A Nurse's 'Comforts'

Louisa Stobo was among the earliest of the Australian nurses who enlisted to serve in World War 1. When she embarked, in November 1914, as a member of the Australian Army Nursing Service, she kept a diary of her observations on the hospital ship, Kyarra, her stopovers en route and the companionship of other nurses, such as her friend, Wilhelmina Fillans. Once in Egypt, she recorded her impressions of the hospitals set up in and near Cairo and some of the many personalities she encountered. But the diary was abandoned when the casualties from Gallipoli overwhelmed the Australian Medical Corps and she did not take it up again until her voyage home, late in 1919.Louisa's war continued, chronicled in these pages through her attestation papers and her frequent detailed letters to family members. Witnessing the death of so many that she knew and the suffering of those she nursed, she became an advocate for 'comforts' for the troops. "No one knows what suffering those boys have gone through," she wrote. Awarded the Royal Red Cross, 1st Division for exceptional services in military nursing, this book is a record of Louisa's concerns and the tenacity that saw her through five years of war.