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WWI Army nurse's photos in France


Bob Hudson
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My wife's great-aunt was a nurse in WWI, serviing with Hospital Base Unit 36, which formed at Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery.

We have long had the WWI diary of Nurse Agnes Reid and her medal from the French government. This week we went to Kansas City to help my wife's mother (Agnes was her father's sister) go through some boxes stored away in the basement. In one of them we found several artifacts from Agnes' life including several pages of photos and postcards from WWI France. Unit 36 set up the first 1,000-bed hospital of the war in five summer hotels in Vittel. They received their first patients in fall 1917. Nurse Reid was the Head Nurse for Hospital C located in the Hotel Palace. Eventually Unit 36 has beds for 3,000 patients in their five hospital buildings.

 

The photos are each rather small and mostly printed on paper which feels much more flimsy than the types of photo paper we are used to. They are also mostly sepia-toned (although in preparing them for use here, I converted many to black and white). I have enlarged them more than their original size which of course also enlarges dust specks and other flaws in the originals. Since I am traveling I had to use my camera instead of a scanner to make these copies and that also affects quality.

 

What struck me was the diversity of the soldiers shown in these photos. The first two photos show Nurse Reid (her brother - my wife's grandfather - spent WWI as an Army Air Service flight instructor in Texas).

 

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great topic and very interesting! must have been awesome discovering this stuff thumbsup.gif thanks for sharing.

 

Yes my wife was quite excited when she pulled these out of the box. We also found some very nice portraits of another relation in a WWI US navy uniform.

 

We also found a WWI Army patch in with the photos and tonight I found it was what was worn by the Nurses:

 

post-214-1223931115.jpg

 

For several years I have been meaning to transcribe Nurse Reid's WWI diary. I recall one entry in there where she writes being able to hear the "Bosch" guns in the distance, and in fact the Nurses were told to make preparations to move.

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Very nice patch! thumbsup.gif

-Willbpatches

 

According to the history of Base Hospital N. 36, it sounds like the nurses may have embroidered them:

 

post-214-1223957500.jpg

 

I can't wait to put the patch and the photos together with her WWI diary and medal.

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Chris Liontas

Awesome photos!

 

 

Question though--how were US combat hospitals (MASHes for lake of a better term) organized. I have a photo album to a surgon, WWI to the 32nd division that shows US, French, and British personel all over. Did the hospitals get organized along National lines or were they a combination or nationalities

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Awesome photos!

Question though--how were US combat hospitals (MASHes for lake of a better term) organized. I have a photo album to a surgon, WWI to the 32nd division that shows US, French, and British personel all over. Did the hospitals get organized along National lines or were they a combination or nationalities

 

The hospitals appear to have been organized by nation, but each treated soldiers from many nations and they did exchange personnel. For instance Nurse Agnes and some fellow nurse were sent to another hospital to learn about a new wound treatment method from French doctors (they endured some air raids during that). And in the history of Agnes's Base Hospital No. 36, there is this: "Major Barrett and Lieutenant Stone were ordered to British Casualty Clearing Station No. 49 at Achet-la-Grande..."

 

The "Casualty Clearing Stations" were the MASH units of the first World War. The "Base Hospitals" stayed put, but the Casualty Clearing Stations were mobile units near the front, at least during the early part of the war - they later became less mobile. There were advanced aid posts right on the front lines. I would imagine that in areas where troops of different nations fought in close proximity, there would be medical personnel from all those nations working together.

 

Since the posting the above photos I have found more including some with Agnes in uniform with stripes on her sleeve. I am back home in California and brought home the photos and more, including photos of Agnes' three brothers who served in WWI and their mothers Blue Star Flag with four stars for each of her children in the war and small pins for the various services (one brother was in the Navy, another Air Service and the third in the Motor Transport Corps). I also found a photo of their father in his kilts when he was a member of the Cameron Highlanders before emigrating to America in 1880 (He was my wife's great-grandfather). He died in 1915 on his 60th birthday so he never saw his four children join the service. After I get some photos taken I will start a new thread on the artifacts of the four Reid siblings in WWI. With the Blue Star Flag as the centerpiece, along with the photos and Agne's WWI patch, diary and French medal, this should make quite a display to pass along to our son (who is named William after his Highlander great-great-grandfather and his Air Service officer son, who was also named William. My mother-in-law has the son's WWI leather flying cap and goggles and those will make it into the display too.

 

I had know about Agnes and William being in WWI but never knew about the other two brothers until this week when I started finding their photos in the boxes of family archives - and I cannot tell you how exciting it was to find that Blue Star Flag.

 

By the way if anyone reading this ever finds themself on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, go into Buck's Ice Cream over in the Ag School area and you will find two large portraits hanging in the campus ice cream parlor. One is of Buck, and the other is of Buck's mentor, Professor William Reid, WWI Army Air Service flight instructor.

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I brought home more photos from Kansas, including Nurse Reid in uniform playing tourist in France (and based on what I have read in her diary and other WWI nurse diary excerpts online, nurses did a lot of that in their off time).

 

These are very tiny photos enlarged several times when I scanned them. The first one shows some details of her uniform with the three overseas stripes for 18 months service in France.

 

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Here's one of Agnes with her brother Harold. I don't know where Harold served in the war, but since he was in the Navy I presume he left the country. Agnes and Harold's other two brothers, did their WWI military service stateside.

 

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This letter published in the same paper mentions briefly Agnes' experience with air raids when she and some other nurses visited another hospital for training in a new wound treatment procedure. I think the headline of this newspaper piece is rather ironic considering whose letter was printed first.

 

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Chris Liontas
The hospitals appear to have been organized by nation, but each treated soldiers from many nations and they did exchange personnel. For instance Nurse Agnes and some fellow nurse were sent to another hospital to learn about a new wound treatment method from French doctors (they endured some air raids during that). And in the history of Agnes's Base Hospital No. 36, there is this: "Major Barrett and Lieutenant Stone were ordered to British Casualty Clearing Station No. 49 at Achet-la-Grande..."

 

The "Casualty Clearing Stations" were the MASH units of the first World War. The "Base Hospitals" stayed put, but the Casualty Clearing Stations were mobile units near the front, at least during the early part of the war - they later became less mobile. There were advanced aid posts right on the front lines. I would imagine that in areas where troops of different nations fought in close proximity, there would be medical personnel from all those nations working together.

 

Since the posting the above photos I have found more including some with Agnes in uniform with stripes on her sleeve. I am back home in California and brought home the photos and more, including photos of Agnes' three brothers who served in WWI and their mothers Blue Star Flag with four stars for each of her children in the war and small pins for the various services (one brother was in the Navy, another Air Service and the third in the Motor Transport Corps). I also found a photo of their father in his kilts when he was a member of the Cameron Highlanders before emigrating to America in 1880 (He was my wife's great-grandfather). He died in 1915 on his 60th birthday so he never saw his four children join the service. After I get some photos taken I will start a new thread on the artifacts of the four Reid siblings in WWI. With the Blue Star Flag as the centerpiece, along with the photos and Agne's WWI patch, diary and French medal, this should make quite a display to pass along to our son (who is named William after his Highlander great-great-grandfather and his Air Service officer son, who was also named William. My mother-in-law has the son's WWI leather flying cap and goggles and those will make it into the display too.

 

I had know about Agnes and William being in WWI but never knew about the other two brothers until this week when I started finding their photos in the boxes of family archives - and I cannot tell you how exciting it was to find that Blue Star Flag.

 

By the way if anyone reading this ever finds themself on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia, go into Buck's Ice Cream over in the Ag School area and you will find two large portraits hanging in the campus ice cream parlor. One is of Buck, and the other is of Buck's mentor, Professor William Reid, WWI Army Air Service flight instructor.

 

Awesome info!! Thanks a ton!

 

The photo album that I have is most likely the Casualty Clearing Station--makes a lot more sense to see the French and British surgons mentioned

 

Thanks again!!!

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Found this photo today of Nurse Agnes' brother Harold C Reid who was in the Navy in WWI:

 

post-214-1224037034.jpg

 

Looking at the 2 photos of Harold, it appears that he is waring a right sleeve rating on his left sleeve. think.gif

 

Love the pictures and would like to hear more from her diary.

 

Bill

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Looking at the 2 photos of Harold, it appears that he is waring a right sleeve rating on his left sleeve. think.gif

 

Love the pictures and would like to hear more from her diary.

 

Bill

 

from http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq78-5.htm

 

The uniform regulations of 25 January 1913 changed the location of rating badges so that ratings badges were no longer worn on the sleeves corresponding to assigned watches. Right arm rates were to signify men of the Seamen Branch; left arm rates were to be used by personnel of the Artificer Branch, Engine Room Force, and all other petty officers. The eagle continued to face left on all rating badges.

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from http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq78-5.htm

 

The uniform regulations of 25 January 1913 changed the location of rating badges so that ratings badges were no longer worn on the sleeves corresponding to assigned watches. Right arm rates were to signify men of the Seamen Branch; left arm rates were to be used by personnel of the Artificer Branch, Engine Room Force, and all other petty officers. The eagle continued to face left on all rating badges.

 

 

My education continues.

 

Who ever said our learning does not end when we receive a diploma, must have been a collector!!!

 

Thanks salute.gif

 

Bill

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