No 3 AAH Dartford

When in England between voyages on troop ships between Australia and England Janet Gaff worked at a number of Australian army hospitals. However the one that she worked at for the longest period of time was No 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital (AAH) at Dartford in Kent. Janet was a member of the nursing staff at Dartford from 7 December 1917 until 12 December 1918.

Entrance to No 3 AAH, Dartford - AWM

The Orchard Hospital was built between 1901 to 1902 as temporary accommodation for up to 800 patients who had contracted smallpox. By 1910 the smallpox epidemic was controlled so the hospital was used to house, primarily, patients with scarlet fever. (Dartford Hospital Histories)

Dartford Hospital buildings c1917 - AWM

On 9 October 1916 the hospital became the Dartford Australian Auxiliary Hospital. The hospital was expanded to accommodate up to 1,400 patients.

Rows of wards at Dartford - AWM

Dartford Hospital Histories provides information about improvements made at the hospital complex between 1916 and 1919:

Over the two years to 1919 considerable improvements were made. The most notable was to the grounds and gardens, cookhouse, headquarters and the addition of an operating theatre. There was an efficient boiler house supplying steam to drive the engine to supply heat for the laundry to dry clothes and to provide hot water for all the wards (and was also used for heating). The lighting was provided by gas, each ward having a liberal number of jets.

Australian soldiers suffering from 'shell-shock' the term used at the time for emotional distress, caused by experience of war, were housed at Dartford. Jan Bassett (p 73) provides quotes from two nurses who worked at Dartford. "I nursed shell-shock cases, some of which were very severe. We principally had to try and amuse them, to make them forget." Another nurse commented that "progress was very slow indeed".

According to A G Butler (P 652) the hospital at Dartford was "deliberately established as a clearing hospital between the British General Hospital System and the Australian Command Depots and Hospital Ships."

A souvenir booklet of photographs of life at Dartford was prepared  1n 1918.

Men relaxing on the lawn

One of the dining halls at Dartford

Exercise class at Dartford

The Australian Red Cross had a store at Dartford.(Dartford Hospital Histories)

The Australian Red Cross took control of the Red Cross Store in April 1917. Every patient able to walk visited the store and was issued with various items to add comfort to his stay. For patients unable to walk the shop visited them once a week to give them cigarettes and chocolate. Every patient was issued with 30 cigarettes a week.

Australian Red Cross Store

The Unit War Diaries for Dartford provide a monthly account of the operation of the hospital as well as an account of activities arranged for the patients. Matron Pocock was matron at Dartford from early 1918 and her diary also provides activities and events at the hospital from the perspective of the nurses.

Every effort was to made to provide entertainment and recreational activities for the patients as well as caring for their medical needs. Some of the activities included cinema nights, visits from outside concert parties as well as entertainment organised by staff and patients, outings for groups of soldiers, plus a variety of physical activities.

The Unit war diary report for August 1918 includes a detailed description of the Second Annual Sports Meeting held at the hospital sports ground. The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Hughes, was a guest and gave an address to the participants. In the evening a special concert was given by the hospital staff.

A ward decorated for Christmas 1918 - AWM

At Christmas each year every effort was made to make the hospital a festive place for the patients.

Snow in 1917 - AWM

From time to time the nurses at the hospital had days off enabling them to explore nearby locations and to escape for a time the day to day stress they encountered. The unit war diaries mentioned when staff went on and returned from furlough. Matron Pocock's diary provides information about some of the places that she visited. On some of these excursions nurses, including Janet, accompanied the matron. The diary notes four of these expeditions. The one that Janet  recounted in a letter to her sister (later published in the Box Hill Reporter 29 November 1918 p5) was to Windsor Castle where they met Princess Mary.

War was never far away, however. The unit war diary and Maton Pocock's diary refer to air raid warnings, particularly in March and May, and to the precautions that must be taken. The hospital was also affected by the influenza epidemic that began in 1918 with reports on the effect on patients and staff from June 1918.

Janet left Dartford on 12 December 1918 to prepare for her final return trip to Australia as a Sea Transport Service nurse. The troop ship Nestor left England on 18 December 1918 and arrived back in Melbourne on 1 February 1919.

References
Australian War Memorial website - photographs of No 3 AAH Dartford
Australian War Memorial website - Unit war diaries - No 3 AAH (Dartford)
Australian War Memorial website - Matron Pocock's Diary volume 4, 1917-1919
Dartford Hospital Histories website
Souvenir of The No. 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital (Orchard Military Hospital) Dartford Kent ( a copy of this collection of photographs appears in No 3 AAH Dartford Unit War Diary August 1918 - AWM website.)

Bassett, Jan. Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992
Butler, A G. The Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services in the War 1914-1918. volume 3. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1943

Convalescent homes for Australian nurses

During the First World War it was not just soldiers who might require medical treatment. There were also times when nurses who were ill needed to recover away from the hospital at which they were stationed. Two of these hospitals were Southwell also known as Mrs T S Hall's Hospital for Australian Sisters and St Alban's Convalescent Home.

Building that was Southwell - Lost Hospitals of London

The house at 12 Southwell Gardens in South Kensington was donated for the use of Australian nurses during the war by Mrs T S Hall. Mrs Hall provided food and general labour for the hospital while the Australian Army supplied the nursing staff consisting of a matron and three sisters. The hospital was opened by the Australian High Commissioner on 30 June 1917 and operated until 1919.

Lost Hospitals of London website provides the following description:

The Hospital had 26 beds and an operating theatre.  The wards contained a varying amount of beds, depending on the size of the rooms.  The largest had 9 beds and there were a number of single rooms. The beds were covered with light green quilts, which harmonised with crimson screens.

On the ground floor were the drawing room, furnished with comfortable chairs, and the dining room ...

The hospital was run under the auspices of the Australian Red Cross.

St Albans Convalescent Home - AWM

Glen Almond, 14 King Henry's Lane, St Albans, Hertfordshire was the site of the St Alban's Convalescent Home for Australian Nurses. The house was the country home of Mr Harold McIlwraith who, in July 1916, lent his home to the Australian government for use as a convalescent home for Australian nurses.

Sisters on the steps of St Albans - AWM

In 1917 Sister Janet Gaff worked at both Southwell and St Albans for short periods.

Janet was a staff nurse at No 3 AAH Dartford during 1918. The diary of Matron Pocock contains references to sisters who were ill, especially those with influenza, leaving or returning from St Albans.

References
Lost Hospitals of London website - Southwell
Lost Hospitals of London website - St Albans
British Journal of Nursing vol 59 14 July 1917 p 21 - website
Australian War Memorial website - photographs of St Albans Convalescent Home  
Diary of Mary Ann Pocock (Dartford) - Australian War Memorial website 

No 2 AAH Southall

The No 2 Australian Auxiliary Hospital (AAH) was established at Southall in western London in August 1916. The hospital was housed in the former St Marylebone Orphanage in Southall.

Hospital main entrance - (nla.obj-41196525)

Janet Gaff was detached for duty at Southall on 27 October 1916 two months after the buildings were allocated for use as an Australian hospital. No 2 AAH was a hospital that worked with amputees. Working at this hospital must have been a confronting experience, at least initially, for some of the nursing staff. Jan Bassett in her book, Guns and Brooches, (page 71) provides a quote from Sister Tilly about working at Southall:

I was on duty in a ward with fifteen patients who had three legs between them. I felt a coward, and shrank from meeting them at first, for they shamed me with their cheeriness and independence, doing things for themselves and helping others.

When the hospital at Southall was established it was to cater for 250 patients but within a month the proposed patient intake was adjusted to 500. It was to be a specialised institution for the fitting of artificial limbs. (Butler p 654-655)

The unit war diaries for the hospital outline the various departments including Surgical department, Medical Officers, X-Ray and Massage departments and, of course, Nursing.

Workshops for diabled soldiers - nla.obj-41197851

The Australian Red Cross organised workshops and activities for disabled soldiers.

Some patients assembled on tennis court - nla.obj-41197592

Outings and entertainments were also part of the program. For example in October 1918 four outings were organised to Windsor Castle and 13 outings organised to 'places of Amusements in London'. There were also eight cinema shows, three Pierott shows performed by hospital staff, plus visits from a Daily Mail Concert Party, Oscar Asche Dramatic Company and a visit from Miss Marle Lloyd and a party of Artistes from Hammersmith Palace.

Janet Gaff worked at No 2 AAH for a short time on several occasions while she was waiting to be assigned to a Sea Transport Service troop ship for the return trip to Australia with injured troops.

References
No 2 Australian Auxiliary Hospital Southall, Middlesex. London: Qualis Photo Company, [1919] available via National Library of Australia catalogue
Australian War Memorial - Unit War Diaries - No 2 AAH, Southall August 1916 - April 1919
Bassett, Jan. Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1992
Butler, AG. The Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services in the War 1914-1918. volume 3. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1943

Jant Gaff - pre-war hospital experience

Janet Muir Gaff (Jessie) did her nursing training at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in Scotland.

Sketch of Glasgow Royal Infirmary in distance - National Library of Scotland

The hospital built beside Glasgow Cathedral opened in 1794. The original hospital building was designed with 100 beds in eight wards. Janet worked at the infirmary from 1889 until the end of 1891 when she migrated with her family to Australia.

The Nursing Record for November 1891 included a copy of a letter that Janet had written about the length of time dead patients remained in the wards and the effect upon the other patients. The article shows this nurse's concern for patient welfare, an attribute she would have required when nursing injured soldiers during World War I.

Nursing Record 12 November 1891 p 247

Janet arrived in Melbourne on Christmas day 1891 and moved into the house her mother had purchased as a family home in Blackburn.

Janet continued her nursing career in Australia, initially at the new hospital at Warracknabeal which opened in 1892. The new hospital had two wards with a total of 16 beds. It soon became obvious that the hospital was too small to serve the local population. Beds were located on the verandah and for a time a tent in the hospital grounds housed some of the patients. Room was also required to house patients with infectious diseases such as typhoid fever which was prevalent at the time. The hospital committee unsuccessfully applied for government grants to expand the premises. Hospital annual reportsare published in John Brennan's history of the hospital.

In June 1894 the Age newspaper published a letter about a complaint made to the Warracknabeal Hospital by a Catholic priest that one of his parishioners was receiving inadequate care as Sister Gaff had been nursing Dr Little who was ill with typhoid instead of his parishioner. Meanwhile other staff cared for the general patients. The priest continued his complaints but his letters were ignored by the hospital committee. (Age 9 June 1894 p 9) It must have been difficult in a small hospital with limited facilities and staff to keep all patients and families satisfied with their care. The hospital probably could not afford to lose a doctor so in this case it would appear that every effort was made to try and ensure Dr Little's eventual recovery.

Sometime in 1897 a private hospital was established in Warracknabeal in a weatherboard house, Massawippi, situated in Jamouneau Street. In 1918, an advertisement for the sale of the house described the premises as having eleven rooms, kitchen, bathroom and wash house. (Warracknabeal Herald 24 December 1918 p 4). This was the first private hospital in the Warracknabeal and was generally referred to as Nurse Gaff's Hospital. (Weekly Times 28 September 1812 p 33) It was a small hospital with eight beds and newspaper articles mentioned that a particular patient had been referred to the hospital by Dr Little. It is probable that Dr Little established the hospital and Janet ran it. Dr Little died in October 1911. (Obituary in Horsham Times 13 October 1911 p 5) In July that year Nurse Petremant of Adelaide took over the running of the hospital. (Adelaide Advertiser 24 July 1911 p 12). For a few years the house was used as a girl's school before being sold in 1918.

Janet was the nurse at the private hospital until she left to go on a world tour in 1910-1911. When she returned Janet worked at the Private Hospital in Willaura. This may have been Kelvin Private Hospital which opened in March 1910.

In October 1914 Janet wrote articles published in three newspapers outlining the need for troops to have warm clothes during a European winter. She suggested that frozen rabbits should be sent to England which would serve two purposes. The meat could be used to feed British people and refugees from Belgium while the tanned skins could be used for the soldiers' uniforms. This proposal has been put forward by the Patriotic League. (Willaura Farmer 23 October 1914 p 3; Warracknabeal Herald 27 October 1914 p 6; Ararat Chronicle and Willaura and Lake Bolac Districts Reporter 24 October 1914 p 3) At the bottom of these letters Janet gave her address as Private Hospital, Willaura.

Janet was obviously concerned about the effects of the war in Europe and her name appears in newspapers as a donor to various war related appeals during 1914 and 1915. (Argus 10 November 1914 p 6; 9 January 1915 p 16; 5 March 1915 p 6; 19 July 195 p 13 plus Age 15 March 1915 p 12)

However Janet wanted to be more involved so she returned to Melbourne to enlist as an army nurse.

On 11 August 1915 Janet joined the AIF Australian Army Nursing Service and worked at No 5 Australian General Hospital in St Kilda Road for twelve months. On 2 September 1916 Janet applied to serve as a nurse with the  No 4 Sea Transprt Service. She left Melbourne aboard the troop ship Euripides on her way to England.

References
Glasgow Royal Infirmary - Wikipedia
Copies of Nursing Record available online on Royal College of Nursing library and heritage website.

Brennan, John. One Hundred Years of Tender Loving Care 1891-1991: the History of the Warracknabeal Hospital Inc., Warracknabeal: North West Press 1991
Copies of digitised Australian newspapers available in Trove.

No 5 AGH St Kilda Road

The No 5 Australian General Hospital (AGH) St Kilda Road was established in March 1915. Initially the hospital had 40 beds but by the end of the First World War it had expanded to 620 beds. Eight nurses worked in the hospital in 1915 but by 1918 63 nurses looked after patients at the hospital.

No 5 AGH - image from Australian War Memorial collection

When nurse Janet Gaff joined the AIF Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) on 11 August 1915 she was assigned to No 5 AGH where she nursed injured soldiers for twelve months. This experience no doubt assisted nurses like Janet who were later to serve overseas.

Before being accepted as a sister in an Australian military hospital nurses required recognised training qualifications including at least three years hospital experience. Janet had trained and worked at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and after migrating to Australia in 1891 worked in hospitals in country Victoria. She therefore had considerable nursing experience before joining the AANS.

No 5 AGH - image from Australian War Memorial collection

After twelve months at No 5 AGH Janet joined the No 4 Sea Transport Service as a Staff Nurse. Janet left Melbourne aboard the transport ship Euripides on 11 September 1916. During the following two and a half years she made three return trips on the Australia to England route. When in Australia Janet continued to nurse at No 5 AGH until it was time to return on a troop ship to England. Returning to Australia on 1 February 1919 Janet worked at the St Kilda Road hospital until her discharge from the army on 13 March. The hospital, as well as its core nursing staff, therefore had a number of nurses who worked there for a short time while waiting for their next posting.

In 1918 the hospital published the first issues of the magazine The No 5 which contained collections of articles written by staff and patients. The first issue of the magazine provides a brief history of the hospital including information on some of the services provided to patients (p 6). More detailed information about some of these services is provided elsewhere in the magazine. As well as providing general medical care the hospital had a Social Club providing concerts and other social activities for patients. There was also a Football Club  with regular matches arranged plus weekend outings for invalided and convalescent soldiers arranged by the Volunteer Motor Corps. The Anzac Buffet was a service provided for out-patients who required meals while attending the hospital. Red Cross also supplied clothing to discharged patients.

References:
Copies of No 5 AGH can be downloaded from the National Library of Australia  -
Australia. Army. Australian General Hospital, 5th. 1918, The No. 5 : a magazine published by the patients and staff of No. 5 Australian General Hospital, St Kilda Road, Melbourne No. 5 Australian General Hospital, Melbourne viewed 8 April 2017 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-62321397

Images from Australian War Memorial collection -
Melbourne Ward 17 No 5 General Hospital St Kilda Road https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H18692/
Part of Ward 1 No 5 General Hospital St Kilda Road https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/H18685/