; published 1918.  https://archive.org/details/fordauntlessfran00biny

 

We have not been told if Sally was able to locate her great aunt in either the post-war (London) electoral rolls, the 1939 register, or any personal details of relevance in her will/probate record.  As I was born and lived in South London, I was intrigued to learn that when Miss Carter returned to UK after her experiences it was to Balham. 

[alf mcm]

This may be the correct Maud{e}

The 1939 Register has Maud Carter, retired S.R.N. Nurse living at Bratch Lane, Seisdon Registration District, Staffordshire, England. She is single, and living with 2 other single women, Harriett Moore and Gertrude M. Hinde. Maud declared a date of birth of 18^th February 1870.

She was born in Snenton Nottinghamshire according to 1871 census. Living in the Parish of Snenton with parents, James Tomlinson Carter, Sharebroker, and Harriett Carter, 3 siblings, an aunt and 2 servants.

In 1881 she was living at the ‘Royal Masonic Institution for Girls’ in Battersea, London.

Couldn’t find her in 1891 census.

Couldn’t find her in 1891 census.

 She died in Bilston, Staffordshire in June 1956.

1911 – Inspector of Midwives for the Borough Council. Living at St. Cloud, Penn Road, Penn, Wolverhampton, with widowed mother Harriett Carter, plus a sister and niece.

She also appears in the Midwives Roll up to 1935, and the England and Ireland Nursing Registers, showing she qualified as a Nurse at the Parish of Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary in 1897.

She died in Bilston, Staffordshire in June 1956.

 

Regards,

Alf McM

Edited 3 December , 2017 by alf mcm

[Chris_B]

Alf,

 

I applaud your efforts, but really Sally has in some ways told use very little about her Great Aunt, not even a D.O.B. to help ID a person.  We've no idea what sources she may have already searched, such as those you referenced or the nursing times archive or local newspapers of the time, etc.  If, and when, Sally returns to this thread things might progress.  

[James A Pratt III]

There are books:

"Caught in the Revolution" Helen Rappenport on accounts of Westerners in Petrograd in 1917

With the Armies of the Tsar about a British nurse in the Russian army

[James A Pratt III]

in the site scarlettfinders.org put up by the late Sue light did mention a number of books online on British nurses in WW I. If you look through them you might find one on them in Russia.

[MaureenE]

There are some chapters on Russia in the book, available online, at Archive.org.

https://archive.org/details/mywarexperiences00macnrich

My war experiences in two continents by Sarah  Macnaughtan 1919

 

The situation in Russia sounds very unorganised from a hospital/Red Cross post of view.

 

There is mention of the Anglo Russian Hospital in The Russian diary of an Englishman, Petrograd, 1915-1917

https://archive.org/details/russiandiaryofen00londiala

There is no author given, however  the author is stated elsewhere to be Albert Stopford ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Stopford )

 

 

The GWF topic Anglo Russian Hospital Badge may be of interest

 

Some links about the  Anglo-Russian Hospital

 

Article https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/a-forgotten-hospital-that-was-the-british-empires-gift-to-our-russian-allies/

A forgotten hospital that was the British Empire’s gift to our Russian allies by Alexander Chancellor. (c Apr 16, 2016)

...the Anglo-Russian Hospital of St Petersburg, founded by Lady Muriel Paget...

 

Photo of staff from British Library collection.  https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/anglo-russian-hospital-petrograd. The description refers to an article in  The British Journal of Nursing on 9 October 1915

 

IWM Photos http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/listing/object-205000355

 

https://library.leeds.ac.uk/treasures/display/1766

 

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/canada-nursing-sisters/Pages/dorothy-cotton.aspx Dorothy Cotton: Petrograd, Russia. Contains an online diary and digitised photographs.

 

http://www.edinburghs-war.ed.ac.uk/Moray/People/Isabella-Leonora-Mary-Emily-Grant. Isabella Leonora Mary Emily Grant was posted to the Anglo-Russian Hospital in Petrograd (now St Petersburg) in 1916.  ...they witnessed dramatic changes to the Russian way of life with the advent of the Bolshevik rule. The account is taken from the book Women of Moray: a celebration of the women of Moray and their contribution to history (Luath Press: Edinburgh, 2012)

 

Article https://blogs.fco.gov.uk/keithallan/2016/02/04/the-100th-anniversary-of-the-anglo-russian-hospital-in-st-petersburg-russia/ The 100th Anniversary of the Anglo-Russian Hospital in St Petersburg, Russia by Keith Allan.

 

Cheers

Maureen

[MaureenE]

There is a very brief mention that  Enid Eveleen Stoker was a VAD at the Anglo-Russian Hospital at Leningrad (St Petersburg)

 

There is a medal roll entry on Ancestry for Victory Medal and/or British War Medal, Theatres of War 3 {Russian Theatre] for service 1-11-15 to 7-16.

https://www.ancestry.com.au/interactive/5119/41629_636897_11276-00137?pid=3375063&backurl=https://search.ancestry.com.au/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D5119%26h%3D3375063%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3DMhR1%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=MhR1&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.198975660.2061034941.1561163658-1246332909.1560980454

 

Her father Thomas Stoker was in the Bengal Civil Service, and she was born in India on  6 May 1893, and baptised the same month at Naini Tal (findmypast record). She was related in some way to Bram Stoker who wrote Dracula.

 

In 1920 she married Negley Farson, an American who subsequently became a foreign correspondent, and she, but not details of her war experience, is mentioned in his  1936 autobiography The Way of a Transgressor by Negley Farson. There is  the very brief mention on page 544 of this edition

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.76543/page/n547 which says she went at 18, which cannot be correct.

 

There is is a photograph of her titled "The Crew" in  Sailing Across Europe by Negley Farson 1926

https://archive.org/details/sailingacrosseur00farsuoft/page/n7 Archive.org

This is a voyage they undertook in 1925 along European rivers and canals

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negley_Farson  Negley Farson   Wikipedia, has mention of her.

 

Cheers

Maureen

 

 

 

 

[Dever Mayfly]

There is an excellent memoir written by Florence Farmborough (Nurse At The Russian Front: A Diary 1914-18) which describes her time as a front line nurse before the revolution and her escape to HMS Suffolk at Vladivostok in 1918.  There seem to be a few of individuals who were not part of the organised British hospitals in St Petersburg set up by British ladies (Sybil Grey, Muriel Paget established the Anglo-Russian Hospital and Georgina Buchanan started the British Colony Hospital).  The latter's daughter (Meriel Buchanan) wrote a memoir (Ambassador's Daughter) which includes references to British nurses' work in Russia.