Volunteer nurses during the First World War: a South African perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT The First World War writings of Betty Freund and Frances Lyndall Schreiner are the only available primary accounts by volunteer nurses from the Union of South Africa who served in the European theatre of war. The reluctance of Union women to volunteer to the British war effort were informed by several historical factors in the decades before the war, yet Betty’s letters and Frances’ narratives reveal similar experiences to those of volunteer nurses of other nationalities.Both women wrote to inform, yet Betty also felt a need to reassure, while Frances aspired to publication and employed contemporary literary conventions. On the surface, their texts show nursing and care for young soldiers were their priority, yet a deeper analysis reveals issues of national identity and their reactions to the contemporary views of nurses.