1st October, 1915

To my unaccustomed eyes all the patients seemed dying...

Emma Duffin

VAD Nurse during the First and Second World Wars

In the early morning it was wonderful to see the sun rise and to hear the priests from the different mosques chanting praises to Allah. Their voices seemed to carry for miles in the still air [...]

One night about the end of our 1st week […] I was to go to a new ward […] with 30 beds in it. To my unaccustomed eyes all the patients seemed dying and I was suddenly struck by the terror of the whole thing.

Some of the patients looked more like skeletons as they sat up in bed in the dim light, rocking themselves backwards and forwards, groaning, grinding their teeth in agony. “My God, oh my God”, they would mutter [...] what a ghastly night this was.