Gladys Crane was a young English girl
who became a nurse and then a Sister in Bevan Military Hospital al
Sandgate, Kent. She worked there throughout 1916 and early in 1917
she was transferred to No5 General Base Hospital, Rouen, France where
she worked in Ward 13. She had constant contact with wounded
soldiers of the Great War and asked many of them to write something in a
small autograph book which she kept.
Her Father, Andrew Crane, was
a Dentist and born in Leicester whilst her Mother, Amy Constance, was
born in London. There were two of a family, Gladys Constance and
her younger sister Muriel Amy but by the census of 1911 their Father had
passed away. They lived at the Bungalow, St Leonard, Hythe.
The births of both children were registered at Elham in the Parish of St
Leonard, Hythe.
The Mother and the youngest daughter, Muriel Amy,
joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and were working with wounded
soldiers at Hythe soon after the start of the Great War. Gladys
then joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and was sent to the Bevan
Military Hospital at Sandgate, Kent, the largest hospital of it's kind
in Kent.
On 20th March 1917 she was transferred to Rouen and
remained there for the next two years. In June of 1917 she was off
sick but soon recovered and came back to work. Some years ago
Gladys passed away and today that little notebook is in my
possession. It is a wonderful record of the friendships that had
been made in both hospitals. Some of the writing has now faded and
some names are difficult to read but most are legible.
Many of
those young men in the loving care of the Sisters of Bevan would return
home with horrible injuries to be discharged as unfit for further duties
and left to spend the rest of their lives as best they could.
Others would return to the front lines to resume the fight against the
German oppressors and at least three to be killed in action.
Not
one of these young men ever complains
of the pain they had to bear or
the suffering they had to contend with
so many miles away from home and
from their loved ones. All of them
are grateful for the skills and - kindness
of the Sisters of Bevan and the
gratitude shows through in the many
lovely verses and drawings done for Gladys in her little book. It
is something she must have been very proud of. I wonder how many
if them became lifelong friends.
............................ Robert
Thompson