Dispatches from the Frontline

"Einstein was right – time really is relative. Weeks feel like years and also like minutes at the same time"

Dispatches from the Frontline brings you podcasts from the diary of World War 1 nurse. At t…

Nan Reay arrived in England, from Australia, in December 1912 with her mother Lucinda (Louie) and sisters Millie, Beatrice, Amy and Alice. She then nursed privately in London until the outbreak of wa…

Due to the advance of the German army, the Australian Voluntary Hospital is established at St. Nazaire instead of Le Havre. Nan Reay arrives on the 6 September and noticing St. Nazaire to be a little…

In this episode Nan provides us with more information about the people she is working with and specific details of the soldiers’ injuries and treatments. She writes about a conversation she had in Fr…

In this episode, we gain insight into many aspects of Sister Nan Reay. She provides more details about the wounded and the living conditions in the nurses’ quarters. We hear how she manages when othe…

No two days or nights the same. Nan Reay is only about six weeks into her work at the AVH hospital. The medical staff anxiously spend their time receiving and evacuating the wounded and her life is f…

Nan Reay has been at the base hospital in St. Nazaire for three weeks. She has been told that they have had over 650 patients during that time. We are introduced to Major Studdy and Colonel L’Estrang…

Nursing in World War 1 was often exhausting, relentless and sometimes disgusting. Nan Reay’s entries in this episode describe the difficult living conditions the nurses had to endure. Despite her wea…

The image of a World War 1 nurse in a starched white apron and cap is one which dominated the records of female nurses after the war. Civilians would have seen the impossibility of maintaining such a…

In this episode Nan Reay explains the “drill” for setting up a dressing station and the ferrying of men from the front line to the dressing stations and from there to the clearing hospitals. These dr…

Shampoos, luncheons, baths and some unexpected visitors. The desire to write about normal things seizes Nan Reay in these diary entries. She chats to French children and their mothers on her excursio…

A frenzied packing up and moving on to the next AVH base. This episode reveals the frustration and anxiety which was to become part of Nan Reay’s life. Of course, at this stage she has no idea how lo…

The final diary entry for 29 October reads: “We were all working at high pressure because we knew there was fierce fighting, and wounded might come at any moment”. It is 1914 and we are half way thro…

The diary begins again in 1917. Movement orders arrive for Nan Reay but at first, there is little certainty as to which hospital she is to be sent to. Finally, she embarks upon an eventful journey an…

Picking up her kit again, Nan Reay moves on to Casualty Clearing Station 36, also situated not far from the port of Dunkirk and she becomes part of a theatre team where her skills and expertise are p…

This episode covers one of Nan Reay’s longer diary entries. The bombs are very near now and the barrage of anti-aircraft guns constantly sweeps overhead the huts with unexpected casualties. Orders ar…

Very cold weather has set in. Movement orders again and this time Nan Reay was sent to an Advanced Operating Centre where they dealt only with emergencies. Nan was near Chauny which is 120 kms north …

Nan Reay’s prolific entries are astonishing in this episode. Despite awful weather, the constant barrage of enemy bombs and the chaotic arrival and evacuation of wounded soldiers, she manages to writ…

Sudden order to move again – at once! This time the move is through Amiens, onto Abbeville to work at Camiers and then back to Etaples. Extremely busy times in theatre and life is very chaotic but Na…

Nan Reay visits Blighty (England) for a very special occasion. Her spirits are lifted and she is surrounded by family and friends even managing to see a show and eat a sumptuous dinner. She is grante…