Nurses World War 1
The daughters of farmers, small business owners, school teachers, ministers of religion and public servants, they left the safety of their homeland to apply their considerable nursing skills and give comfort to the horrific and overwhelming casualties of the Great War.
They served in hospitals in Egypt, Greece, England, France and India and on troop and hospital ships. In Greece they survived primitive living conditions, near starvation, freezing winters with inadequate clothing and in summer, swarms of malaria bearing mosquitoes. Cholera, paratyphoid and venomous snakes were all part of the Indian nursing experience.
One nurse, May Humphrey while posted to Wimereaux near the Somme in France, lived through numerous bombing raids during the worst winter for nearly one hundred years.
Another nurse, Matron Marie Cameron, survived a torpedo attack in the Agean Sea which left her with permanent disabilities. She was later awarded a Royal Red Cross 1st class.
Marie McNaughton Cameron, RRC 1st Class