One Hundred Years of Army Nursing: The Story of the British Army Nursing Services from the Time of Florence Nightingale to the Present Day

In 1902 the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was established and, in 1908, the Territorial Army Nursing Service. Then came the 1914-18 war in which over 10,000 trained nurses were serving and, significantly, they were now employed in Casualty Clearing Stations in advance of the base hospitals. But still their official status in the Army was unsatisfactory; they were serving with the Army but were not an integral part of it. The 1939-45 war brought the nursing service finally into its own; the nurses obtained commissions and the principle was accepted that danger should not be a reason for barring their employment where they were needed. And soon the Army became so conscious of their great value that Corps and Divisional Commanders planning a battle began to display great interest in the siting of Advanced Operating Centres with nurses on their staff. The tale of their services in peace and war reveals one clear outstanding pattern of devoted service regardless of self. This book shows that in each of the two great wars, 220 members of the nursing services lost their lives. In the second great war battle casualties were more numerous and deaths from disease fewer, because campaign diseases were under better control and the nursing services were more exposed to enemy action. [Author]