Indian Women in the First and Second World Wars

[Guest radhika]

Hi everyone

My name is Radhika and Im a post graduate student from India who's working on the experiences of Indian women during the two world wars. I'd appreciate any information you might be able to give me regarding Indian nursing units or Indian women in the army or navy.

Thanks so much in advance. I hope to get to know you guys better in the future.

Best wishes

Radhika

[christine liava'a]

Radhika, I don't know whether Indian women were at all involved in nursing in WW1. If they were, it was probably in Iraq or thereabouts.

I have been researching NZ nurses and one says in a letter that the European/ British nurses in France were not allowed to treat the Indian soldiers, who were looked after by male orderlies, some Indian, and some European. Whether this was common, I don't know.

One of my soldiers from Fiji, an Indian translator, served in Basra, and returned with a wife, but whether she was involved with anything military I don't know

W Rajah Gopaul Naidu

King George’s Own Rifles, Sappers & Miners

2nd Queen Victoria’s Sappers & Miners

Indian interpreter

Fiji Civil Service Interpreter;

served Basra, Mesopotamia

returned to Fiji September 1919 with wife.

No Indian women in Fiji did anything other than help raise money for various Funds, including the Indian Soldiers Fund. Perhaps women in India also helped in this way, or even ran this type of Fund.

Christine

[Glosters]

Interesting question. In a report on Indian Army hospitals in Britain (Sept. 1915) it states:

"In a paper read at the Sessional Meeting of the Conference convened by the Royal Sanitary Institute at Brighton, on September 3rd, Major S. P. James, M.D., D.P.H., I.M.S., of the Kitchener Hospital, Brighton,

stated that it is equipped to accommodate over 2,000 patients, and is run by officers of the Indian Medical Service, with a staff of assistant surgeons and sub-assistant surgeons belonging to the Indian Subordinate Medical Department, and a personnel numbering about 400, comprising Indian nursing orderlies, storekeepers, writers, cooks, water carriers, conservancy sweepers, and 3 other followers. Among hospitals

in England it is unique in the absence of female assistance, even the laundry work being done by Indian washermen specially brought for this purpose."

That suggests that the Indian Army did not employ female Indian nurses?

Regards,

Steve

[Guest radhika]

Hi

Thanks so much for the information, Christine and Steve. It's been a great help.

I do know that there was a Temporary Nursing Service for Indian Soldiers (TINS) set up during the First World War. As far as i know, they followed Indian soldiers around the zones of combat in the Middle East- Aden, Mesopotamia and Egypt. This was followed by the establishment of the Indian Military Nursing Service on 1st October 1926. As recognition of their good work during the Second World War, they were made a part of the Indian Army on September 15th 1943. I was hoping to find some mention of their work in books on war nurses but ive had no luck so far. I'm spending time in the archives hoping to unearth some memoirs.

There was also a Women's Auxiliary Corps, India set up during the Second WW. This was the Indian equivalent to the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS). There was also a Women's Royal Indian Naval Service (WRINS) I'd appreciate any information about these organizations if anyone has any.

Thanks again

Radhika

[Jonathan Saunders]

This probably doesnt help you but just to clarify the position with Indian soldiers wounded on the Western Front with "Blighty" wounds.

According to Corrigan's "Sepoy in the Trenches" there were 6 Indian Militray Hospitals - all established on the south coast of England. Interestingly the largest military hospital in England (and Britain?) was the Kitchener Indian Military Hospital at Brighton. They were manned by RAMC and all-male VAD personnel. Quoting from Corrigan "...it being considered that females would be out of place in an Indian unit."

[Guest radhika]

Hi Jonathan

Thanks for the clarification. I guess that narrows down their field of operation to the Middle East.

[Jonathan Saunders]

One thing I would add, but it is more of a question in my head, and that is that in 1914 there was a large Indian population in London and possibly other British cities.

I have heard of Indian women of this time working as midwifes ie some experience in nursing albeit of a specific kind.

I wonder whether any of these Indian women, as individuals, would have worked in the abundance of official and unofficial military hospitals that were set up post August 1914, to nurse wounded soldiers.

Whether this would fall in the scope of your study and how you could go about gaining information, I dont know. However you might want to store it away in the back of your mind incase you do find something that would fit this.

[Guest radhika]

Thanks for the input. I'm looking primarily at the experiences of women from India but that sounds like something i'd like to look into in the future.

[Sue Light]

Radhika

I think you need to set a clear division between women working in military medical establishments for British soldiers, and those for Indian soldiers.

Since the second half of the nineteenth century there had been an 'Indian Nursing Service' made up of British nurses of rather genteel background, who nursed British soldiers and their families in British military hospitals in India. When the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service [QAIMNS] was formed in 1902, it tried to combine the Army Nursing Service, and the Indian Nursing Service, but the India Office would not accept the terms and conditions of service for their nurses, and it faltered. The Indian service became 'Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service India' [QAMNSI] and remained autonomous. The criteria for entry were strict, and the women must have had three years nurse training in an approved general hospital.

This service continued until 1926, at which time it combined with QAIMNS, and became one service. I assume that it was at this point that a separate Indian service was formed locally. But I have never seen any mention of Indian women working as nurses in British military hospitals - not in Britain, or India or places like Mesopotamia or Egypt. The hospitals were staffed totally by British female trained nurses, and male orderlies, both British and Indian.

During WW1 there were several hospitals for Indian troops in England, with Indian staff, and there was a lot of unrest about British women being used in these hospitals - it was thought inappropriate that they should make themselves 'subservient to native troops.' This situation ended in November 1915, when the hospitals in England closed, and from then on all Indian troops were nursed elsewhere - mainly in 'Indian' hospitals in France.

In January 1915, Miss Watt, the Lady Superintendent of Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service India, arrived in France with 15 Sisters, who had been requested by the War Office to boost the staff in hospitals for Indian troops in France. On reflection this seems a bit short-sighted, as it soon became clear that although these nurses were efficient and well-trained, several of them were not willing to nurse 'native troops' - despite normally working in India, they were only required to nurse British men and their families while there. Many of these women continued to work in areas that were more acceptable - particularly in the operating theatres. All this sounds extraordinary now, but I do have written official sources to back it up. Eventually, Miss Watt and her Sisters left France in November 1915, and from then on served with the Meditarranean Expeditionary Force, mainly in Egypt and Mespot. There were certainly some British, Canadian, Australian trained nurses who continued to serve in the Indian hospitals on the Western Front after the 'Indian Sisters' left, but I have never seen a reference to Indian women working there as nurses.

After the war, and after the amalgamation of the QAIMNS and QAMNSI in 1926 [sorry, confusing!] the British Hospitals in India remained free of Indian women. I have a photo in front of me of the staff of the British Military Hospital, Ambala, Punjab in 1936, which is a mixture of British trained nurses, RAMC doctors and orderlies, and a large number of Indian orderlies, all Sikhs, with the text saying:

..... included in the photograph are Ward Stewards, Cooks and Orderlies as well as 10 Sweepers, 4 Dhobi, and 6 Water Carriers.

But even at that stage there are no Indian women, although of course, local women may well have been used for other duties around the hospital.

So my guess is that Indian women were resolutely excluded from nursing in British Military Hospitals, and British military nurses were similarly excluded from Indian hospitals. I would think that you search for Indian women must centre on Indian hospitals in India and in other parts of the Middle and Far East.

Sorry for so many repetitions of 'Indian'

Sue

[Guest radhika]

Hi Sue

Thank you so much for all that information. It's cleared up a lot of stuff in my head. Just one question. Would you happen to know whether the TINS was different from the QAMNS (I)? If so, was the former composed of Indian nurses meant to nurse Indian troops? I'm aware that the staff in 'Indian' hospitals in Europe was mostly male, given the multiple tensions that surfaced with the question of white nurses staffing these hospitals. But i read an history of the Indian Military Nursing Service which clearly states that 60 temporary nurses followed around Indian troops in Aden, Mesopotamia and Egypt. I'll also try and re-confirm this when i make a trip to the archives later this week.

Thanks again

Radhika

[Sue Light]

Radhika

You've jogged my brain now. I don't know what exactly TINS was, as I've never come across that acronym, but there was definitely a 'Temporary Nursing Service, India' prior to 1903, which then became Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service Indian (Temporary) or QAMNSI (T). I don't know if there were Indian nurses in the service, because it's not something I've ever looked for. I research women who joined the regular Army Nursing Service/QAIMNS up to 1926, and when they apply, particularly in the latter end of that period, some give as part of their previous experience 'QAMNSI(T) - but I've only come across British trained nurses in that context.

I don't know if you've searched the British Journal of Nursing, but I've just done a search for 'Indian Nursing Service' and lots of good stuff appears - and I saw some references to employment of Indian nurses, but haven't had time to look at them in depth. The search page is at:

British Journal of Nursing

and then use the link to 'Search Journals' and put aside a year or two of your time

I'd be really interested in your findings - because QAMNS(I) was not part of QAIMNS, there really doesn't seem to be much official information around - plenty on conditions of service etc., but very little on what was actually happening in the hospitals. The inclusion of Indian nurses on the staff had never occurred to me, and it would be fascinating to find out more.

Sue

[Guest radhika]

Hey Sue

Thank you soo much for the link. You've just made my day. lol. I'm looking through the search results as i type this. I'll definitely keep you updated on what i find.

Take care

Radhika

[royalredcross]

OK, now that Sue has done the bulk of the work, I can chuck in my ten cents worth. The whole story of the Temporary Nursing Service is simply a monument to Indian government parsimony.

Sue has mentioned the small number of nurses sent to France in 1914 and also that they returned fairly smartly either to India or to Mesopotamia. With a few nurses absent here it was obvious that the normal strength QAMNSI would not be able to cope at home so a large number of Australian nurses were lent to Indian military hospitals and paid by Australia. Members serving anywhere with the QAIMNS, QAIMNS Reserve or TAFNS were, of course, paid by the British. The shortfall of nurses was made up by nurses recruited mostly in the UK but some, I believe, in India on temporary 6 months contracts. The vast majority of these nurses were British or of British extraction though I think there may have been some Eurasians. I am almost 100% sure there were no Indian nurses.

Do you see how wonderful all this is ?? The Indian Government has now gained approval for its support of the war in France ( a few nurses quickly withdrawn). Even though Mespotamia was considered an Indian Theatre of War, it was staffed predominently by British paid QA QA® and TFNS nurses. The war hospitals opened in India were staffed by Australian paid Australian nurses. How to look good and save money at the same time.

The Aussies had to fight through 1920 to get their nurses back and the Indian govt continued to use temporaries for many years after the war because they were not pensionable. (Money again) Some of the temporaries like Jenny Hermon and Haidee N'Roi did 6 month contract after 6 months contract for years.

Finally, the Indian govt. had to do something for the Indian soldier and in 1926 they invented the Nursing Service for Indian Troops Hospitals, a pensionable nursing service. Many of the old temporaries immediately piled into that as they were allowed to count previous service. The service was renamed within about a year and became the Indian Military Nursing Service. Even then, I do not believe it contained Indian women.

Hope this helps.

Norman

[Frank_East]

Radhika, a woman of Indian extraction who served Great Britain with distinction during the Second World War.

Section Officer Noor (Nora) Inayat Khan of the WAAF (Womens Auxilliary Air Force) lost her life when serving with the SOE (Special Operations Executive) during the Second World War in occupied France.She was a Radio Operator, code named (Madeleine) and had been seconded to WTS (Womens Transport Service)and attached to F.A.N.Y (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry).She was a member of the SOE circuit Cinema -Phono but was betrayed to the Germans for the equivalent of £500 after 4 months in the field.After being held at Pforzheim prison for almost a year where she gave away nothing to the Germans,she was sent to Dachau.It has been suggested that she was tortured at both Pforzheim and Dachau. She was murdered in Dachau on 12 September 1944 and has no known grave but she is remembered on the Air Force Memorial at Runnymede.

Noor was the daughter of Hazrat Inayat Khan a famous Indian musician who had also introduced Sufi philosophy to the West and was working on a musical in Moscow at the time of her birth in August 1914.Her mother was an American, a niece of the Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy.On the onset of the Russian Revolution,the family fled to France and settled in Suresnes,Paris but in 1940 left France for England.Noor spoke French as a native and was also fluent in German.Postwar records indicate her mother lived in Oxford.

To the French, Noor is remembered as a Resistance heroine and her memory lives on with the naming of a square in Suresnes as the "Cours Madeleine".Her posthumous awards include the Croix de Guerre,the George Cross.I think she also was awarded the MBE.

There was a number of F.A.N.Y personnel serving in support on the Western Front during the Great War.Whether there was some Indian personnel among them I do not know,perhaps others may.

.

[Guest radhika]

Hey Frank and Norman

Sorry for the very late reply but i havent been online in a while. Norman, thank you so much for that bit of information. I had no idea and i'll follow this up in the next few weeks. Frank, thank you so much as well. Noor Inayat Khan is pretty much a legend. I think she's fascinating...

Thank you both again. Take care

Radhika

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Radhika

This may be of interest. Clicking on the thumb-nail pictures will show an enlarged view.

Dave

http://www.wewerethere.mod.uk/women.html

[Ronald J. Jack]

Norman. Thanks for that fascinating explanation.

"Radhika" may have dismissed it as a "bit" of information,

but it is more than that. She knows it. She will keep it

in mind as she does her thing.

The more I study this war, the more I come to realize

just how much it cost our mutual societies - in perpetuity.

Making a baby is one night of fun, and twenty years of

financial commitment. WW1 was 4 years of fighting

and over 80 years of carrying the debts, plus the political

fallout. Canada still has a whole government ministry

created to service Great War veterans; It still exists

even though there are only a half dozen CEF vets left.

Income Tax came in as a "temporary measure" in WW1.

Nothing has changed in a century.

Now we often send RCMP officers to war zones so they can

collect extra pension points. Our fireman visit disaster

zones for 24 hours so they can later plead exposure to hazardous

or noxious materials. Compensation. Pensions. La,la,la.

To quote E. Scrooge, "I'll retire to Bedlam ! "

Cheers!

Ron in Vancouver

[petestarling]

Hi everyone

My name is Radhika and Im a post graduate student from India who's working on the experiences of Indian women during the two world wars. I'd appreciate any information you might be able to give me regarding Indian nursing units or Indian women in the army or navy.

Thanks so much in advance. I hope to get to know you guys better in the future.

Best wishes

Radhika

Radhika

I was involved with the making of the documentary 'Chatri' some years ago and my research conclusions were that in the main females did not nurse Indian sick and wounded. At the Pavillion in Brighton even British nurses were not allowed to nurse them and all nursing duties were carried out by males.

Pete Starling