- Description
Description
Gwen Ware was a member of the Farnham & District Museum Society until she passed away in 1983, leaving this remarkable diary, and in 1984, extracts were published by the Society. As Gwen writes in the introduction: ‘The diaries were written mostly in pencil and often by the light of a hurricane lamp in a bell tent… these diaries are the reactions, mental, emotional, and physical of a young woman in her early twenties during 1916-18 when I was a VAD [Voluntary Aid Detachment] [nurse] in Detachment Surrey 124 (I think!) and serving with the Army at Bramshott (Hampshire) and then in France.’
Former Society member, Elfrida Manning, wrote the following book review: ‘It is a vivid record of the day-to-day running of a miIitary hospital on the Western Front in the years 1916-1918. She writes without sentiment or exaggeration, bringing the whole scene vividly to life. She marvelled at the cheerful courage of the soldiers in the face of almost certain death, as well as their steadfast faith in ultimate victory. “Such men”, she comments, “cannot be beaten.” The diary also reveals her own great courage and devotion to the wounded men in her care. She tells how one laid a hand gently on her shoulder and said: “I’d do anything for you, Nurse.”’
The account is somewhat harrowing in parts, but such was the nature of the supposed Great War to end all Wars.
