Australian officers and nurses in happier times.
Australian War Memorial EO 5197
“May 2nd. Another strenuous day; over 50 officers in our section. We are all worked to breaking strain with so many dressings to do, meals to get out, & so much marble underfoot. So far we have had so little time to think and no time to ask the men much about their experiences yet. In fact one’s brain seems incapable of taking in anything and remembering it. And there is scarcely time to ask them how they are. They seem to have had a dreadful lot of casualties: some surmise 3000, others say far more than that. We were sorry to hear that Lt. Legge had gone but by this time perhaps all the men we looked upon as friends have been blotted out of this existence. The hospital ships were not nearly enough to bring away the wounded & several transports were pressed into the service as conveyances for wounded . . . We have not been allowed out, all leave stopped till further notice.”
Australian sisters on board S.S Mooltan, 1915 [AW Savage, photo album, PXE 698, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales]
Diary excerpts from the Alice Kitchen Papers, Special Collections, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne.
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