During WW1 thousands of British nurses were dispatched around the world to care for wounded soldiers. Yet, thousands of civilian nurses, trained as midwives, remained in Britain to provide maternity care and continue the progress made in this sector in the lead up to WW1. It is well known that military nurses played an imperative […]
During the First World War many people served in voluntary medical groups such as the Friends Ambulance Unit. Four men and women with addresses in Hastings and St Leonards , all of them members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), served in the Friends Ambulance Unit between 1914 and 1918. Cousins Percy and Harold […]
During the First World War, many women across the country chose to support the war effort by becoming VAD nurses, while those who were already qualified nurses immediately offered their services. In Bexhill, the Bray family included three qualified Nursing Sisters whose service in the First World War was recognized in the Bexhill Observer of […]
Whilst fighting continued on the front lines in 1918, a more serious and deadly threat was beginning to appear. It would claim the lives of millions worldwide and the people of East Sussex would not escape its effects. 1918 would see the end of the war in Europe and the eventual victory of France, Britain and […]
The destructive power of the weaponry used during the First World War dramatically changed the nature of military medicine. The wounds some men sustained tested the expertise of doctors to the limit and new innovations were required to deal with the wounds of war. East Sussex played host to hospitals and doctors who battled to […]
During the First World War, over 240,000 British soldiers lost limbs as a result of the fighting. Of these men a number would be sent to a hospital in East Sussex to learn from the limbless children who stayed there. At the end of the 19th, and beginning of the 20th, century there was little educational […]
I have just been given an Autograph book that belonged to my grandmother, Celia Mclaren, when she was a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse in 1916/17 at Filsham Park Hospital. It contains many little poems, rhymes of gratitude, local scene and military badge sketches, soldiers names ranks and details of where wounded. At present, it is […]
Many soldiers were returned to Britain during the First World War with a variety of wounds. Recuperation could be difficult but for those sent to Summerdown Camp in Eastbourne, women from the Almeric Paget Massage Corps led by the Angel of Summerdown were on hand to speed their recovery. The use of massage as a means of treating wounded soldiers […]
