Nurse Muriel Wakeford. Illawarra Rememers website. Woolongong City Libraries. |
To give some idea of the role of ships and their nurses at Gallipoli, below are series of images from the Australian War Memorial showing the Gascon at work at Gallipoli and transporting the wounded from Gallipoli.
One of the number of Australian nurses who served on the hospital ships ferrying the wounded from Gallipoli to Lemnos, Egypt and Malta, was Bathurst-born Sister Murial Wakeford.
Nurse Wakeford aboard the Gascon. Illawara Remembers website. Woolongong City Libraries. |
"Quite a number of men I know have been killed. I can quite imagine what a sad Australia it will be when the casualty lists come out. The roll of honour will be a very long one. People will begin to realise that this is the war in earnest. The poor men in the trenches, living for a week at a time, without sleep or a wash, and very little food, and eventually getting these horrible wounds - it makes one wonder if it is worth the cost. The Australians are spoken of highly in every quarter. They are called "die-hard Australians", and I tell you they do die hard too."
The Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 30 June 1915, page 12
For the nurses who cared for the Anzacs on the hospital ships, like Sister Murial Wakeford and many others, Lest we forget.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
HS Gascon. AWM |
Barges
bringing wounded soldiers alongside the Hospital Ship Gascon. AWM |
A flat bottomed barge transporting wounded soldiers from Anzac Cove alongside the Hospital Ship Gascon. AWM image |
Injured soldiers confined to stretchers being lowered into the wards of the hospital ship Gascon which was standing off Anzac Cove, April 1915. AWM image - Donor Sister A. Twynam RRC. |
Bodies of the dead on stretchers covered by Union Jack flags being transferred from the decks of the hospital ship Gascon to trawler for burial at sea. At sea, off Gallipoli, 1915. AWM image. |
Alexandria, Egypt. 1915. Army patients from Gallipoli being transferred from Hospital Ship Gascon to a hospital train for movement to Cairo. AWM image - Donor Sister A. Twynam. |
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete