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A NURSE'S LIFE IN WAR AND PEACE

BY

E. C. LAURENCE, R.R.C.

AUTHOR OF "MODERN NURSING IN HOSPITAL AND HOME"

WITH A PREFACE BY

SIR FREDERICK TREVES, BART.
G.C.V.O., C.B., LL.D.


LONDON
SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1912

[All rights reserved]


Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh




PREFACE


The charm of these letters, it will at once be found, depends upon their
simplicity, their artlessness, their obvious candour. They present a
plain, untinted account of a nurse's career, of the difficulties she has
to face, and the problems she has to solve. Those who wish to know
something of a nurse's life and times will find in this writing a
convincing narrative, unemotional and matter-of-fact.

This is no small merit, since the record of nursing experiences is apt
to be blurred by exaggeration or made nauseous by sickly romance. There
is pathos enough in the sick-room and in the presence of death, but
those who come in touch with it would do better to hush the knowledge in
their hearts, rather than to proclaim it on the house-tops. Apart from
this, the world must be a little weary of the astute sick child who
lisps melodrama into the ear of the "kind nurse," as well as of the
bizarre aphorisms of the dying tramp.

The faults of management and lapses of discipline which crop up
incidentally in the story are now matters of the past, and are no longer
to be found in either the "Children's Hospital" or the "General."

The novice who is entering the profession of Nursing will find in these
letters a sensible and exact view of the prospect that lies before her.
She may further glean some insight as to the qualifications of the good
nurse. These qualifications are to be expressed neither by certificates
nor by badges, neither by starched uniforms nor by examination results.
They are happily beyond the mechanical gauge of any examiner, and above
the platitudes of the official testimonial.

Of the perfect nurse it may be said that "her price is far above
rubies," and that her place is high in the company of admirable women.
She is versed in the elaborate ritual of her art, she has tact and sound
judgment, she can give strength to the weak and confidence to the faint
at heart, she has that rarest sight which can see the world through the
patient's eyes, and she is possessed of those exquisite, intangible,
most human sympathies which, in the fullest degree, belong alone to her
sex.

                                                       FREDERICK TREVES.
_December 1911._




CONTENTS


I
                                                                    PAGE
At School--Determined to be a Nurse--Royal Red Cross
  instituted--Preliminary Training                                     1

II

Visit to Tenerife--A Storm in the Bay--The Beauties of the Island      3

III

Up the Cañadas--Voyage Home on a Cargo-boat--Call at Madeira           8

IV

First Experiences in a Hospital--The Food--Some Medical Cases--My
  First "Special" Case                                                14

V

Moved to a Surgical Ward--In Quarantine--A Poisoned Hand--"Kathleen"  19

VI

In the Out-Patient Department--Food improved, and Heavy Work
  reduced--Act as Night Sister for two nights--Am offered a
  post as Staff Nurse--My first Certificate                           25

VII

To South Africa for a year--Voyage out on the _Scot_--By train
  from Cape Town to Kimberley                                         31

VIII

Life on the Diamond Fields--I meet Mr. Cecil Rhodes--The
  Kimberley Exhibition                                                37

IX

A Visit to Cape Town--Up Table Mountain--Return to Kimberley          42

X

On Circuit in Cape Colony--A Visit to Natal--The Doctor's Fee         48

XI

East London and Port Elizabeth--Down a Diamond Mine
  (Kimberley)--Return to England                                      54

XII

Accepted for training at a General Hospital--I begin in a Medical
  Ward--A sudden death                                                60

XIII

On the Surgical side--A heavy "Take-in" week--Lectures on
  Physiology                                                          66

XIV

My first Typhoid Case--Diphtheria Tracheotomies--The Rescue
  of the Cat--On Night Duty                                           71

XV

Christmas in Hospital--The Dispensing Examination--Acting
  Assistant Matron--Three Weeks on Duty in an Infirmary               77

XVI

First Sister in the Front Surgery--A Bad Accident--A Dog with a
  Broken Leg                                                          83

XVII

Temporary Ward Sister--Appointed Night Sister--Interesting
  Work--Join the Royal National Pension Fund for Nurses--I
  spend Christmas warded as a Patient                                 89

XVIII

Chloroform for a Cat--I Volunteer for Plague Duty
  (refused)--Appointed Ward Sister--A Fire Alarm--A Holiday
  in Switzerland--A Bomb in Paris                                     95

XIX

I go to Egypt--Nursing at Sea in rough weather--At Helouan--Ride
  out to the Pyramids--The Kasr-el-Aini                              102

XX

Up the Nile by Tourist Steamer--At Luxor--"Hare and Hounds"
  on Donkeys                                                         109

XXI

War in the Soudan--Night and Day Nursing                             115

XXII

Sent up to Assouan--Down the Nile on a Post Boat--A Saunter
  Home across the Continent                                          120

XXIII

Back to my old Hospital--In a Ward for Women and
  Children--Christmas in a Men's Accident Ward                       126

XXIV

Scarlet Fever--At Marlborough House with R.N.P.F. Nurses             132

XXV

The Boer War--A Lucky Meeting at the War Office--Joined the
  Army Nursing Service Reserve--Choosing fittings, &c., for
  a Hospital of 100 beds                                             137

XXVI

Voyage out on the _Tantallon Castle_--Some Military Hospitals
  near Cape Town--We land in Natal                                   143

XXVII

Inoculated against Typhoid--We begin to build our
  Hospital--Increased from 100 to 200 beds--Unpacking--A Hospital
  Ship at Durban                                                     149

XXVIII

Our Food Supplies--Washing Arrangements--Snakes and other
  Creatures--A Railway Accident--Our First Patients                  156

XXIX

The Princess Christian Hospital Train brings us some Bad
  Cases--Men from Elandslaagte--Some Officer Patients--The Bishop
  of Pretoria                                                        162

XXX

Dengue Fever amongst the Staff--First Death amongst the Officer
  Patients--Mafeking relieved--Our Hospital officially
  "Opened"--Colonel Galway--The Trappist Monastery                   169

XXXI

A Spion Kop hero--Orderlies knocking up with Enteric--Worsted
  work, &c., to amuse the Convalescents--Death of an Orderly
  from Enteric--Poem by Officer Patients                             175

XXXII

Some distinguished Visitors--We become a Military Hospital--New
  Orderlies arrive--"Imperial Bearer Company" men--Our Major         183

XXXIII

Changes on our Staff--The Arrival of Sick Convoys--Our
  Servants--The Hospital Commission--The Difficulties of Transport   189

XXXIV

I visit the Battle-fields--At Colenso--Ladysmith--Up Spion Kop--Tin
  Town Hospital--On a Red Cross Ambulance                            196

XXXV

The Tugela Falls--Pieter's Hill--Hart's Hill--Chieveley--Mooi
  River--Maritzburg--Back at Pinetown                                203

XXXVI

Prisoners from Pretoria--Our Gardens--We start Poultry Keeping       209

XXXVII

The Natal Volunteers return home--"John"--Flying Ants and
  other Plagues                                                      215

XXXVIII

The Buckjumper--The Excellence of the Boer Ponies--The Home
  for Lost Dogs!                                                     221

XXXIX

Sudden Orders for Home--Voyage with Lord Roberts on the
  _Canada_--Call at Cape Town--A Funeral at Sea                      228

XL

Lord and Lady Roberts visit the Hospital--Christmas at Sea--We
  anchor off Cowes--Lord Roberts visits Queen Victoria at
  Osborne--Sixteen days' leave--Rejoin the _Canada_ to return
  to the Cape                                                        235

XLI

The Death of Queen Victoria--Lodgers at Wynberg--The Plague
  at Cape Town--Up the Coast with Boer Prisoners                     242

XLII

Up Country--Under Canvas--The Sisters' Horses                        249

XLIII

Our Tent Flooded--A Cow shares my Tent--Night Duty in the
  Rainy Season--Afternoon Duty                                       256

XLIV

In Charge of Medical Tents--A Present from the Queen--Within
  Sound of the Guns--"Kit Inspection"--The Horrors of
  Transport in the Ambulance Waggons                                 263

XLV

A Sudden Collapse--The Winter Begins--Tired of the War               270

XLVI

Night Duty again--A Sick Convoy arrives in the Night--A bad
  Pneumonia Case--Nearly Frozen                                      277

XLVII

Mentioned in Despatches--Ill with Dysentery--A Night at
  Pinetown--With my Brother to Uitenhage                             283

XLVIII

At Port Elizabeth--Down the Coast to Mossel Bay--We drive, _via_
  George, to Oudtshoorn--Martial Law--Under escort to Prince
  Albert Road--By Train to Kimberley                                 290

XLIX

Tales of the Siege--"Long Cecil"--Refugee Camps--A Picnic
  under Arms                                                         298

L

By Train to Cape Town--Night Sister on a Troopship--Some
  Sad Cases--Home Once More                                          305




A NURSE'S LIFE IN WAR AND PEACE




I


                                                    THE SCHOOL, LINCOLN,
                                                             1888.

This is my usual day for writing letters, and I have nothing but the
usual things to write to you about. Each day we get up at the same time,
do the same sort of lessons (not very difficult), eat the same sort of
food (not very interesting), and go for the same dull walks, with an
occasional game of tennis on a badly-kept lawn; but I have been
thinking, and the long and short of it is, that I am going to persuade
my people to let me leave school.

I think you know that some years ago I determined that I would be a
nurse. To be exact, it was in 1883 that Queen Victoria instituted the
Royal Red Cross, and in the same year I was grieving over the fact that
none of the professions in which my brothers were distinguishing
themselves would be open to me, as I was "only a girl"; so I at once
decided that I would try to win the Royal Red Cross.

Well, I am not thinking so much about the decoration now, as wars seem
to be few and far between; but still I think the nursing profession is
the only one I am a bit fitted for, and lately I have been reading
everything I can get hold of on the subject.

You see, I am not a bit clever, and I am no good at music or languages;
so I could never teach. And, on account of having been so delicate when
I was small, I am behind most girls of my age in many subjects; but in
the two terms that I have been here I have won two prizes, and I think I
can work up any subject that I want to as well as most people can.

I know I am not old enough to begin nursing yet, but when I am, it may
be necessary to pay for my first year's training, so I very much want
them to save the money they are now paying for my education to pay for
that, as it seems to me that I am being stuffed with many subjects that,
after I leave school, I shall have no further use for.

I have not yet quite decided which hospital I shall go to. It is clear
that if I want to join the Army Nursing Service, I must go in for three
years' training in a good-sized General Hospital first; but the best of
these hospitals won't accept candidates till they are twenty-three, and
that seems such a very long way off. So perhaps I may take a preliminary
year in a Children's Hospital, or some other special hospital first, but
I am not old enough even for that yet; and as I think F. is going out to
the Canary Islands for the spring, I think it is very likely I may go
with him, as you know I love travelling.

I like this place very well, and I have many friends here; but one thing
is quite definite, and that is that I mean to be a nurse, and with that
in view I think I might be employing my time more profitably than I am
doing here.




II


                                                 PORT OROTAVA, TENERIFE,
                                                     _April 1889_.

Here we are, in comfortable quarters and in glorious sunshine, the grand
old Peak of Tenerife (with its cap of snow) looking down upon us.

I wish you could be transplanted to this warmth and brightness; but you
would not have enjoyed our experiences on the way here.

You know how cold it was when we left London on the _Ruapehu_; and all
down the Channel it was very cold, but fine and calm. We called at
Plymouth (such a pretty harbour); then, after we left there, our
troubles began. The next day there was a heavy swell, and very few
people appeared on deck. Our stewardess, they said, had "happened of an
accident," but we were well waited upon by a nice little steward. M. was
bad, and stayed in her berth; but with the steward's assistance I
struggled up on the upper deck, and I would not have missed it for
anything. Towards evening it was really blowing hard, and the waves were
grand. We took such plunges down into the trough, and then the great
ship trembled, and seemed to pull herself together to rise on the crest
of the next wave and then take another plunge.

The men were on the trot all day, making everything fast. It was Sunday,
but there was no service--the crew all too hard at work, and the
passengers chiefly in their berths. Towards evening I was wondering how
I should "make" my cabin, when the purser came along and asked if he
might help me down below, as the wind was still rising, and he had been
appointed "runner-in" by the captain, who said we had all better be down
below.

That night and the next day were really very bad indeed. We were
battened down, and the dead-lights were screwed on about 4.30 P.M., and
the electric light supply did not come on till after six; so for that
time we were in darkness, and some of the passengers were really very
much frightened.

Tons of water poured on the main deck and down the companion-ways, and
men were bailing it out near our cabins all night long. I kept feeling
in the dark to see if there was water in our cabin, as it rushed past
the door with a great "swish"; but the step was high, and it did not
come over.

There was no sleep for any one that night; it was all we could do to
keep from being pitched out of our berths.

The men were very funny as they bailed the water out and mopped up.
"Reminds one of washing-day in our backyard--pity my old woman ain't
here," "Sometimes we see a ship, sometimes we ship a sea"--and heaps
more to the same effect. Our steward said he had never had to bail out
so much water before, and he had been six years on the ship. One of the
sails was carried away; and when we got to Santa Cruz the engineers
discovered that part of the rudder had gone.

Two cooks and one of the sailors were knocked down and injured, but I
think not very badly. Two of the boats were washed out of the davits,
and one of the heavy deck-seats (next to the one on which I had spent
the afternoon) was smashed to bits.

Sleep was quite impossible, as it was most difficult to keep in one's
berth, and every now and then there was a great crash as things were
broken in the saloons and galleys. We are still bruised and stiff from
the knocking about.

I have always wanted to see a storm at sea; but I am now quite
satisfied, and I shall never want to see another. It is most unpleasant
to be battened down, and the engines sound to be so fearfully on the
strain and tremble that you feel you must listen for the next beat of
the screw, knowing that if the engines should fail your chance of
weathering the storm would be a very small one indeed.

After that the weather improved, and also became warmer, and the
passengers one by one came crawling up on deck; but most of them looked
as though they had been through a long illness, and could talk about
nothing but their alarm in the storm; and the captain owned he had had a
very anxious time.

We landed at Santa Cruz early one afternoon--a very unsavoury town, with
dirty beggars exhibiting various loathsome diseases and following you
about.

After a little delay we secured a carriage and three horses to drive
across the island to Orotava, twenty-six miles distant--a pretty,
winding road, cool up in the hills, but becoming hot as we descended to
Puerto Orotava. The hotel was full, but we secured rooms in a
dependence; and when we had rested and changed,