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Auction: 22003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 291

'When you stand off for a few hours from the gruesome details & pathetic streams of broken, dirty, ragged, bandaged cripples that one is occupied with all day it gets more & more unfathomable & heart-breaking … 1500 were disembarked from the trains yesterday & they are still streaming in. One train of bad cases yesterday took 8 hours to unload … '

The moving testimony of an ambulance train nurse, Kate Luard, R.R.C. & Bar, refers.

A Great War campaign pair awarded to Staff Nurse E. A. Bertwistle, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve

Her first posting was to Dublin in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising in 1916, where she joined the nursing staff of the city's King George V Military Hospital. In addition to surely caring for some of the 400 British soldiers wounded in the rising, the hospital may have cared for civilian casualties too

Bertwistle was subsequently posted to France, where - among other appointments - she undertook arduous duties in No. 36 Ambulance Train in 1918

Working alongside just two or three fellow nurses, she would have been charged with the care of up to 500 patients aboard her train, many of them caked with blood and mud and in a critical condition. Throughout each challenging journey, in which patients invariably succumbed to their wounds, she and her colleagues worked with the barest of necessities and no comforts - and under the threat of indiscriminate enemy fire

British War and Victory Medals (S. Nurse E. A. Bertwhistle), together with a hand-coloured photographic image of the recipient and a presentation certificate issued by the Joint Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem 'in recognition of valuable services rendered during the War', certificate a little faded, otherwise nearly extremely fine (2)

Elizabeth Anne Bertwistle - or Bertwhistle - was born in Blackburn, Lancashire on 3 April 1873 and qualified as a nurse at Liverpool Royal Infirmary in 1912. Her Medal Index Card states she commenced her wartime career in Malta in October 1915, likely under the auspices of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, for she does not appear to have joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve until April 1916.

Easter Rising 1916

She was immediately deployed to the King George V Military Hospital in Dublin, taking up her new post towards the end of the following month. Because of the large number of casualties - military and civilian - stemming from the Easter Rising, the city's medical authorities were under pressure.

In peacetime the hospital had a capacity for just over 100 beds but that capacity was raised by 300 or more as the war progressed. It formed part of an extensive British military complex and support facilities west of the city centre. These included the Royal Barracks, to which the hospital was connected by a tunnel via Arbour Hill Detention Barracks. The cemetery behind these latter barracks served as a burial place for 14 of the executed leaders of the Easter Rising.

Ambulance Train

In October 1917, Bertwistle was posted to France, where, towards the end of the war, she joined the staff of No. 36 Ambulance Train, and she remained likewise employed until the Armistice on 11 November 1918.

A summary of the ambulance train statistics appears on the History Press website:

'These trains transported the wounded from the Casualty Clearing Stations to base hospitals near or at one of the channel ports. In 1914 some trains were composed of old French trucks and often the wounded men lay on straw without heating and conditions were primitive. Others were French passenger trains which were later fitted out as mobile hospitals with operating theatres, bunk beds and a full complement of Q.A.I.M.N.S. nurses, R.A.M.C. doctors and surgeons and R.A.M.C. medical orderlies. Emergency operations would be performed despite the movement of the train, the cramped conditions and poor lighting. Hospital carriages were also manufactured and fitted out in England and shipped to France.

In the early trains there was often a lack of passage between the coaches and with only a few nurses it was necessary for a nursing sister to pass from coach to coach, whether the train was in motion or not, usually carrying a load of dressings, medicines etc. on her back in order to tend to the wounded on each coach. During the night she also had a hurricane lamp suspended from her arm. The medical staff consisted of three medical officers of the R.A.M.C. including the Commanding Officer, usually a Major, two Lieutenants, a nursing staff of three or four with a sister taking on supervision of the whole train, complemented by 40 R.A.M.C. other ranks and Non-Commissioned Officers.

An average load was 400-500 patients with a large number in critical condition. Often they were transferred to the train still in full uniform in shocking condition caked with mud and blood and owing to the cramped conditions their uniforms had to be cut away. Many journeys were long such as the one from Braisne to Rouen taking at least 2 ½ days. There were deaths on all journeys. The nurses' workload was heavy and they worked under dangerous conditions with the barest necessities and no comforts.'

Bertwistle remained on duty in France after the Armistice, latterly at No. 35 General Hospital, prior to being demobilised as a Staff Nurse in April 1919.

Postscript

Today, it is possible to visit the scene of Bertwistle's tour of duty in Dublin, the King George V Military Hospital having been renamed St. Bricin's Military Hospital for use by the Irish Defence Force. Due to its old-fashioned appearance, it has appeared in many films, among them My Left Foot.

Recommended reading:

https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/evacuation-of-the-wounded-in-world-war-i/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2605886/Poignant-archive-pictures-ambulance-trains-transported-soldiers-wounded-First-World-War-hospitals-Britain.html

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Sold for
£650

Starting price
£250