Nurses Narratives Sister Mabel Isabel Brown (part 2)

8
being fed, their wounds dressed &
then next day going down the side
of transhipped to land at Lemnos or
elsewhere - we were continually under 
shellfire from the Turkish side, as 
several boat at night time used to
shelter near us, & bullets fell on our
deck repeatedly - I can never 
speak too highly of Dr Crispin,
He was D.M.S. of the Soudan for
the last 15 years, & had been
ill & spent his convalescence by
a trip to Gallipoli & was [[appointed?]]
to my ward. he took the downstairs
one & worked like a nigger, I had 
no time to help him. I arranged his
table in the morning & then left
him. Upstairs I had two [[R A?]]
M. C. offices, for the whole time
we were on that trip I do not 
think any sister had more
than 4 consecitive hours off duty
as the cases were all so acute.
At the end of the 10 days we came
back to Port Said calling in at
Lemnos on the way & when we
& taking on two more sisters

9
had finally disembarked our 
patients we all collapsed for the
rest of the day. We had many
eminent men amongst our sick
officers. One a Major Frikery who
boasted that he intended to be 
a Brigadier Gen. before long & get the
D.S.O. V.C. etc. he has done all this & more
I had the sad duty of receiving,
& attending to, in his last hours
of his brother, a Pte. Frikery. in the
N. Zealanders, a very big man died
from a head wound, arrived with
a card saying he was Gen. Frikery's
brother & no other particulars of [[?]]
One thing noticable about all the
patients of 1915, was the great cheerfulness 
& eagerness of them all, later
on in 1917 & 18 they all appeared so
wornout & tired, This I suppose was
only natural. 
After staying at Port Said a week we
came back to Alexandria & were then
changed on to a H. S. The "Guildford 
Castle, & fortunately took with us
20 orderlies. This ship was one

10
of the first four ships completed &
was most perfectly fitted out in
every respect. The officers had been 
on her from the start & had the greatest
interest in her. The O'C. Major Baird
I. M. S. a charming man, (as indeed
most of the I. M. S. are) Major Abbott
who later became surgical specialist
A man who was capable of getting
through more work than anyone
I knew, a disciplinarian & organiser
& later on Major Murphy, a real white 
man, & a Capt. Anderson all I.M.S.
& a Capt Zhaka a purebred native of India.
we also had several ass. surgeons
(native) & many native orderlies-
My M. O. was major Baird. Two of 
our sisters were sent on to another 
ship taking patients to England.
Otherwise the staff was unchanged.
Then we commenced doing the regular
work back & forwards to Gallipoli
& after a while we were able to
work more regularly. We had a 
permanent night-sister on duty,
& as she only had night duty one
 

11
way, we found it worked well.
an orderly in each ward & a sister
in charge of the whole hospital with
one native ass. surgeon. The sister
could come off when she felt she
had done enough. Then the rest of
us kept our own wards. The Matron
Miss Collins & the O'C agreed that this
arrangement tended to the best care
of the patients. We went one
trip to England & were there for
10 days while the boat was being
repaired, after that we again took 
up the Gallipoli work until the
evacuation. We went on duty at 7:30
& came off at 8 pm. The night-sister
doing from 8. to 8. I forget the name
of her, a little Canadian, one of the
best workers I have met, & adored by
the patients. On New Years Day we 1915
we were going through the Canal on a 
trip to Bombay & to return immediately 
to take up the [[?]] to England.
Great was our excitement as up to
this no sisters had been allowed to
go to India with hospital ships
 

12
On arrival at Bombay, we disembarked
patients (returning native) & had 5 glorious
days cramming in a lot of sightseeing
then suddenly got orders to go to
Mesopotamia. We could only do one
trip & could not go pass the mouth
of the "Shalt el Arab River" but from 
there we loaded up from the [[Hosp?]]
ships "Madross" etc & returned, this 
we did for several trips, it took 10
days there & back, & it was most
interesting going past the various points
& seeing the magnificent sunsets of 
the Persian Gulf, & when we reached 
the lightships every body would
start fishing. Particularly the Padre
a naval [[vol. bin?]] man (who by the way
was lost by his Regt for some months)
who was a champion fisherman.
in the early part of March we were
taken off our beautiful Hosp. ship 
& the "Vill" fitted up for us, not nearly
such a convenient or nice boat, but
especially built for the Gulf trade,
& then we went right up to Basra
a beautiful river & lots of traffic
 

13
on it. We passed the 3 sunken ships
which were intended by the Turks or
Germans to prevent us taking the
oil wells, but fortunately for us, they
swing round with the tide which is
very strong here & made a better 
channel for our ships. The heat
was terrible & I can never praise
enough the soldiers & also the sisters
(2 A.M.N.S.J.) who were first here,
How they worked through those awful
months before the War Office took
charge in the later part of 1916 I
do not know, not any comfort, ice
unknown, also electrical appliances.
We had the honour of being the first
sisters from the Mediterranean to 
be there, the next lot coming in a
batch of 700 to Bombay & then
being sent up in batches & very uncomfortable 
they were, no arrangements
being made for them, & most of them
not having the resourcefulness or in
uptime of the Australian sisters.
The work during the hot weather in
a place where it was always hot

14
was terrific. One trip, we loaded up
at Basra,  with orders to go to The Bay
& fill another boat (the Oxfordshire I think
Our patient were all very ill, wounds
& dysenteric , & we were overloaded.
Coming down the river, they commenced
to get heat stroke, even down in
the bottom wards, starting either with
pain in head or abd. & temp gradually
rising, or in some cases going up 
suddenly. The treatment, asp. for 
the pain & ice packing or bath
but so many collapsed almost
at once that it was hard to treat
them all, [[t ?]] It took 8 to 10 hours
to come down the river & we were
hoping the ship would be waiting
for us, it was just coming over 
the horizon, so we met & at once
commenced to unload. The incoming
ship was staffed with P.A.M.C 
& was their first trip, so they knew
very little of the terrible heat
strokes but our M.O. went on board
to help them. It was ardous, our
own orderlies had to carry every
 

15
stretcher, & the other orderlies to do
likewise on their ship. It took
4 hours in that awful heat needless
to remark two of the orderlies dropped 
dead, & several of our men
had to go off for 1/2 an hour & rest repeatedly,
6 of the patients died after 
being transhipped & within the 
next 24 hours 122 (I think) died
from heat stroke. No one except
those who went thro it can form
any idea of what it was like - 
Our O'C wanted to let us take take our
patients straight on, but orders 
are orders, & we had to return
back at once to Basra for another
load. We used to go up & stay a
month doing carrier work up &
down the river, then back to
Bombay & India to get revictualled
At the end of August the Matron
was changed to shore work &
I was acting Matron, for a few
trips, but I felt I had done enough
hospital ships work & applied to
rejoin No 1 A.G.H. in France
 

16
so I refused the permanent position
of Matron & at the begining of November
I sailed for Egypt en route to France
after eighteen months at sea. In passing
I may say what a lot of good it
did me to work with the English
It was hard work but we were 
so well treated & the routine
was perfect. The I.M.S. officers
everything that could be desired
One of the peculiar diseases was 
what was called Bagdad Boils
quite unlike the ordinary boil
very poisonous & very debilitating.
On the hospital ship we had to improvise 
many things, one trip I had two
shockingly wounded men & the O'C 
wanted them put in a Pot. Permang. 
bath but I had no cradle so I tied 
a sheet around the curved edge of the bath, this
made a perfect swing then filled
up & placed the patient in. these
too men had 4 hour a day each
of this, one lived 10 days the other to
our joy recovered as I heard eventually.
To get a constant drip the services of the Chief
 

17
engineer were called in & by using a petrol
tin &  tubing, the arrangement was perfect
although primitive, but it served its task, which
was all that was required. I reached
Egypt & was temporarily attached to the
14 A.G.H. just in time to help with
the wounded men coming back from
the Romani stunt but in 5 or 6 weeks
was on my way to France via England,
We had as a patient on this trip a sister
from [[mempae 7]] who had become homicidal 
after a breakdown due to the 
strenuous time she had been thro!
Poor girl, it would have been better
to have died. We arrived in France
on Feb 8th & were at once sent off
in batches to various hospitals. I being
lucky enough to get to No 13 Stationary
afterwards being rechristened "The 
83 Dublin" in compliment to the 
Irish M.O's This was a very great 
show hospital. The Red X department
being managed by Lady Algernon Gordon-
Lenox, a very charming woman & indefatigable?
worker. I was first put in
a convalescent ward, then into the

Jaw ward & theatre under Major
Validias, a very eminent  American
surgeon - dentist, his work was marvellous 
It was wonderful to see the patient
come in wounded, nearly the whole
jaw blown away, it would be photographed 
at once & then treated [[?]]
a soap emulsion put on & changed
hourly or 4 hourly or twice daily, this
to clean & it was wonderful & many
times I have used it since & nearly 
always most successful, but the great
thing was the syringing which was
hourly in every early case the Major
had a large drum put on wheels
& a tube attached one side & a 
pump the other, we had 6 to 50 beds
(& always 2 were out of order) & after
the mouth or [[bd?]] was nearly clean (in 
48 hrs) the various appliances would 
be fitted in & another photograph
taken, this was done every couple of 
weeks after this would began to heal.
Under the Major was a Capt Whales
an eminent Harley St man, very
nervous & irritable, but clever & witty.
 

He apparently had rather a set against
Scotland, it was funny to hear him
question a North Country man as to which
way he walked when at home, if the man
said "South sir" the answer came quickly
"That's right my man, always go south
then you'll be quite safe" but he was good
to the patients. Of course this being the
show ward we had all the estabishment
there, Queen Mary, we entertained Prince 
of Wales was a frequent visitor, always
came there to get his teeth done, indeed
one day he came & a new dentist
was on who said to the Prince "My
good man, I am much too busy
blow in another day & you'll get your 
teeth done. To the dentist's horror
half an hour later he discovered what 
he had done & was so upset he did
no more work that day, saying
it's worth a days pay but I can 
only take 1/2. Lloyd George & all the theater
bigwigs came along & always to the jaw
ward & were shown the book of photographs 
etc. From there I went to
No [[20?]] General where the food was

 

so scarce owing to many causes, &
the sisters very unhappy, mainly because
the Matron (whose name amongst the 
diggers & Tommies etc) was Queen Vic") sufferred 
from swelled head & swank.
but that's another story "a la Kippling"
otherwise it was a pleasant place
with about 2500 patients, men from all
over the world. After leaving here I
was moved about a bit in the happy
go lucky way we were all moved
in France. I eventually landed 
back in this state within a week of
four years from where we started.
I trust there may be some bit
in this epistle that may be of use
to you, if not I can only apologise
for having taken up your time
in wading thro' it. It is not fair
to everyone to put in papers all
the interesting bits of life.

Mabel Brown
H Sister A.A.H.S.

6th ' M. D.