I am researching some of the nurses who were awarded the TFNS following the Great War. Details of the service and the medal awarded can be found in my previous blogs. The nurses' records are held at the National Archives and have been digitised. They are free to access and this has enabled me to identify many of the nurses and piece their life stories together. I am finding fantastic, forgotten stories withiin these "dry" records! One such story is that of Jean's remarkable survival of a torpedo attack in which she spent nearly four hours in the water and was injured while being rescued. It was only when I was about half way through some fairly mundane records, that I discovered this! She even gives a first hand account of her experience - lost within the file - but nevertheless a lasting record for us to read.
Jean was born in 1883 in Aberdeenshire. The first record I have of her is in 1906. when she enrolled in the college of nursing. In 1910 she was working as a Matron in a private nursing home in North Shields, having enrolled in the TFNS in 1908. She was called up on 5th August 1914, just a few days after the start of WW1 and nursed at the First Northern General Hospital in Newcastle
Nurses and patients at the NGH 1915
The 1st Northern General Hospital was a hospital set up to help soldiers
injured during the war. On 6th August 1914, following the outbreak of
World War One, the buildings of Armstrong College at Durham University
(which has now become Newcastle University), were used to house the 1st
Northern General Hospital.
In early 1917 Jean was asked to ready herself for overseas service in Salonica, travelling on the SS Transylvania.
SS Transylvania
As I was scrolling through Jean's records, I find several mentions of her ordeal in her own words, such as the following, when she says she doesn't feel brave (!) and indeed gives credit to a fellow nurse for helping her to survive.
One of several accounts of Jean's ordeal
Jean was examined by several medical boards in the following months. She suffered from haemotysis (coughing up blood) and a painful shoulder. Both of these conditions, she says, were caused when she was pulled up the side of the ship that rescured her. She says she had been in the water for 3 1/2 hours. I have found a long, contemporaneous article about the sinking, dated 26 May 1917. The bravery of the men who went down with the ship is heartbreaking.
Jean returned to the UK where she spent many months on sick leave. I was astonished to see there was an albeit brief discussion as to whether she had served overseas and so was entitled to a medal reflecting this. It was argued that since her ship was sunk and she didn't disembark in Salonica, she never served overseas! I am so glad she DID get her medal!
Jean is one of the most indominitable women I have researched (and there have been a fair few!). She is absolutely adamant that she wants to be sent overseas, preferably to Salonica! Having been torpedoed and injured! A direct quote from her is:
"I am very miserable being idle so long and shall be glad to feel of some use once again"
Amazing!
However, Jean DID go to sea again. After the War she continued nursing in various hospitals and nursing homes. Somewhat mysteriously, I have found her undertaking several return trips to Canada. I have found at least 4 from 1920 until 1930. She was offered a free passage to Canada in 1921 and I have found one address in Canada - The Anna Turnbull Hospital in Saskatchewan.
Anna Turnbull Hospital
Jean also married in Canada - several of her letters after 1922 refer to her by her married name of Hoffman. I do not have access to Canadian records and so I do not know for certain what became of her - however a family tree on Ancestry states she married Frank Hoffman in 1924 and died aged 89 in 1973.
What a remarkable document Jean's service record is! Not only does it contain biographical details such as her nursing career before, during and after the war, but it gives her own account of her terrible ordeal when her ship was sunk. But even more, it shows what an astonishingly brave and intrepid, woman that she was. Having been involved in a shipwreck and having been injured in it, she wanted to go straight back to sea! And indeed she did so, several times back and forth the Atlantic in the 1920s when I am sure the voyages were much less comfortable than today!
I'm so glad that Jean found a way of continuing her nursing after the War in another country - after all, she said herself that she longs "to be of some use again"! Many would say she had "done her bit" several times over!
Jeam, I salute you!
The National Archives Kew
Ancestry UK
Find My Past
Wiki
https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/speccoll/tag/1st-northern-general-hospital/
https://www.azionemare.org/en/transylvania.php
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15709352
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