Page 49 - QARANC Vol 14 No 13 2016

Wagons full of wounded and dying keep rumbling in. I am required to go round all the wards twice daily. I must supervise the nurses and examine every patient to see if anything is amiss. When the nurses don’t show up I must do their work as well.
What? Oh, the catgut will be in the medicine chest in the supply wagon. The nurses are only appointed for a fortnight at a time, so by the time they learn what needs to be done - they leave. Nurses. Nothing like what I knew in England. In London there are large hospitals with Nuns working there. And here? General Braddock has ordered 6 women to be sent to the Hospital to serve as nurses, not nearly enough.
The nurses are the wives of soldiers. They are uneducated, untrained, and ignorant in the art of nursing. I posted some rules for them the other day, but then found out that most of the nurses are illiterate. Oh, it is a sorry state of affairs. The army needs nurses to care for the soldiers, yet the nurses are only paid 6 pence a day, for all their work. They don’t like to come and work, but it must be done.
If the women fail to do their duty, the General has ordered punishment. They can be drummed out of camp, have their daily rations withdrawn, or even be whipped. The other day the laundresses who work for the Army demanded more pay per shirt they washed. Although they were denied more pay, at least they tried. What? Coming.”_
“17 July 1755. This afternoon deprived of my dear dear brother, Robert. I remember going with him to Fort Louisbourg in Nova Scotia during the war of Austrian Succession. I met my husband there, Edward Browne, but after the birth of our third child, Edward passed away and I was lea a widow. I had no choice but to return to England where my family could help raise my young children. Edward, how can I provide for our young ones without your support? I must go on...for our children but also for the sake of the soldiers. Edward, I miss you. Now I am alone, my dear husband departed for 2 years and my brother gone today.
In camp today there are 221 sick and 387 wounded. Smallpox, Fever, Bloody Flux, and many others. I am overwhelmed with lack of nurses and excess of patients. The only women willing to help nurse are the ones whose husbands are here in the Hospital, and they want to stay by their husbands’ sides.
It is difficult to keep up one’s spirits here. I myself have
been sick for several weeks. I can never get a night’s rest for I have so many close companions called Ticks. But worst of all, I fear for Indian Attacks. There is news of scalpings within 5 miles of this fort. One poor boy came in to the hospital, he had been scalped by the Indians. He lived 4 days.
I’ve tried to do what is expected of me, yet with so many patients I can’t treat each man thoroughly. I need more supplies, blankets, beds, medicines. The officers who purchase the medicines are allowed to pocket any money that is lea over. They intentionally buy cheap medications. They keep the money while I am toiling away trying to cure patients with faulty medicines. And for all that? I am paid 2 shillings a day. I heard that Benjamin Franklin posted an advertisement, to help procure supplies for this campaign. He is offering farmers 2 shillings a day for a horse and saddle. My work is valued the same as a horse”.
“16 August The Director says we must march very soon to Fredericks Town in Maryland which is 150 miles God only knows how I shall get there.”
Charlotte Browne stayed in America working in the Hospital until the end of the war, when she sailed back to England in 1763. Many years after the Seven Years’ War nurses’ recognition would evolve into the highly respected nursing profession that we know today. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington wrote to Congress, requesting more money to pay the nurses, because they wouldn’t work for less. By the end of the Revolutionary War, women nurses were paid $8.00 a month, plus daily rations.
During the Crimean war, Florence Nightingale was a British nurse who worked to improve the conditions of nearly 18,000 soldiers. She reduced the death rate by two-thirds. A century after Charlotte Browne, the nurses were finally beginning to be recognised for their work.
Charlotte Browne worked tirelessly to care for the wounded and sick during the Seven Years’ War. Although she was the highest paid woman in the Army at the time, she was barely acknowledged on official documents. The nurses she supervised were paid less and never recognised. Only from brief mentions in military orders do we get a glimpse of what life was like for these underpaid and overworked women. Yet their work, and the countless lives they saved, contributed to the outcomes of battles in the war. Although virtually invisible, these women provided an invaluable service to the army.
Lt Col (Retd) Dr Keiron Spires QVRM TD
THE GAZETTE QARANC 47
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