Army Nursing before the Boer War

Who was serving at the time of the Boer War?

The following table lists the nurses in the Army Nursing Service (ANS) before the start of the Boer War. The table draws on information from the Army Lists, Medal Rolls, Nursing Journals, and information in the Boer War Database. They are presented in alphabetical order by surname.

Grade	Title	Surname	Forenames	Enlistment	RRC	Army List 1898	Boer War	Medal Roll	Comments
Superintendent	Miss	ADDAMS-WILLIAMS	Florence Ellen	October 1, 1885		Canterbury	Yes
Sister	Miss	ANDERSON	C			Egypt	Yes
Sister	Miss	ANDERSON	ACL (Catherine)	October 3, 1894		Rochester Row	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	BEARE	MJ			Dublin
Sister	Miss	BLOOMER	Caroline Augusta			Dublin
Sister	Miss	BOND	Nellie Auger			Netley	Yes		Was serving at Netley in the Reserve. Married in 1898 (BMD) (Mrs Clarke). Sister of Alice Sweeting BOND
Sister	Miss	BOND	Alice Sweeting	January 27, 1892		Netley	Yes		Sister of Nellie Auger BOND
Superintendent	Miss	BROWNE	Sidney Jane	May 20, 1887		Woolwich	Yes		Saw active service in Egypt (McGann)
Sister	Miss	CAMERON	Anna Gardiner	June 13, 1891		Egypt	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	CAULFIELD	Anne Ellen		Egypt, Transvaal		Yes	WO 100/61 p32 (Base Hospital Ismalia) Egypt 1882
Superintendent	Miss	CHADWICK	Clara Mavesyn	October 10, 1882		Gosport	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	COLE	Mary Cecil Florence Kate	January 1, 1883	Egypt	Chatham	Yes
Sister	Miss	COX	Elizabeth	July 22, 1892		Curragh	Yes
Sister	Miss	COX	Emily Agnes	November 1, 1897		Netley	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	DE MONTMORENCY	ML	February 7, 1898		Devonport	Yes
Sister	Miss	DOBBIN	Rebecca Rhoda	February 11, 1891		Cork	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	DOWSE	Elzabeth Ann	July 1, 1898		Gosport	Yes
Sister	Miss	DRURY	Laura Beatrice Alice	December 19, 1896		Dublin	Yes
Sister	Miss	FLETCHER	Margaret Fanny	April 13, 1891		Aldershot	Yes
Sister	Miss	FORREST	Mina MacLaver	November 16, 1886	Egypt		Yes
Superintendent	Miss	GARRIOCK	Ann	July 22, 1889		Woolwich	Yes
Superintendent	Mrs	GRAY	Jane Ann	September 22, 1884	Zululand, Egypt	Rochester Row	Yes	South Africa 1877-79 WO 100/47 p636 Egypt 1882 WO 100/61 p32 (Base Hospital Ismalia)	Active service in Egypt 1882 and Zululand & Ashanti Campaign 1896 (NRHW, 1899) Was awarded Royal Red Cross, 1st Class, 1883, South Africa Medal for Zulu and Basuto Wars 1877-79, Egyptian Campaigns Medal 1882-89, Queen's South Africa Medal 1899-1902, King's South Africa Medal 1901-02 and Khedive's Egyptian Star 1882-91. (National Army Museum)
Sister	Miss	GRAY	Elizabeth White	May 7, 1897			Yes
Superintendent	Miss	GRIST	AF	October 21, 1886	Egypt	Egypt	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	HARDEMENT	Lyn	Reserve until 1900		Devonport	Yes
Sister	Miss	HARPER	Mary Ellen	April 12, 1889	Egypt	Egypt	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	HART	Sarah Frances	February 18, 1887	Egypt	Catham	Yes
Sister		HILL	Mary Greenfell	November 18, 1893		Aldershot	Yes
Sister	Miss	HITCH	Maud Sarah	November 1, 1890		Aldershot	Yes
Sister	Miss	HOADLEY	Jane	September 7, 1893		Woolwich	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	HOLLAND	Eliza	October 28, 1897		Portsmouth	Yes
Sister	Miss	JEFFCOTT	MM	June 3, 1891		Egypt	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	JERRARD	Isabela Julia	September 8, 1882	Egypt, Transvaal	Curragh	Yes	Egypt 1882 WO 100/61 p32 (Station Hospital Alexandria)
Sister	Miss	KEER	Caroline Helen	December 19, 1887		Dover	Yes
Sister	Miss	KINAHAN	Isabel Anna Gerrard	July 1, 1897		Rochester Row	Yes
Sister	Miss	KNOX	Marianne Catherine Smith	October 1, 1887		Aldershot	Yes
Sister	Miss	MACINTYRE	RT	February 24, 1897		Gosport	Yes
Superintendent	Mrs	MACKAY	LJ	January 23, 1886	Egypt, Transvaal	Egypt	Yes
Sister	Miss	MAKEPEACE	Mary Ridley	October 15, 1894		Shorncliffe	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	MARK	AG	July 25, 1895	Egypt	Malta	Yes
A/Superintendent	Miss	MARTIN	Ethel Jane	August 2, 1893		Colchester	Yes
Sister	Miss	McCURDY	Harriet	November 25, 1886		Gibraltar	Yes		Active Service during the Ashanti Campaign 1895 (NRHW, 1895)
Sister	Miss	MILNE	BW			Rochester Row	Yes
Sister	Miss	MORRIS	EL			Portsmouth	Yes
Sister	Miss	MURPHY	Agnes Annie	May 23, 1894		Dublin	Yes
Sister	Miss	MURPHY	Agnes Annie	May 23, 1894		Dublin	Yes
Sister	Miss	NEALE	Helen Louisa	October 5, 1894		Canterbury	Yes
Sister	Miss	NIXON	Amy	October 1, 1894		Woolwich	Yes
Sister	Miss	NOBLE	Elizabeth Treacher	June 4, 1891		Portsmouth	Yes
Lady Superintendent	Miss	NORMAN	Helen Campbell	November 1, 1889	Egypt	Netley	Yes		Suakim Expedition (Sudan) 1885 (Nurs Rec, 1893)
Superintendent	Miss	ORAM	Sarah Elizabeth	May 8, 1889	Egypt	Dover	Yes		Dongola Expedition 1896 (NRHW, 1899)
Sister	Miss	OTTLEY	JE	May 12, 1891		Egypt	Yes
Sister	Miss	POTTER	Wilheminia	November 15,1897		Canterbury	Yes
A/Superintendent	Miss	POTTS	Caroline Hutton	January 6, 1897		Colchester	Yes		Active Service during the Ashanti Campaign 1895 (NRHW, 1895)
Sister	Miss	ROSE	MC			Rochester Row	Yes
Sister	Miss	ROSE-INNES	Annie Rose	December 6, 1894		Aldershot	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	RUSSELL	May	November 15, 1893		Colchester	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	RYAN	E	June 18, 1891	Crete	Malta	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	SAMMUT	AJ	February 21, 1893		Shorncliffe	Yes
Sister	Miss	SAUNDER	Gertrude Elizabeth	December 27, 1893		Curragh	Yes
A/Superintendent	Miss	SNOWDEN	Sellina Ysibella	January 6, 1894		Devonport	Yes
Sister	Miss	STEELE	Clara Kathleen Emily	September, 1, 1896		Cork	Yes
Sister	Miss	STEEN	Lavinia Eliza Caroline	March 13, 1897		Woowich	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	STEWART	Louisa Mary	December 16, 1889		Gibraltar	Yes	Egypt 1882 WO 100/61 p32 (Hospital Ship Carthage)
Sister	Miss	TAIT	Alice Emily	April 18, 1896		Woolwich	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	THOMAS	Martha	November 10, 1885	Egypt	Aldershot	Yes
Sister	Miss	TRIPP	Dorcas Douglas	October 6, 1894		Chatham	Yes
Sister	Miss	TULLOH	Louisa Watson	September 18, 1887		Woowich	Yes		Active Service Assouan (Sudan) 1889 (NRHW, 1899)
Superintendent	Miss	VAUGHAN	Sarah Blanche	July 1, 1889		Gibraltar	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	WEBB	Sarah Emily	October 8, 1898	Egypt	Egypt	Yes
Sister	Miss	WILSHAW	Sarah Lucy	October 6, 1887	Egypt	Egypt	Yes
Sister	Miss	WILSON	Janet Walker	July 1, 1895		Malta	Yes
Sister	Miss	WILSON	Mary	October 12, 1897		Netley	Yes
Superintendent	Miss	WRIGHT	E	November 14, 1889		Gibraltar	Yes
Sister	Miss	WRIGHT	Maria	June 20, 1889		Malta	Yes
Sister	Miss	BECK	Ethel Mercy (Mary)	March 6, 1899			Yes
Sister	Miss	BODY	Edith	December 11, 1898			Yes
Sister	Miss	BROWNING	Sophia Margaret	May 8, 1899			Yes
Sister	Miss	CULVERWELL	Lucy Matilda	April 4, 1899			Yes
Sister	Miss	GUTHRIE	Alexina	March 1, 1898			Yes
Sister	Miss	HARDING	Mary Ethel	March 3, 1898			Yes
Sister	Miss	MACLEAN	Edith	September 1, 1898			Yes
Sister	Miss	MAGILL	Georgina Adeline	May 1, 1899			Yes
Sister	Miss	MARK	Martha	October 10, 1898			Yes
SIster	Miss	PALMER	Dorothy Frances	February 28, 1898			Yes
Sister	Miss	PHILLIPS	Grace Marguerite	August 21, 1899			Yes
Sister	Miss	POCOCK	Hilda Francis	May 11, 1899			Yes
Sister	Miss	TODD	Lucy Mary	March 6, 1899			Yes
Sister	Miss	TODD	Edith Mary Elizabeth	June 23, 1898			Yes
Sister	Miss	YOUNG	Henrietta Tarleton	March 1, 1899			Yes

Sister Jane Gray
Sister Jane Gray is an example of a nurse in the ANS who served before and during the Boer War.

Although my research shows that few of the nurses that served in the Boer War had any military experience, there were some who had experience of military nursing in Africa as well as other parts of the world. At the start of the Boer War Sister Jane Gray was the Matron of the Guards Hospital, Vincent Square, London. She was the senior nurse in the service having entered the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley in 1873 after training at the Royal Infirmary, Liverpool.

She served in the Zulu War, and in the first Egyptian Campaign in 1882, in a hospital less than 12 miles from Tel el Kebir. She was away from home for nearly four years as she followed the Gordon Relief Expedition up the Nile and nursed soldiers at Wadi Haifa during a cholera epidemic.

In 1896 she was one of the three Sisters (Sister McCurdy and Sister Potts being the others) who went out to the Gold Coast on the HS Coromandel. Superintendent Sister Sidney Browne (later to be the first Matron-in-Chief of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS)) gave her a bouquet of chrysanthemums. The sisters on the Coromandel had no wounded to deal with as this was a bloodless campaign, but had many soldiers to care for, who had malaria.

So by the start of the Boer War she had seen service in Egypt and Sudan, the Zulu War, and the Ashanti campaigns on the Gold Coast.

References

1. War Office (1898) The Army List , September 1898. London: HMSO
2. McGann, S. (1992) The Battle of The Nurses. London: Scutari Press
3. The National Archives: WO 100/61 p32 Medal roll for Egypt (Base Hospital Ismalia)
4. The National Archives: WO 100/47 p32 Medal roll for South Africa 1877-79
5. The National Archives: WO 100/61 p32 Medal roll for Egypt (Base Hospital Ismalia)
6. Nursing Records & Hospital World (1896) Interview with Sister Gray. Nursing Record & Hospital World Mar 7. pp. 188-189
7. National Archives: WO 100/61 p32 Medal roll for Egypt (Station Hospital Alexandria)
8. Nursing Record & Hospital World (1896) Interview with Sister Gray. Nursing Record & Hospital World Mar 7. pp. 188-189
9. The National Archives: WO 100/61 p32 Medal roll for Egypt (Station Hospital Alexandria)
10. Nursing Record & Hospital World (1895) Nurses of Note: Superintendent Sister J.A . Gray. Nursing Record & Hospital World Dec 14. pp 428-429
11. Nursing Record (1823) At Home: Miss Norman at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley. Nursing Record. July 6, 1823, 329-331
12. The National Archives: WO 100/61 p32 Medal roll for Egypt (Hospital Ship Carthage)
13. The National Archives: WO 100/61 p32 Medal roll for Egypt (Hospital Ship Carthage)