AWM41 1007 - [Nurses Narratives] Sister Julia Elizabeth Marum

Butler Colln
6/14
[6/19]
[[?]]
AWM 41
AWM 41
AUSTRALIAN ARCHIVES
ACCESS STATUS
OPEN
SISTER J.E. MARUM.
A. W. M.
LIBRARY
Classn N^o 373.2
[1007]
 

The Official War Historian of the Commonwealth
Government (Dr. C.E.W. Bean), after his study of the
collection of private war records preserved in the Australian 
War Memorial Library, wrote:-
"The private diaries in this collection furnish some of its most
valuable historical records, but, like all private memoirs which were
not compiled with any historical purpose, they should not be
regarded as first-hand evidence except where it is certain that they
are so. The diarist is almost always sincere in his desire to record
accurately, but he is subject to no obligation or inducement to
indicate whether he is recording his own observations or incidents
told to him by friends or heard at third or fourth hand at the mess-table.
Thus, in some of the diaries in this collection, scenes described with
vivid detail, and without warning that they are told at second 
or third hand, have been found to be completely inaccurate in
important details. A certain number also have been written up
or revised long after the events, though doubtless usually from notes
made at the time. In most cases the student must rely on his
experience and on internal evidence to guide him in judging what is
and what is not likely to be historically accurate." 
 

Salonica
26/109
1^st Australian General Hospital
J.E. Marum
I left Australia with 50 other sisters in August 1916 & landed in Bombay for
duty.  Sept. 13^th About twelve of us were sent to an English Hospital
in Colabar. We were the only Australians there. We nursed the
wounded who were sent from Mesopotamia. Also we had
Malaria Dysentery & Cholera cases. After being there three months
we were sent to Secunderabad - a place 300 miles inland.
We had our own Matron & Sisters. Eurasian V.A.Ds & the rest of
the staff & the patients were English. I was a year in India
then was sent to over to Salonica. 3n Australian Sisters had just

come across to Salonica to staff 4 hospitals. There was a
fire in Salonica a few days after our arrival. It ruined all the
important places & left hundreds of Greeks homeless & dependent
on the British & French for rations. Conditions were very bad
when we got there first & food was very scarce. but it improved
later on. We were about a year & a half on Greece. Most of the
time we were working in Tent Hospitals & for 6 months I nursed
nothing but dysentery cases. We were nursing English Tommies
Bulgar prisoners & Greeks. The English Tommies were
wonderful patients no matter how bad the conditions were or how short
the rations were. They always made the best of it. Some of them
had not had a days leave for 3 years & had malaria a dozen or
more times but they always seemed cheerful. After most of the
British troops had left Salonica in Feb 1919 we came across
to England for duty.
J.E. Marum
Julia Elizabeth Marum
 

Item Control
Australian War Memorial
005172252