Am very tired as it is 6am...
Lucy Sinton Kelly
Nurse during the First World War
We arrived Bergues, beautiful day we went out & bought some underclothing, returning met Cpt. O’ Brien, had a good laugh then our train suddenly got an engine on & we had to rush at 11am. We went to Baudinghau [sic] then to Doseinghan [sic]*, they took us back through Hasbrouch** where we were bombed, three landing within 10yds of train, we had “wind up”***. Some of our cases were very sad a boy of 19yrs had lost sight of both eyes, am very tired as it is 6am.
* Bandaghem and Dozinghem were the popular names given by the troops to groups of casualty clearing stations
** Hazebrouck
*** Wind up is a widely used term for fear. For a soldier to ‘have the wind-up was no disgrace and was often mentioned casually in conversation, usually to describe a past near miss.
Listen to her words
