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Remembered Today:

Funeral Nursing Sister Gladys Maude Mary Wake, Etaples, 22 May 1918


ejwalshe

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THANK YOU for sharing this!!

 

M.

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  • 6 months later...

Me again… at 5:15, there is a quote by one Kenneth Cameron, saying "Sister W… dying out on the hillside, and knowing it, yet beggin them not to bring stretcher bearers into that inferno, when it could not save her"

Does anybody know who that man was, and eventually have some reference???

 

M.

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16 hours ago, Marilyne said:

Me again… at 5:15, there is a quote by one Kenneth Cameron, saying "Sister W… dying out on the hillside, and knowing it, yet beggin them not to bring stretcher bearers into that inferno, when it could not save her"

Does anybody know who that man was, and eventually have some reference???

 

M.

 

I have not seen this quote before. Can we be sure that he is talking about Sister Wake? I only ask because she was a casualty of the bombing of 1 Canadian General Hospital, Doullens. The remark pointedly mentions that she was out "on a hillside".

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18 hours ago, Marilyne said:

Me again… at 5:15, there is a quote by one Kenneth Cameron, saying "Sister W… dying out on the hillside, and knowing it, yet beggin them not to bring stretcher bearers into that inferno, when it could not save her"

Does anybody know who that man was, and eventually have some reference???

 

M.

I would guess the quote is in this history

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/history-no1-general-hospital-canadian-expeditionary-force

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Jim Strawbridge said:

 

I have not seen this quote before. Can we be sure that he is talking about Sister Wake? I only ask because she was a casualty of the bombing of 1 Canadian General Hospital, Doullens. The remark pointedly mentions that she was out "on a hillside".

 

The No 3 Canadian General Hospital was at Doullens

The three  Canadian nursing sisters killed there on the 29th May were:-

D.M.Y.Baldwin

E.L. Pringle

A Macpherson

 

These three are interred at Bagneux British Cemetery Gezaincourt

 

N/Sister Wake succumbed to her wounds on the 21st May 1918 as the film shows only one coffin it is probably her funeral.

 

The Canadian Film Board had a film of the mass funerals following the raid on the 19th but all previously posted links are dead, a much edited segment is at 3.51 of this film made in 2008

https://www.nfb.ca/film/front-lines-nurses-at-the-front/

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, kenf48 said:

I would guess the quote is in this history

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/history-no1-general-hospital-canadian-expeditionary-force

 

 

 

 

The No 3 Canadian General Hospital was at Doullens

The three  Canadian nursing sisters killed there on the 29th May were:-

D.M.Y.Baldwin

E.L. Pringle

A Macpherson

 

These three are interred at Bagneux British Cemetery Gezaincourt

 

N/Sister Wake succumbed to her wounds on the 21st May 1918 as the film shows only one coffin it is probably her funeral.

 

The Canadian Film Board had a film of the mass funerals following the raid on the 19th but all previously posted links are dead, a much edited segment is at 3.51 of this film made in 2008

https://www.nfb.ca/film/front-lines-nurses-at-the-front/

 

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ken, you have gone off on a tangent to what I was pointing at. I wrongly mentioned Doullens instead of Etaples which hasn't helped. The quote implies that Sister W was out on the hillside in a bad way and shouting that stretcher bearers should not risk their lives in getting to her. My point is that she died from injuries from the bombing of 1 Canadian General Hospital. The hospital, whether buildings or tented, is unlikely to be on a hillside. And she is unlikley to have been away from her hospital duties to be in a situation where she was alone and needed to shout to anyone. So my point is whether the Sister W was, in fact, Sister Wake or someone else. It probably was Sister Wake but there is an element of doubt in my mind that I am trying to brush away.   

Edited by Jim Strawbridge
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This is the page from No 1 Canadian Hospital war diaryScreenshot 2019-12-05 at 18.52.46.pngI would agree 'on the hillside' has more than a little licence.  The hospital was hutments rather than tented and located adjacent to the railway line, which was a key target for the German bombers.  N/Sister Wake may have been in her quarters rather than the hospital itself.  What is in little doubt is that Sister wake was rescued and admitted to a hospital where she succumbed to her wounds on the 21st.

The funerals of those killed in the raid took place that day as the war diary records

Screenshot 2019-12-05 at 18.59.37.pngNot sure which tangent you think I went off on, but hope this helps to set your mind at rest

 

Ken

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Ken, thank you for your reply. The tangent is that you have provided good information about Sister Wake and her funeral. My question specifically was to say that can we be sure that it is Sister Wake that Nursing Sister Mabel Clint reported on hearing ? Even she made a supposition (see the narrative). The photographs available of the bombed out hospital does not suggest that it is on a hillside. And why did she have to cry out for her to be left when she would likely have been in the middle of the action with medical staff all around?  I accept that it was most probable that it was Sister Wake but we should allow a little room for doubt.

 

The quote. by the way, Marilyne probably found here. As an aside, I put the photographs of the funerals of Sister Lowe and Sister Wake together side by side. The saluting officer in the centre seems to be the same man in both and similarities between both funerals although taken about a week apart, are remarkable. The buglers, one a short, kilt-wearing Scot, are also the same. But I am not suggesting that they are the same funeral with different notations for they are obviously not.

 

http://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1358&context=cmh

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Gents, 

 

Thanks for your answers.

I have since found a way to consult Mabel Clint's diary and for me there is no doubt that she is talking about sister Wake... the whole thing is a bit melodramatic, but let's say that's for the sake of litterature... 

As for the hill... maybe it was a dune?? After all, the word "hill" might have a different connotation depending on where you're from... 

 

have a nice WE!! 

 

M.

 

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