The Other Anzacs (5 page)
Kath, Ursula and Tom worked in tents in the camp, Kath observing that it was ‘quite tricky nursing on the sand’. Managing the flow of invitations was equally tricky. A colonel invited the three women to the mess for dinner one night. They had a ‘ripping time, met such a crowd of officers and of course they made a great fuss of us as they had not seen an Australian woman for ages’, Kath noted.
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Not surprisingly, Ursula’s brother Gordon Carter was one of the three officers who escorted them home.
One Saturday evening he and two officers called at the nurses’ quarters to escort the three women on a donkey ride to the Sphinx and Pyramids. ‘Sphinxing’, as such outings were known, became a favourite pastime for off-duty officers and sisters. Another of the Mena House sisters, Olive Haynes, spent a day in bed with tonsillitis and noted that ‘Col. Springthorpe said it must have been the moonlight Sphinxing.’
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For Kath, the ride to the Sphinx was magical. ‘It was full moon, one of the most glorious nights I ever remember, as clear as day. Gordon escorted me everywhere.’
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He described the trip in a letter to his parents, saying the Sphinx ‘was made to smile for us by the Arabs. This is done by burning a piece of magnesium wire close up under the head and the shadow thrown up makes the Sphinx appear to smile.’
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Gordon became a frequent caller on Kath. One evening she and Ursula went to Mena Camp for tea and stayed for dinner. ‘Afterwards the whole crowd of us went to the Picture Show, Gordon chaperoned me; Carter and I were the only two women in a hall full of men, too many for my liking.’
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Life continued in this pleasant manner for the next few weeks, with Gordon arranging trips around Cairo along with dinners at the Continental and Shepheard’s hotels, visits to the Pyramids and the zoo, horse rides and trysts in the garden at Mena.
Among the sisters, it was common knowledge that Elsie Sheppard and Syd Cook were married. That placed Elsie in breach of AIF Standing Orders, which stated that ‘the appointment of any member of the Australian Army Nursing Service who marries will cease from the date of marriage.’ Official files are confusing, but it appears that efforts were made to circumvent the regulations to enable Elsie to serve overseas, a crucial part of the subterfuge being a statement that she had been mobilised out of Hobart instead of Sydney. A Minute Paper suggests that she joined under her maiden name, adding that she was ‘mobilised in Tasmania, but embarked 2nd Military District [NSW] in the
Kyarra
24/11/14’. Another document states that ‘Nurse Cook enlisted in Melbourne in November 1914 . . . being part of Tasmanian Quota’. However, Army authorities in Hobart later categorically denied that she was part of the Tasmanian contingent.
Elsie’s diary seems to confirm that she boarded the
Kyarra
in Sydney, but there is no explanation of why her father was in Melbourne to farewell her eleven days later. However, as a former prime minister and defence minister, her father-in-law had strong military connections, and it is possible that strings were pulled to allow Elsie to sail. Clearly, Elsie was determined to play her part and not be deterred by sexist rules.
After their reunion and trip to the Pyramids, Elsie and Syd had tea at the ‘Sydney’ tea room, which she noted was a recent ‘Egyptian innovation since the advent of Australians at Mena’. Later that evening, Syd went to Mena House to spend more time with her. ‘I took him to what I was told to be the sitting room, but [Matron] Miss Gould came along and found us and explained shortly that it wasn’t for mere men to intrude there, so Syd soon departed.’
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In the weeks that followed, the couple spent as much time as they could together, at Syd’s camp, sightseeing, or dining in Cairo with other officers. Matron Nellie Gould—who had worked at the same hospital where Elsie trained—was placed in a difficult situation. In mid-February Elsie was suddenly stricken with pleurisy, but when Syd came to see her, the matron told him off ‘for not being properly chaperoned to the sick Sisters quarters’.
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Syd got the message and, returning next day with red roses and Sydney newspapers, ‘was properly escorted and announced by Miss Gould’. A week later, Elsie wrote, ‘Miss Gould desires me to take my proper name Cook . . . “to avoid complications”. So henceforth I’m to be known as Sheppard Cook. I’m very pleased, it is funny to be called Sheppard when you’re Cook and one’s friends outside hospital are in a dilemma. Sheppard whilst in hospital and Cook outside is rather confusing and muddley. So exit Sheppard.’
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Clearly, there was no secret about Elsie’s status as a married woman, or any doubt that her superiors were prepared, however reluctantly, to turn a blind eye to the breach of regulations. Elsie’s colleagues, and Syd’s, were never in any doubt. ‘On duty tonight, ’ Elsie wrote at the start of February, ‘I had one of Syd’s sergeants admitted as a patient . . . Sgt Peasey, who was one of our guard of honour. I foresee a bright and much indulged time in hospital ahead of Sgt Peasey.’
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On Elsie’s twenty-fifth birthday, 2 February, Syd sent over an orderly with a ‘nice box of chocolates and a note . . . Some blessed night march on, and he will come up later.’
Against the backdrop of a troop build-up, bayonet drills, the steady tramp of feet and clatter of horses’ hoofs, and the strains of battalion marching bands, the off-duty events created an air of gay unreality. Gordon and Kath joined a party of ten one carefree afternoon on a houseboat on the Nile. There were yet more dinners at the officers’ mess. The social whirl, the flirting and courting went on innocently even as the drums of war quickened their beat.
Kath King found Lieutenant Colonel William Ramsay Smith to be ‘a perfect horror’. Alice Ross King was equally unimpressed by the commanding officer of No. 1 Australian General Hospital, commenting acidly that he had ‘a most unfortunate way of delivering himself ’. Equally difficult to get on with was Principal Matron Jane Bell. Gimlet-eyed, thin-lipped and wearing steel-rimmed glasses, she was not easy to like, yet she was fiercely protective of her nurses’ interests. That embroiled her in a bitter power struggle, precipitated by unclear lines of responsibility between the nurses and the Army hierarchy.
Not long after the arrival of the Australian nurses in Cairo, Bell was angered to discover that Ramsay Smith had demoted her from principal matron of the No. 1 hospital to house matron of No. 2 Australian General Hospital. She appealed to the British Director of Medical Services in Egypt, Surgeon-General Sir Richard Ford, who ran the Australian medical services in Egypt but knew little about them. Ford reinstated her, setting the scene for constant tension between her and Ramsay Smith.
One morning, Ramsay Smith ordered a group photograph taken. Alice Ross King, on night duty, was annoyed at having her sleep interrupted. General William Williams, a ‘big fat splodgy thing’, sat in the middle of the group. ‘I got in the back row and sat down with my back to the camera—we were so annoyed about it. They kept us standing about for 1½ hrs. We asked if we might have a cup of tea before going to bed and were told “Yes if we went without our supper that night” but we could not have both.’
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This incident typified the level of petty control that military commanders sought over the nursing staff.
The tension began to show. Ramsay Smith refused to cooperate with Matron Bell, not even informing her when nursing reinforcements were to arrive. Despite her support for the nurses, Bell did not endear herself to them. After Kath King was found talking to a certain captain in the nurses’ lounge she noted peevishly, ‘Miss Bell lectured me the next morning for doing so.’
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Alice Ross King was alarmed as she watched the matron go ‘on the warpath properly . . . She is really the limit there is no mistake about it.’
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It is clear that Bell was a disciplinarian and made little allowance for personal issues affecting the nurses. Alice saw her as a martinet. When another sister, ‘poor little Clarrie Green’, learned by telegram that her mother had died in Australia, and letters from the mother kept arriving, Bell showed no sympathy. Alice was outraged. ‘Miss Bell was such a brute to her. Would not give her any time off duty although she had a nurse to spare and went around growling at her. Miss B. is intolerable.’
4
If the struggle between Bell and Ramsay Smith complicated life at the hospital, work in the wards could also be politically tricky, as Alice experienced one night when Ramsay Smith conducted an inspection. ‘Are all your men in bed?’ he demanded. ‘Yes, Sir!’ she answered, ‘All except those on light duties.’‘Then what is that man doing sitting by his bed playing patience? You go this instant and send them all to bed.’ ‘Poor me!’ Alice recorded, clearly irritated by Ramsay Smith’s high-handedness.
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Over the next several months the situation continued to fester. Stories reached the Australian press, and the government agreed to a War Office inquiry. Ramsay Smith and Bell were recalled to Australia to appear before it. The inquiry found that the friction at the hospital arose from Ramsay Smith trying to impose a ‘system of command in an arbitrary and tactless manner’ on a group of women unaccustomed to military discipline. A review of the matron’s role and responsibilities followed, leading to the establishment of the position of Matron-in-Chief of the Australian Army Nursing Service. Alice Ross King had her own thoughts on the affair: ‘We feel Miss B has been badly treated but it will be a happier unit without her.’
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Shortly after arriving in Cairo, and amidst the conflict between Bell and Ramsay Smith, Alice was among twenty nurses who volunteered to set up a clearing hospital at Suez, five hours away by train. Thousands of Turkish troops were already massed not far from the Canal. The nurses were just ten kilometres from the firing line, where Indian troops were stationed with orders to hold the Canal. It was not safe to go out in Suez unless under escort, with locals throwing stones and spitting at the nurses. ‘Sometimes I feel just a little bit nervous—not for myself though. I seem to think that the dear old mater’s prayers will help me along, ’ Alice noted.
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Alice was appointed theatre sister at the hospital, which was set up in a vacant French convent orphanage. The nurses unpacked equipment, prepared the operating theatre, and waited for it to be painted. Everything in the convent was filthy, and her bed was flea-ridden. Alice busied herself scrubbing and cleaning with strong phenol until she could scarcely bear the pain in her hands, and spent a morning sterilising the theatre. That afternoon, the first of the 2nd AIF Contingent came off the Canal, and Alice and several other sisters went to greet them. ‘How the men cheered and cheered us. They were delighted to see some of their own women again.’
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Another troopship arrived two days later. ‘As soon as the Boys saw us in the street they hailed us loudly. So we went over and had a talk to them. They are the nicest crowd we have struck yet.’
9
Heavy fighting erupted at the Canal, with the Turks preparing to cross the waterway before they were driven back. They suffered heavy casualties, some of whom were taken to Alice’s hospital for treatment. It was her first contact with enemy wounded. The nurses also treated wounded Indians, who were ‘delighted to be dressed by Australian ladies and some who had already been dressed presented themselves for dressing again’. One soldier had had the fingers of his left hand blown off. ‘The stumps were in very bad condition and the dressings badly stuck as they had not been dressed since first aid on the field.’
10
The operating theatre opened with an appendicectomy. ‘The theatre was crowded with onlookers. I was very nervous but everything went without a hitch.’
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But the nurses’ stay at Suez was brief. Without warning, Alice and her colleagues were recalled to their hospital at the Heliopolis Hotel, arriving back in Cairo in mid-February.
