I am telling the stories of the Bedwell children of the Reverend Charles Edward Bedwell and Mary Louse (nee Wilson). They had married in 1875 and had 7 children. Their daughter, Clarissa, a nurse in the Territorial Force Nursing Service, was awarded a rare medal (see my previous blog). Charles remarried in 1890. He and his wife Annie (nee Grey) had a daughter, Isobel Mary in 1982.
This blog tells the story of Clarissa's sister, Gertrude, who was also a trained nurse, and who also took part in the Great War as a member of Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service. Both sisters trained for three years at a time when nursing was becoming a more formal profession.
All Hallows convent and school 1900
Gertrude was born on 25th November 1885 in Sevenoaks. According to Census returns, the Reverend's children were born in several different areas - no doubt reflecting the different parishes he worked in. On her application to join the QAIMNS Gertrude states that she was educated at All Hallows Ditchingham. This was a convent in Norfolk that offered a spiritual education to girls. I don't know when she attended the school. There is no sign on census returns of the family living there but they might well have been living in Norfolk in the 10 years between each census.
From 1909 - 1913 Gertrude - perhaps inspired by her sister several years previously - trained to be a hospital nurse. She trained at the Hull Royal Infirmary followed by a year at a "lying in" hospital (known today as a maternity hospital). She then spent several years as a private nurse. However, when war was declared she joined her sister and became a miltary nurse. While here sister had been in military nursing before the war, in the TFNS, Gertrude joined the QAIMNS in November 1915.
On 27 March 1902 Queen Alexandra became the President of the newly
formed Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS).
Queen Alexandra was a Danish princess before she married King Edward VII
and she chose the cross of the Order of Dannebrog as the basis of the
badge of the QAIMNS.
At the outbreak of war in 1914 there were just under 300 nurses in the
QAIMNS, by the end of the war this had risen to 10,404 (including
reservists). Army nurses served in Flanders, the Mediterranean, the Balkans,
the Middle East and aboard hospital ships. (for a detailed account of the role of the QAIMNS nurses in the conflict, see link below)
https://britisharmynurses.com/wiki/index.php?title=Reports_of_nurses_serving_in_WW1
Like her sister Clarissa, Gertrude's service records indicate that she served in several countries, including Egypt and India. In May 1916 she sailed for Bombay on the Devanha, which had taken part in the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. However, records show that she did not stay in India - she sailed for Basra on 20 April 1917 where she joined the No 3 British General Hospital.
According to the 'Medical History of the War', Volume IV, the No 3
British General Hospital occupied a palace of the Sheikh of Mohammera on
the right bank of the River Tigris, its 'ground floor was somewhat damp
and dark, but the first floor was bright and airy'. Steamers would
transport casualties to a wooden pier on the riverbank. The hospital
could apparently house 150 patients with Indian Army casualties being
relegated to tents set up in in the palace grounds.
No 3 BGH Basra
I have found a note of all her postings in her service records (thank you Gertrude!) which included Bombay, Alexandria and Iraq.
Gertude's list of her postings - very useful to me some 106 years later!
In her service records, Gertrude is described as tactful, good tempered, zealous and showed great initiative.
I have found photographs of the nurses who were at the BGH in Basra at the time that Gertrude was nursing there.
Nurses having a picnic
Nurses cooling off in the sea. The sense of freedom must have been quite heady!
After serving abroad for 3 years and in what must have been very challenging conditions, Gertrude returned home in January 1919 , where she was promoted to Sister and was placed in charge of the Officers' Ward. She left the service in April 1920 when records show she became a "sick nurse"in a nursing home in Rugby. By 1939 she had returned to hospital nursing: she states her occupation as Assistant Matron to a children's orthopaedic hospital in York. She died in 1956 - within months of two of her sisters - Clarissa and Dorothy. Like her sisters, she never married. She was 72 when she died.
Like her sister, she spent her whole adult life looking after others in her role as a nurse, in sometimes very challenging conditions abroad but also nursing young mothers and elderly people once she was back home.
A member of the QAIMNS
When I reflect on Gertrude's life, I see an incredible journey from the
sheltered life at a convent school in Norfolk and a vicarage to spending
many years in foreign countries under tremendously difficult conditions,
mixing with men and women from different backgrounds, faiths and
countries, living very closely. Maybe she went on picnics and even swam
in the sea!
I have been lucky enought to find a photograph of Gertrude! It is on a family tree on Ancestry and so I will not share it on social media without permission. However, if you have access to ancestry you will find it if you search for Gertrude Bedwell and chose the Public Member Photos. It shows her in a nurses uniform - I do not think it is the QAIMNS one.
In my final blog about the Bedwells, I will look at their two sisters and two brothers. Their sister Dorothy seems to have looked after the family upon their mother's tragically early death at 33 - but nevertheless also worked in a children's home - thus continuing the work of caring for others but in a less formal way. One brother died in the Boer War in South Africa and I believe their other brother became a Captain in the Yorkshire Regiment. Time for me to check the remaining Bedwells out! I have found this many, many times - there is no such thing as an "ordinary" family - but sometimes, as with this one, they can be extraordinary!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Alexandra%27s_Royal_Army_Nursing_Corps
https://www.grandadswar.org/photos/hospitals/
https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1954-09-18-7
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Gertrude-Fenn-World-War-One-Nurse/
https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1987-01-70-25
Imperial War Museum collection
Find my Past
Ancestry
Google/Wiki
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