Ardnish Was Home Episode 21

LOUISE There was talk among the senior officers that Earl Kitchener was thinking of a withdrawal from the entire Gallipoli campaign, though our General, Sir Ian Hamilton, wouldn’t consider the idea, I was told. He seemed blind to the unfolding disaster and even wandered around telling everyone how well things were going.

It was late October when we first started getting men in with jaundice. They had yellow eyes and pale skin, with high temperatures. While not huge numbers, it was one more ailment we could have done without. One of the doctors estimated that about half the soldiers were not really fit to fight now.

When they came on board, assuming we weren’t having a rush on, the men would get a bath and be put into pyjamas. Their clothes would be sent off to be cleaned and they would be fed much better than they had been in the trenches. Plus, they would have a comfortable bed.

You would think the men would be keen to stay, but, on the whole, they yearned to get back to their battalions. There was one young officer who was with us three times in as many months: once with a shrapnel wound in the back, and twice with dysentery. After the first injury, without telling anyone, he just climbed out of his bed and climbed into a lighter that was dropping men off. And there was us planning to send him to Lemnos to convalesce!

We’d had a few Lovat Scouts on the ship so far, and no doubt we would have more, as they had only arrived at the end of September. We heard of the considerable success the Scouts had been having over the last few weeks; they had been picking off the enemy officers, resulting in disciplinary problems among the Turks, and there seemed to be a swing of the pendulum in favour of our troops at Suvla.

However, Brigadier General Lord Lovat had himself been stricken down with dysentery and been evacuated to Malta, which was a real blow as people said he was very popular among the men. The other generals didn’t have the oomph that Lovat had.

They dithered about an attack while the Turks rushed in reinforcements, meaning we couldn’t seize the hilltops. He didn’t come on our ship, which was a shame. I would have liked to have met him.

Then we heard that General Hamilton had been sacked by Kitchener. The other officers seemed pleased. He didn’t reconnoitre the ground; rather he tried to assess his strategy from maps and from his HQ aboard ship. Perhaps if he had seen the problems the men faced, he would have had different tactics. The word on the officers’ wards was of nothing else.

I felt sure we could do more. I spent hours talking to the other nurses and finally came up with a plan. Nervously, I went to speak to the matron about it.

Matron Davy was very professional and looked after us well. She and I got on just fine. She listened as I explained my ideas. Perhaps some of the nurses could go onshore and join the medics who were really struggling to cope at the Casualty Clearing Station on the beach? The need was so desperate, surely we could do more good there?

In danger

But she wouldn’t hear of it. She said we would be in danger and there wouldn’t be accommodation for us. She told me to leave it at that, but said we would talk about it again in a few days. I was determined now, however, and as my Mam would tell you, when I want to do something I usually end up doing it.

Anyway, the nurse who had the doctor friend told him what I’d requested and he in turn told the Brigadier doctor who commanded the ship’s hospital. As a result, Matron and I were marched in to see the Brigadier.

“Well, Staff Nurse Jones, I gather you have a plan. Would you like to tell me about it?” he said, not unkindly.

“Well, sir,” I stuttered, “the problem seems to me that the Casualty Clearing Stations are not set up to deliver the medical service they could. If soldiers were treated better and quicker there, we would have a far higher survival rate, and the backlog of men waiting to get to the hospital ships would be a lot less.”

Matron Davy responded with all the objections she had put to me two days before, though not so forcibly with the Brigadier. The one point he seemed unable to respond to was who could authorise the Queen Alexandra nurses to do a shorebased job, with the danger of coming under fire. Yet there was no doubt that he was persuaded and I was told to go and continue with my duties while he and Matron spoke. Later in the day I saw the matron and asked her how things had turned out.

“If there is any decision, you will hear about it in due course, Staff Nurse Jones,” she said stiffly, and walked on. We all respected Matron – she worked tirelessly and was very good at her job – however, she didn’t mix well with us new nurses and definitely saw us as lower-class.

There was talk of nothing else among the nurses. On balance, they were keen to go and help on shore, wondering whether perhaps a rota could be set up, such as two days on shore and then two days on the ship, for a trial period. Communication between the Queen Alexandra nurses’ HQ on Malta and the front line always took a while.

A whole week passed, during which we heard nothing. But things finally came to a head when the ambulance boats reported that many of the medics at the Casualty Clearing Station had come down with dysentery and there were not enough people to manage.

I spoke to Prissie, and together we decided to corner the Brigadier. We waited outside the officers’ mess until eventually he beckoned us into his office.

“How about we just climb into the lighters now, sir? No one would stop us. The men at casualty will be in a terrible way. They need us.”

He paused, then smiled and nodded. “We never had this conversation.”

With our hearts beating fit to burst, we rushed back to our berths. At dawn, we agreed, we would get the first boat going ashore. We asked Mary and Lorraine to join us; they had been keen when we had originally floated the idea.

I was determined now, however, and as my Mam would tell you, when I want to do something I usually end up doing it