Agnes Katherine Isambert (part 1)

Isambert 116   A little more of No 3 Sea Transport Sections Life  116/10-
  
A matter which calls your attention in Australia is the very 
small issue of money allowed us for travelling expenses.  Here 
are a few illustrations.  Travelling from Brisbane to Sydney 
sleepers & warrants for three meals were provided, we arrived 
in Sydney in the am and as there was no one to meet us, hired a van 
to take our luggage to the ship on which we were to sail at a cost 
of 10/-.  There seeing it in safe hands, we went to the Barracks 
to report, it being near lunch time was told to go to the Garrison 
Hospital for lunch, this we did, but after waiting over an hour 
was told by one of the Sisters that we could not get it there.  The 
Matron did not come near us, so after all we had to find the way 
to the nearest food shop and get some lunch & later our dinner 
for which no money was refunded.  We boarded the steamer 
that night.  On another occasion we were sent overland from 
Melbourne to Sydney, Sleepers but no meal warrants were 
provided we had to supply ourselves with food for that 
day & the whole of next day in addition to finding a bed for 
which according to "Regulations" then in force, we received at 
the rate of 8/- per diem.  Still on another occasion we were 
sent to Sydney two days prior to embarkation, bed & food 
to be supplied for which the same munificent sum was  
allowed.  Still on another occasion we were held up in Melbourne 
for two days, one day as the guest of the A.O Army Nurses Club 
& the other to pay our own expenses, the tariff there being 7/6 
per day &was there sent overland with the troops, our food

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is always provided on those occasions.  We arrived in 
Sydney about 10 a.m. & from that time until we arrived in 
Brisbane about 5 p.m on the following evening we had to 
procure our own food.  Sleepers are always provided.  For  
the day in Melbourne & nearly two days travelling when we had 
to get 5 meals, we were refunded the munificent sum 
of 7/4.  Again arriving in Sydney by mail train on one 
day & not embarking until 2 p.m on the next, we were 
allowed to 5/- to pay for 4 meals & a bed.  In England 
if travelling during a meal hour you will have the price of your 
meal refunded.  I had officially written about the small 
allowance & think it is due to doing so that the allowance was 
increased from 3/- to 5/- per day.  Necessary tips to porters 
for handling our luggage & paying for conveyance from the 
Nurses Club where we usually stayed, it being the cheapest 
(they only charging 3/- for bed and breakfast.) has to be included 
in the large amount we receive. 
I do not know if the authorities expect us to live on 
bread & butter with a liberal supply of fresh air, or if 
they expect us to beg our food.  They certainly did not 
supply us with the wherewithal to buy necessary food.   
Last November when I returned, I was told we could be 
the guest of the Red Cross Society at the Nurses Club x 
but this is really charity & is not supplied by the 
Military Authorities.  x for 24 hours.

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In all my writing I have omitted one part of transport duty 
which is very interesting & that is the bringing home of the men in 
Ambulance trains & has with one exception mentioned in this 
instalment, been between Sydney & Australia Brisbane. 
 At first the men were taken to a large hall & entertained by 
the Red Cross Society, Sydney, then taken to the trains. 
Some of the men I am afraid got very thirsty in the mean- 
time & also brought with them on the train a supply for 
the journey.  Seeing one of them refreshing himself from 
a flask & small glass, I asked what it was & a serious 
face looked up to me & said "Lime Juice", but I am afraid 
I was ashamed of some of them by the time they reached 
Brisbane, The Lime juice having had a very bad effect on 
them.  However all this was stopped later when the men were 
brought direct to the train from the ship & refreshments & 
ref supplied to them at the station & at all wayside stations 
at which we stopped, the sale of intoxicating liquor to the 
men was prohibited. 
In every train I travelled on with invalids, sleepers were 
provided for every one & latterly carriages were specially fitted 
up with three tier beds, thus enabling a larger number to be 
carried on one train, of course the more helpless men got the 
lower berths.  A medical & one Combatant Officer was on each 
train & in the beginning a number of lady [V.G.Ds] were on 
board, but on all later occasions, men of that Attachment replaced

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them & were most kind & attentive to every body.  Mayor 
Jackson [S.D.I & R.S] with his staff also boarded the train at [?some one] 
of the places stations in Queensland.   
There is no lack of interest all this the daylight hours of 
this journey.  We are nearly deafened by the whistles of the 
trains in the station yards at Sydney & all along the journey 
flags are flying from nearly every house children are 
allowed out of school & they with the adults all along the 
way, are waving flags & handkerchiefs, cheering & [cooeeing] the 
men being kept busy answering this cheering homecoming. 
I am not exagerating when I say that food is supplied 
every hour & the what food, after the ships monotonous 
diet of stew, so frequently on the menu of the men & the 
restricted diet of the other side, the white bread, fresh butter 
endless supplies of sugar, cakes & lollies, sandwiches 
of all descriptions, fresh milk, tea coffee & lemonade with 
fruits in season are appreciated to such an extent that 
one wonders where it all goes to for it is continued late 
into the night.  Sit down meals at all the large stations are 
also provided for the pr breakfast, dinner & tea.  I 
personally think too much food is provided & there is 
often waste.  Flowers, cigarettes & tobacco & Queensland 
papers & magazines are supplied to every man in the train 
by the Red Cross Society in Sydney & the farmer at all 
stopping places on the way, the Red Cross ladies being out

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as late as midnight & as early as 5am & who supply warm 
drinks etc, some of us who slept thro these stopping places 
were much amused to find ourselves on awakening decorated 
with flowers & fruit & we began to wonder onto what planet 
we had been transported to.  Then the meeting of relatives at 
the different stations & in Brisbane here the band is 
playing as we steam in, the heads of the men are shaved 
out thru the windows trying to catch the first sight of their 
dear ones.  Some of the scenes are pathetic where wives & mothers 
meet limbless or blind relatives & worse when the expected 
one has dies on the way out, the news hurriedly given  broken 
to these there by one of the deceased's comrade, which whose anxious 
inquiries has found; but mostly it is a joyous meeting, 
every thing being forgotten but the fact that the long about 
one has returned.  
The men are allowed a few minutes conversation & then in 
earlier times were lined up to be addressed by the Governor, 
Commandant, Premier & Mayor or their representatives 
& then taken in motor cars, but by the citizens of Brisbane 
to Kangaroo Point Military Hospital where the Red Cross 
Society has a sit down meal prepared for them.  Lately 
the speeches are made while the men are partaking of their 
meal.  They are then boarded, demobolised or sent onto 
Hospital as seems best for the individual.  
Sisters have very little work to do, as no dressings are

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done, unless in very special cases, so they have only to 
supervise the dieting of any very sick men we may have 
on board.  
We were very fortunate in not having many deaths at sea 
altho we had some very bad cases of pneumonia & other 
illnesses.  Those we had have been specially mentioned in 
my first report [vig:] the two meningitis patients on my 
second Kyarra trip & the 4 invalids returning on the Ulysses 
two of the latter should never have been put on board a 
Hospital carrier, their condition was such, that they could 
not possibly live this the journey home & there is as little 
in the way of comforts to be had on a ship, such as can be 
obtained on shore.  There again the patients relatives are 
somewhat comforted when the bodies of their dear ones 
are buried in the customer manner, there being a good 
deal of prejudice against burial at sea. 
Gambling that was so much talked of lately in Australia 
has "gone on" on every ship I have been on from first to last 
of the journey, in spite of everything the most strict 
D.C. could do to stop it.  The Sisters going about as we do 
amongst the men, saw it daily.  Poker, Two up, Crown & 
Anchor, Odds & Evens & some other game with a number 
such as 21, being mostly played.  The men have touts out 
watching for Officers & Military Police & are rarely if ever 
caught, but it not confined to the men only, the Officers

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play equally as much they do and on two ships the money 
was openly placed on the tables & a certain percentage of 
the winnings on the ship was paid in to the Widow & Orphans 
fund of a seaman who died early on the voyage.  The 
game "'House" on some ships was allowed & you could 
hear the men calling out the numbers at different 
times of the day, a crowd always being present.  
In the wards where the patients are constantly under 
the eyes of some one in authority, used up matches & cigarette 
ends are often numerous where card playing is going on. 
All this I think is due to the monotony of a long voyage 
with crowded conditions & in my opinion, would decrease 
considerably if some light work could be taught them on their 
homeward journey.  Such as I have advocated in my first 
report which will be found on Page 41. Paragraph 3 & on 
which I made a little experiment on my own account 
when coming out as an invalid on the Arena.  The account 
of which I sent to Col Bulter early this year.  I was 
very sorry that ill health prevented me doing more in 
that way. 
The following are incidents, but not daily happenings in 
our life aboard ship & are mentioned on that account only 
on one of our journeys from Paddington to Plymouth 
accompanied by two invalids & 3 other Sisters attached 
for duty, we a party of 12 ordered luncheon baskets to be 

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delivered at a station at which we were to arrive at 1pm.  
The conductor asked me to watch out for the boy who 
usually comes along with them, as he would be very busy 
at that time.  On this train were a number of officers 
returning by another ship in the same convoy.  Arriving 
at the station (I forget the name) I patiently awaited 
the event of the boy, but he not turning up & seeing officers 
getting into the various carriages with baskets, I set out 
to the Refreshment Room & made inquiries & found that 
the officers had commandeered our baskets & no more 
could be got.  I was very angry & went into each carriage 
& told them what they had done.  Some argued that they 
had ordered baskets at this station & all were unwilling 
to give them up.  Poor hungry men.  However one young 
Queensland Officer came along with the one he had, 
another with a small box of chocolates &  a third with a 
bottle of lemonade to appease the appetite of 12 hungry 
women.  The Conductor said he had ordered the Sister's baskets 
from this the smaller station & the Officers over 20 in number 
from a Station an hours journey further on.   Arriving 
at this second station & their baskets being brought along 
the officers in a body went into the corridors & sent the 
baskets boys down to the Sisters until all were supplied 
My irate tongue having had some effect no doubt on 
satisfied man.

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Another incident which occurred on a so called "Dry 
Ship".  The was the two Service Combatant Officers 
apparently developed a bit thirst which could not 
be appeased by lemonade & came down to lunch very 
pleased with themselves.  I was seated between them & 
realising their condition, tried not to take any notice of 
that but one would repeatedly call out to one of the other 
officers in the saloon & so attracted attention.  Their efforts 
to partake of their food was ludicrous.  Later the Senior 
one went amongst the men on the troop decks & so behaved 
that the next day on arrival at a port, he was reported by 
one of the officers on board.  An inquiry being held, resulting 
in he being relieved of his duties.  The Officer that took his 
place saw to it that the ship was very dry after that 
incident. 
The one ship coming homes, the D.C. decided not to pay the men 
until they were 20 days out.  The men became very much 
annoyed & when I was doing my daily rounds amongst 
them often made complaints about it.  I would try to appease 
them, saying "Never mind, you will have all the more to spend 
at Capetown" & afterward asked the OC & Adj about it, but 
this apparently did not have the desired effect, for on one 
morning about 40 of them assembled at one portion of the 
deck & had appointed a speaker, who told me that they 
considered I was responsible for them not receiving