WWI diary of Army Nurse in France

[Bob Hudson]

A while back I posted some photos taken in France in World War I by my wife's great-aunt who was the Chief Nurse at one of the five hospitals that made up Base Hospital No. 36 in Vittel, France. (the photos are at http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=28685 )

 

This week I found her diary which had been stashed away since we move from Kansas five years ago.

 

Agnes Reid started this diary on the day she got news her unit was being mobilized for overseas duty. Hospital Base Unit 36 was formed at Detroit College of Medicine and Surgery, went to New York City for training, went by ship to Liverpool and then crossed the Channel for duty in France beginning in late 1917. They treated a lot French as well as Italian, Algerian and Moroccan patients.

 

The inch-thick diary is packed with details, but the handwriting can be hard to read. I am going to scan excerpts from the diary and transcribe some of what she wrote in it.

 

Agnes married after the war, but never had children and my wife's mother (Agnes' niece) remembers her as a rather stern woman (which probably served her well as chief nurse at a hospital in a war zone).

 

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

This is her first entry. The diary had printed dates, but she started writing in Sept. 1917, so ignore the printed dates:

 

"Sept. 1, 1917 - Got orders to mobilize - Next day orders to report to N.Y. Friday 21st… realized I meant what I said."

 

 

Her unit spent a lot time drilling (they even marched in one parade) and shopping in NYC before getting orders to embark for England:

 

"Sept. 26, 1917 - Very good drill. French class. Meals excellent, new mess sergeant. Went to moving pictures in evening. 35 ill soldiers came in from Camp Mills.

 

Thurs, 27th - Went on 3 mile hike for drill. Saw 165 Reg (old 69th) parade.

 

Friday 28TH - Orders to leave #1 - Packed.

 

Sat. 29th - Left Gun Hills Road at 11, marched 3 (?) mi. until picked up by ambulances. Ferries for Hoboken."

 

[Bob Hudson]

Agnes unit left New York Harbor on Sept 26th, 1917. Throughout the diary she pasted in momentos: in this from the Cunard steamship that took her unit to Europe.

 

 

Her ship arrived in Liverpool and she got this from her hotel.

 

[Bob Hudson]

On November 12th, 1917 her unit crossed the English Channel to France:

 

"Great danger of mines, aeroplanes and torpedoes. When we reached the boom 4:30 AM I went to sleep,

 

Nov. 13th, Tuesday - Entered Seine R. [river] saw sunken boat which had been mined, but just made the boom. Aeroplanes over harbor…taken by British ambulances to AEF offices…. No heat any place in hotel. Bar adjoining & too many officers drink and become drunk. Havre is very, very dirty & we do not like the people….Beds terribly high & beastly cold."

 

 

By Thanksgiving she is in Vittel, France and the nurse produce little hand-made programs for their Thanksgiving dinner. This page ends with, "Danced during evening. Wrote mother."

 

 

 

The inside of the program. Notice the first item on the agenda is titled, "The First Thanksgiving vs [versus] Our First Thanksgiving in Vittel." It would have been interesting to what Miss La Forge had to say about that.

 

[Bob Hudson]

A lot of time was spent converting the five hotels in Vittel into hospitals and Chief Nurse Reid had previously expressed frustration with having to go through the French for supplies so she was pleased when the AEF had its own supply train going.

"Mon. Dec. 10th. - On duty 8 AM. Had orders we were not to have contagions, just surgery. 50 beds added making 315. Supplies taken over by U.S. & immediately by nurses. Begins to look like hospital - Nurses work beautifully. Steam [heat] on - getting O.R. ready."

 

 

Feb. 19th, 1918 - "General Pershing made rounds & left town [with] a very bad impression of us all. Did not criticize the Palace [Nurse Reid was the Head Nurse for Hospital C located in the Hotel Palace].

 

Feb 20th Wed - Col. Fisher came down from ??? by Genr'l P's orders & read the riot act."

 

[Bob Hudson]

"March 5th, Tuesday - Up at 5 AM. Guns are busy. 42 frogs came in, all walking. Some Italians, Algerians & Moroccans. Many trench feet, bad eyes from gas …. Some rumor of 42 Div [Rainbow Division] going over the top at Luneville."

 

At this point she writes about orders to go to Compiegne at the front. This may be the trip where she and other nurses studied some new wound treatment protocols being used by French doctors.

 

 

These entries take place about March 11-12, 1918 when they were on the trip.

"Lights out & siren sounded 9PM & we were in basement till 1AM. 60 planes went to Paris & did "beaucoup" damage. I dislike the little machine gun sitting outside our window barking away"

 

Agnes injured her arm in an accident during this trip and she mentions getting help from the other nurses, "the girls" with her dressing.

 

[cutiger83]

This is amazing! I am sure it is so interesting to read the diary! Thanks for giving us a glimpse....Kat

[Dirk]

Very nice item and a very interesting read!

[Bugme]

I like reading these first hand accounts of what these people did. No spit, no polish, just the facts about the life she was living at the moment and the things which were important to her. I have a friend whose mother was a nurse at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked. Her diary really says very little other than "the Japanese attacked, killed and injured many of our boys." Yet she filled a page a couple days later about some free time she had and where she went to eat. I guess what we think is important historically, really wasn't as important to them as a good meal several days after the horrors of what she saw and wanted to forget after the attack.

 

If you've got more of this Bob, I'd love to continue reading!

[Bob Hudson]

I like reading these first hand accounts of what these people did. No spit, no polish, just the facts about the life she was living at the moment and the things which were important to her. I have a friend whose mother was a nurse at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked. Her diary really says very little other than "the Japanese attacked, killed and injured many of our boys." Yet she filled a page a couple days later about some free time she had and where she went to eat. I guess what we think is important historically, really wasn't as important to them as a good meal several days after the horrors of what she saw and wanted to forget after the attack.

 

If you've got more of this Bob, I'd love to continue reading!

 

I'm going to try to work my way through it: it's a lot of work scanning, transcribing and posting, but is so interesting, especially because it's a very little known side of the war: a US hospital treating mostly non-US patients (at first) and all of those young American women far from home in that strange mix of war zone and Parisian culture. I would guess this was the first war in which American women went overseas in any large numbers. I have posted elsewhere some photos of two other WWI US hospitals in France http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=72619 and http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=73105 and in looking at the close-ups of the nurse's faces you can't help but wonder how the experience impacted on their lives? Did some come back with their own version of "shell shock," did it change them in ways their families just did not understand?

 

I've tried to find something where she expressed any sort of emotion about the war, but none: she shares feelings about food, heat and supply problems, but nothing about the war or her patients. Well, she did write, "I dislike the little machine gun sitting outside our window barking away." But hey, don't we all hate when that happens?

[fortworthgal]

Very interesting! I do not collect WWI but I do find the entries fascinating.

 

I have posted elsewhere some photos of two other WWI US hospitals in France http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=72619 and http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=73105 and in looking at the close-ups of the nurse's faces you can't help but wonder how the experience impacted on their lives? Did some come back with their own version of "shell shock," did it change them in ways their families just did not understand?

 

I would expect that it did impact them greatly. For me, one of the most important things to remember is how different things were for women in that era. It really puts into context what a "big deal" women serving in the military was. The role and expectations of women in those eras was completely different than it is today - there was no such thing as equality.

 

Women were not expected to work outside the home or even wear pants. Gloves were to be worn in public, corsets were still a mainstay. During the time this diary was written, women could not even vote! Yet here is a woman who was in charge of a hospital full of wounded soldiers in a strange foreign country, probably witnessing things so horrible that women of the era would not have even read about in books. It must have been absolute culture shock for these women. Then after months and years of that, to return home to the corseted, gloved, polite society must have been difficult to say the least.

 

The same is true for the women who served in WWII, although the contrast is slightly less stark.

[Bob Hudson]

It's way past time to scan some more of the diary

[ScottG]

Bob that is a fantastic piece of history. We have exhibits for Base Hospital 36 and Base Hospital 17 here at the Michigan Military Heritage Museum in Grass Lake. We just received a Nurses uniform to a Nurse named Eva Belle Reid, perhaps a relative? Eva served in the 2nd Corps and the uniform is posted in my Women of WWI topic here. If you or your Wife are ever inclined to have the diary exhibited back in Michigan, let me know. Thanks for sharing some great family history! Scott

[Barrettsgranddaughter]

My grandfather, Major Channing W. Barrett, was the chief medical officer of Hospital "C" of Base Hospital 36 in Vittel.  He and Agnes Ried were, I believe, the only two from Chicago, and I believe they knew each other.  I would love to see more of her diary.