Nina Hollings 1862 - 1948
Nina Augusta Stracey Smyth born in 1862, was the eccentric sister of Dame Ethel Smyth, the composer, suffragette and sportswoman.
Nina married Herbert John Butler Hollings on the 18th of February 1886 at St. Peter's, Frimley.
Her son John 'Jack' Herbert Butler Hollings was killed in action on the 30th of October 1914, aged 26. After the death of her son Nina volunteered with her good friend Countess Helena Gleichen ( a great niece of Queen Victoria and cousin of George V) with the French Red Cross in early 1915.
Firstly working as Ambulance driver at a British Hospital stationed at a French Chateau. They also worked as French translators and ran a dispensary for sick civilians. A visiting French surgeon was so impressed with the work the ladies were doing that he suggested that they learn the relatively new science of Radiography, an activity he told them was 'very badly needed' by the Allies on the Western Front.
Nina and Helena both studied Radiography at Paris for six months, obtaining official certificates, before returning to London to work under a well known X-Ray specialist, and learn his methods.
Whilst practising in London, Nina and Helena raised funds and purchased their own portable X-Ray machine. When the woman offered their service to the British War Office, they were refused as 'no women had ever been known to be radiographers'. The French War Office accepted their offer and but nothing came of it, and they also had to retrieve their equipment which was stolen by the French Red Cross.
The Italians accepted the offer of their services and the Duke of Aosta was quoted as saying ' We are cleverer than the English then, because we employ who and what we can for our wounded regardless of whether they wear trousers or petticoats'.
Based In Udine, Italy, they served in the British Red Cross Unit IV, and were given ranks equivalent to Major in the Italian army. They operated the only mobile X-Ray on the Italian Front, travelling up and down the line helping surgeons, by x-raying the men and marking the locations of shrapnel and bullets.
The book 'Outposts of Mercy' published for the Red Cross Society in 1917 quoted;
"Unit IV consists of two intrepid ladies a motor car or so, a soldier servant or so and movable X - ray Apparatus. for nearly a year when I met them and now for more than a year, for they began in December 1915 -- these ladies the Countess Helena Gleichen and Mrs Nina Hollings, have been passing quickly from field-hospital to field hospital with their merciful van -load of magic, and thus making possible swift and accurate operations which but for them would in many cases either never have been performed at all, or have been dangerously if not fatally delayed."
An extract from the 16th of December 1916 British Journal of nursing p488 quotes;
"A telegram from Rome states that the Military Bulletin announces that the Medal for Valour has been conferred on Countess Helens Gleichen and Miss Nina Hollings, both belonging to the British X-ray section at the Italian front. The Bulletin gives the following reason for conferring
the decorations :-"They gave their useful and valuable work for the Italian wounded on the Isonzo front, going willingly wherever called, even
crossing zones under artillery fire, and being on several occasions a target for the enemy. They showed courage, intrepidity, and contempt of
danger, always accomplishing their duty with equal self-sacrifice, lofty courage, and devotion."
The Italians awarded the Medgalie al Valore Militaire (Medal for Military Valour), and the General handing the medals came to the ladies he turned and was quoted to have said;
"Soldiers here present,we greet these two English woman whom we look upon, not only as two of our most gallant officers, but as beloved members of our families, and we offer them, and ask them always to wear the medal we have struck for all the officers who took part in the victory of Gorizia."
Nina and Helena left Italy in October 1917, and after the war lived together for a time in Gloucestershire.
Nina was awarded the following medals and awards;
British Red Cross medal
O.B.E (1918)
St John of Jerusalem medal
Italian bronze medal for valour
Italian Medaglia Dell Guerra 1915-1918
Italian Medaglia Della Vittoria Interalleata (Medal of Allied Victory)
Medal for the Unification of Italy (Medaglia a Ricordo dell'UnitĂ d'Italia), 1848-1918
British War Medal 1914-1918
Nina's daughter Hildegard Nina Hollings also served as a V.A.D. in France during the Great War, and her other son Richard also served in the Royal Navy and survived the War.
Nina died in 1948 aged 86, at Wokingham, Berkshire.
Lest We Forget
Lee Thomas October 2014