Nurses Narratives Staff Nurse Leila Brown - Part 1

  
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STAFF NURSE L. BROWN. 
  
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 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 any 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."  
  
  
AWM  
LIBRARY 
CLASS NO. 373.2 
  
[946]

  
France     Sr L Brown     55/60 
Brit. C.C.S. 
  
To British Hosp - near Arras, on 
night duty. Equipment bad - 
measles, mumps , scarlet, dip 
patients all used the same 
medicine glass.  Lanterns always 
 gave out during the night. 
Sisters "spend fortunes" getting 
refills for their electric torches. 
No water to wash in. Officers 
had wash one in 3 days. 
Sanitary arrangements appalling 
Pts had to get out of bed no 
matter how sick they were. 
Main part of hospital well equipped, 
a marvel of cleanliness, very 
[text missing] nursing, plenty of "eyewash" 
at ACCS near Lille - Dr Morehouse 
died.  
After the Armistice went to Hosp 
 at Tunisia - one sorry officer 
admitted, skin & bone, quite 
bad both legs fractured 
and a huge knee full of  
pus".  One leg amputated, 
hanging in the balance - but 
eventually got better. 
Xmas 1918 - Hosp at Hale - hard 
work - influenza. Short staffed 
 alone, with two infantry boys 
to help in a ward of 22 beds -  
acute pneumonia all saving 
3 deaths in 24 hours - 
worked this "for 3 weeks 
without relief for an hour". 
Rest + comfort suddenly ceased. 
No change of linen for 2 months. 
Infectious patients lying in 
blankets, pillows without covers. 
No bedsocks, cardigans or 
mufflers for patients.  
 

L Brown   CCS   at 2nd 
France 55/60 
  
My career as a member of the Aust Army 
Nursing Service began on Aug 31^st 1916.  I was 
for several weeks in the Theatre of No 4 AGH 
a well equipped & excellently run theatre. 
Early in October I left for the Goulburn Camp 
hospital and was given a number of 
Isolation tents containing only beds each with 
a patient suffering from either Measles, 
Scarlet Fever or a suspicious Meningitis. 
With the generous help of the Goulburn Branch 
of the Red Cross. I soon had everything I needed 
for the efficient nursing of infectious cases. 
I embarked on the Kaiser. I. Hind on Dec 9^th 1916 
and thoroughly enjoyed the delightful trip 
over (being an excellent sailor). We called 
at Colombo where we spent two delightful days 
at "Kaudi" also at Bombay & Aden. We 
disembarked at Suez and took the train to 
Cairo. The whole trip though full of interest -
was uneventful. Two weeks later I was sent 
on with 50 sisters who were being transferred 
from Egypt to France - on a hospital ship, this 
was not to be compared with the first part of our 
trip for comfort - in the Kaiser I. Hind there were 
only two sisters in each dainty cabin but here 
there were 60 in one big room the sight of which 
it would take an abler pen than mine to describe. 
Over each bed was suspended a coat hanger on 
which hung a coat and skirt a wrapper a red cape 
a cap and any articles the owner might need 
either during the day or night, there being no 
room for luggage in this room & luggage being 
extremely difficult to get at.  There was a fair 
amount of "tension" during this ten day journey 
from Alex. as the ship was filled with sick & 
wounded and the submarines were doing their worst. 
 

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However we landed in England & eventually in London  
about 9 pm on a pouring wet cold January night. 
We were wet and told to go to a certain Portland 
Hotel. The journey there is worth a mention. London 
was in darkness - there was no conveyance but a 
"tube", a  Chinese puzzle when you know both tube 
& London fairly well - but to utter strangers to both it 
was the worst form of "maze". After many enquiries 
and much travelling we reached the Portland to  
be told there was only room booked for 20 so 
other accommodation had to be found for the 
remainder, and somewhere in the region of 1 am  
everyone had been provided with a place to sleep 
in that night.  Ten days in London followed.
We were not free, expecting any hour our movement  
order for France. The dirt, cold and food of 
that Hotel beggars description, and we were all  
glad when at last at 10 pm on night we were 
 told to be ready for the journey at 9 am the 
following morning.
The never pleasant Channel trip was less 
pleasant on that bitter winter day and when at 
last we stood on the stone wharf at Boulogne 
and saw the dirty grey city and slushy snow, 
and felt our blood slowly but surely freezing, my 
heart sank & I wished with all my might I had 
never come. We were met by a member of 
the Q.A.I.M.N.S. and divided into small parties 
and given our orders for the different British 
hospitals we were to reinforce. We spent the 
night at a tumble down little French inn where 
the beds were surprisingly comfortable & the sanitary  
arrangements nil. The next morning (about the 8^th  
of Feb.) we 4 started for the hospital which lay on 
the main road to Arras.  We changed trains  
twice and incidentally two of us lost our luggage 
 

3 
that is our heavy kit having a little hand 
luggage with us. The hospital we were detailed 
for needless to say knew nothing of our coming 
and we waited on the station for a couple of  
hours huddled together in our endeavour to keep  
warm when a courteous R.T.O.'s sargeant asked 
us into his office by the fire. The two sisters who 
had their heavy luggage were given empty rooms  
in a 'hut' and commenced to put up their camp 
beds. We two who had lost ours were each given 
a tiny room with a bed in it and a couple of blankets. 
No attempt was made to give us hot 
bags or drinks though it was then midnight 
and the snow fell on the ground hard &  frozen. 
For a couple of days we were not put on duty  
nor was the slightest notice taken of us. On the 
third for fourth day we were told we would go on 
night duty, our luggage had by then arrived and 
so we had extra warm clothing our hot water  
bottles etc. and we moved into the night hut. 
Three of us went to "Isolation" which held 
about 300 to 400 pts. This hospital being the 
[illegible text] centre for Infectious cases for the area. Can I 
describe it? The hospital was situated at the 
top of a hill and "Iso" was 10 minutes walk 
from the main building. The tents were arranged 
in compounds each barbed-wired off from the 
other with duck boards along each row. The 
most serious cases, such as Measles with Pneumonia  
were in the 'bell' tents the other tents held 12 to 14 pts  
some 20, and there was for all this number 
to heat water, make drinks, and cook our 
supper one small fire and only one 'duty' 
tent. My pts included 50 officers with measles. 
The equipment was quite inadequate. The pts with  
Meningitis kept their own cups, thermometers etc but  
Measles, mumps, scarlet, Diptheria, Erysipelas, Paratyphoid 
 

4 
used the same medicine glasses - there were 
two also thermometers of which 5 was the greatest  
number I ever saw there. Two or three tins 
of "Ideal" milk was all that was ever left out 
for drinks during the night, and we were 
told we were extravagant when we said this was  
insufficient to give even the feverish pts one 
drink all round.  Our lanterns horrid eight sided 
things - which threw a shadow where you wanted 
a light - were always burnt out by 12 or 1 am 
and it cost us a fortune in refills for our 
torches.  Walking about on those snowing freezing 
nights I looked anything but a 'Sister' a balaclava 
cap and a sou'wester was my headgear, a 
woollen scarf wrapped several times round my 
throat, a woollen sweater, a top coat & a 
mackintosh, gloves & snow boots. I made a 
little hole in the top of the first finger of my 
right glove so that I could feel the patients'  
pulses without taking it off. There was no 
water to wash in and pts seldom removed their 
clothing - if the officers had a wash once in 
3 days they considered they were lucky.  
There were practically no sheets or pillow cases 
a very few spitoons, and only two gargle 
 glasses for about 30 Diphtherias. The sanitary  
arrangements  were to me appalling - there was 
a stool arrangement the end of each tent and 
the pts visited this however sick they were. 
There were frequently big convoys and tents had 
to be hurriedly erected, these had no flooring 
and there were pools of frozen water everywhere. 
In giving out medicines one had to carry the 
bottle against a hot bag as one minute in the air 
would freeze it hard. Rifles tin hats & all 
accoutrements were kept under the pts bed or more  
correctly speaking their stretcher.   
 

5 
It was impossible to keep on the duck boards 
as the snow fell all night sometimes & I used 
to be continually falling over guide ropes that 
had become hidden or into putting my foot 
into gutters filled with snow. Then too the 
soles of my boots would freeze and on the frozen 
snow the two surfaces would soon be the cause 
of a nasty bump. But we three 'Aussies' stuck 
to it and after the awful Blizzards at the end 
of April 1917 we came off night duty and 
the weather cleared, and we commenced to thaw 
and our feet less swollen, and we saw the 
Glory of Spring and soon forgot the horrors 
of that 10 weeks night duty. The main part 
of the hospital was well-equipped & a marvel of  
cleanliness - in fact there was little nursing to be 
done and one ward vied with another in the 
successful application of that military 
concoction 'Eye Wash'.
During the first fine weather there was the 
hop-over at Arras and we heard the guns in 
action which we had watched creep past on 
the caterpillars during the winter nights, and the 
troops who had been marching past during the day 
for months began coming back wounded - there was 
a big rush for a few days, on the first day 
I had just got into bed about 10pm after a busy 
day when I was called up to go into the theatre 
and relieve the Sister there.  I scarcely knew where 
it was let alone where things were kept but 
the necessity for my alertness stimulated me 
and at 8am the following morning I realized 
we had had a busy night & that I had quite 
enjoyed it.  There was no need for further stretches 
of this description in a few days we were normal again. 
 

6 
All the good things seemed to come at once. 
The Spring with its glorious sunny days & flowers  
my mail began to arrive from home and I  
commenced to make friends with the English  
people at the hospital whom up till now I had  
scarcely seen. We had frequent delightful picnics  
in the woods and though I have lost  
sight of these delightful Englishmen I shall  
never forget their kindness to me - a stranger  
from a far off land. It was a shock and  
something of a grief when I heard one day  
late in July that I had to move off to  
another hospital where there would be all  
Aust. Sisters so the next day I say my  
good byes to my friends and to happiness for  
I was doomed to spend the following months  
as the most unhappy woman I have ever 
known.
It was a dreary tented hospital  
situated on the sand dunes which are on  
the coast. The patients were for the greater  
part 'up' patients, and I have never seen  
anything so pitiful as those men crouching 
round 'Sawyers' in the endeavour to keep  
warm. The mattresses were rolled up & blankets  
folded so that they could not lie down during  
the day and they were very badly fed.  
They all dined in a Mess Hall and had to 
line up and wait their turn in all weathers.  
In Sept. & Oct. the frightful winds were laden  
with sand and later in the year there were  
heavy snow storms and then they would  
get a tea or dinner not worth waiting for.  
The nursing was absolutely uninteresting.  
The tents were grouped and each group had  
its 'dressing tent' where all the staff nurses of 
 

7 
each group stood from 7.30 am till 8 pm  
(with three hrs off some part of the day) and dressed  
the new as they came in = about 3 staff nurses  
would dress about 200 pts per day. The Sisters  
attended to the papers and saw that the men  
did their work in the wards. It was only  
a few weeks after I went there that Winter  
set in. The tents were of a narrow oval shape  
and badly pitched as the sand would  
not hold the pegs, so they always flopped  
and seemed to be half down - and on  
several occasions some came completely  
down causing casualties. They were dark  
and badly ventilated and the snow beat  
in at the only opening, true electric light  
was installed but it was always 'off' from  
8 am till about 5 pm so that on grey cloudy  
days one groped more than looked for  
things. There was absolutely no heating and  
the stuffy smell of humanity covered with ointment  
at one time I had 30 Portuguese - was  
nauseating to a degree. The paths were of  
'Glaxo' tins turned upside down and extremely  
trying to the numbed feet from which we all  
suffered.  Our Mess was poor and uncomfortable  
and the staff nurses were all crowded into  
one room, staff nurses & sisters were not  
allowed to dine in the same room. We were  
billeted in several good houses but there were  
3 and four staff nurses in one room, while  
several sisters had rooms to themselves and  
no more than two were ever put into one room.   
There is so much in our Nursing service to  
admire that it seems a pity that such  
a blot as the illfeeling which existed between  
our members because of the difference in rank should ever 
 

8 
have occurred. Here the illfeeling was  
fostered and nourished until it became  
almost a hatred. Early in January I  
woke one morning to find I was stiff &  
aching from head to foot. Pains in my  
head increased during the morning and  
by lunch time I felt as ill as I have  
ever felt in my life. With a tem of F102  
I was sent to bed and two days later  
I was sent to the Chateau Mauricieu - the sick  
sisters hospital - where I enjoyed a severe  
Bronchitis, in peaceful comfortable surroundings.  
I was sent to England for sick leave  
which I spent at St Albans in the delightful  
residence lent by Mr. McIlwraith and supervised  
by Miss Graham who had all the qualities  
of a charming hostess and made my stay  
a very enjoyable one.
Again I returned to France. By this time  
the Canadian Red Cross had taken over the  
Hotel du Nord and so for a minimum charge  
we were provided with a clean comfortable  
bed and good dinner & breakfast, the work  
done for us by the Canadian R.C. will ever  
be remembered by many grateful sisters.  
Had they not come forward with their hotel  
the alternative would have been a place  
which would have made leave and passing  
through Boulogne a thing to be dreaded.
After two days waiting orders came  
for me to go to another British Hospital  
staffed by Aust. Sisters. It was a small  
Stationary Hospital and took mostly local  
sick & injured, it being the principal port 
for the landing of war materials, there were