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