Page 13 - QARANC Vol 14 No 12 2016

The QARANC Association Heritage sub-Committee has started the publication of the letters and diaries of a trio of Army nurses - Sister Kate Luard served in the Boer War, Sister Lilian Robinson served in WW1 and Sister Alice McHardy served in WW2. It will take some time to fully complete this project, but in the meantime here is an introduction to these three nurses.
Kate Luard
Kate Luard joined the Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service (Reserve) in March 1900, and served in South Africa during the Boer War. Although she is best known for her letters from WW1 published as ‘Unknown Warriors’, she also wrote many letters home from her first period of military service in South Africa. These letters are now in the Essex County Record Office, Chelmsford. There are over 100 written home from South Africa, and the first few are now transcribed and cross referenced on the website (http://britisharmynurses.com/web/luard.html).
Kate Evelyn Luard was born in 1872, into a large family, and spent her earliest years in Aveley, where her father, Rev. Bixby Luard, was the Vicar. Later the family moved to Birch where they lived in Birch Rectory.
Kate went to the Croydon High School for Girls, one of the original schools that formed part of the Girls Public Day School
Trust. Here she met one of what was to be many military influences in her life. The headmistress, Miss Dorinda Neligan, was the daughter of an Army officer. She had served with the Red Cross in the Franco-Prussian war (1870), including the battle of Metz. Miss Neligan was also active in the suffragette movement. Kate then had a number of posts as a governess.
Kate trained as a nurse at King’s College Hospital. The Matron of King’s College Hospital at this time was Katherine Monk, a pioneer of nurse education. Miss Monk was also a keen supporter of military nursing, and was one of two civil matrons on the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Nursing Service (QAIMNS) Advisory Board for the Improvement and Reorganisation of Military Hospitals at the end of the Boer War. Kate held the positions of Out-Patient Sister at the Evelina Hospital and Night Superintendent at the Charing Cross Hospital.
On the 31st March, 1900, Kate enrolled into the Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service (Reserve), volunteering for service in South Africa.
Lilian Robinson
Lilian Robinson joined the QAIMNS as a Staff Nurse in 1912 and retired as a Matron in 1941. Although she had a long and distinguished career, relatively little about her is in the public domain.
The QARANC Association
owns her WW1 diary and
autograph book. To set the
context for this we have
researched her biography,
and military career (which
spanned 29 years). Her
diary mentions a number of other Army nurses and where possible we have linked these to entries on the website. This is a ‘project in progress’, and will take some time to complete (http://britisharmynurses.com/web/robinson.html).
Charlotte Lilian Annie Robinson (known as Lilian) was born in Shanghai, China in 1884. Her father, Alfred Murray Robinson, was a solicitor in Shanghai, as was her elder brother Edward. Lilian’s mother Harriet was Alfred’s second wife, and Lilian had brothers and sisters from both her father’s marriages. The Robinsons were part of a growing British presence in China.
Lilian and her family lived in Shanghai until she was aged 7, then the family moved back to England. Lilian’s father died in 1895, and the family moved to Oxford to live with Lilian’s sister Harriet and her husband Thomas. Harriet and Thomas were the landlords of the ‘Horse and Jockey’ Inn on Woodstock Road, in Oxford. Lilian went to Oxford High School.
In April 1908 (aged 24) she went to St George’s Hospital in London to start her nurse training.
She completed her training in April 1912, and then worked as a Staff Nurse and as an Assistant Night Sister at St George’s, before leaving to take up private nursing. She applied to join the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service in August 1912. Interestingly, her Matron while she was a St George’s was Miss Edith McCall Catherine Anderson RRC, herself an experienced military nurse having served with distinction in the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902).
THE GAZETTE QARANC 11
Letters and Diaries: A trio of Army nurses