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The first recorded hospital ship was the Red Rover in 1860 during the American Civil War. British forces have also used hospital ships to medically or surgically treat members of the Army, Navy and RAF. Hospital ships have also been used for humanitarian operations throughout the world and are often called Mercy Ships for this reason. Other names for hospital ships include Navy Ambulances or Floating Ambulances. Though predominately staffed by members of QARNNS and QARNNS(R) - the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service and the Reserves members of the QAIMNS have nursed aboard hospital ships alongside their Navy comrades. The book The Roses of No Man's Land by Lyn MacDonald has several photos of the Hospital Ship Essequibo and the QA Sisters who served aboard her tending the sick and wounded from Gallipoli. World War I Hospital Ships The hospital ships of World War I were mostly converted passenger liners. Examples of these are the RMS Aquitania and the His Majesty's Hospital Ship (HMHS) Britannic. Members of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) served aboard such hospital ships on the wards. Others included the hospital ship Abessieh, the hospital ship Anglia, HS Devanha, HS Gloucester Castle, HS Somersetshire, HS Salta, His Majesty's Hospital Ship Neuralia and the hospital ship Asturias. Help Needed: Qaranc.co.uk would like to add a page about the QA lanyard but need some help. Can anyone please help with a photo of the lanyard on the uniform and a photo of just the lanyard? It would also be helpful if anyone can give some tips on how to site and fit the lanyard. Please use the e-mail address on the contact page. Thank you! Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story by Nicola Tyrer is an account of the QAs during the two World Wars. It includes first hand accounts of the Queen Alexandra nurses who were in the dressing stations, casualty clearing stations and field hospitals of Dunkirk, D Day, the fall of Singapore and many more locations where the QAIMNS served. Buy Now. Sisters In Arms: British Army Nurses Tell Their Story is also available as a talking book read by the actress Barbara Flynn and Sian Thomas. Buy Now. View More British Army Nursing Books - with free delivery available. St Margaret of Scotland The Great War hospital ship St Margaret of Scotland was an unusual hospital ship in that it was staffed by Scottish doctors, nurses and orderlies because the nation had raised £22,000 to equip her (cited in It's a Long Way to Tipperary: British and Irish Nurses in the Great War by Yvonne McEwen). Lifeboat Drills As part of their role aboard hospital ships QAs had to learn lifeboat drills in case their ship was sunk, damaged or hit a mine. This involved learning to row the large lifeboats so that they could do this competently during any evacuation. Most QAs wore bathing costumes under their ward dresses and uniforms whilst aboard the hospital ships. Whilst on the ships nursing and medical personnel would wear their lifebelts, only taking them off when asleep. Survival Tips Nurses also had to quickly learn survival tips for evacuating their patients when abandoning ship during a bombing or torpedo attack. For example a patient who had a wooden leg splint would have to have it removed before evacuation because should he go into the water the wood of the leg brace would float and cause his upper body and head to go under the water and could make him drown. Burying The Deceased At Sea A sad duty of the hospital ship staff was having to ask the padre to perform a committal service after the death of a patient and help with burying the deceased at sea by sliding the shroud wrapped corpse over the side of the hospital ship. Sadly many patients died aboard hospital ships because of their extreme wounds, despite the excellent nursing and medical care. During World War I the QAs would cross the English Channel from France to Britain whilst caring for their wounded patients on the ward. Once at the port the military patients would be evacuated to the military hospitals. Red Cross To prevent bombing or being fired upon by planes, boats or submarines hospital ships are usually painted all white with a red cross on each side.There is usually an illuminated red cross on the deck of hospital ships. This affords the hospital ship, the patients and medical personnel and the ships crew protection under the Geneva convention. Unfortunately this did not save the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur during World War II which was sunk by a Japanese submarine on the 14 May 1943. Even during the Great War German U-boats targeted hospital ships. For example in March 1917 HS Asturias was torpedoed out of Salonika. British Hospital Ships Destroyed By The Enemy There were many British hospital ships destroyed or damaged by the enemy during the First World War. For example the hosp ship Rohilla was sunk near Whitby when sailing from the Firth of Forth to help evacuate wounded troops from Flanders who were evacuated to Dunkirk. Though the four QA sisters were safely rescued on the lifeboats many sick berth attendants died. 2,261,502 wounded men returned to Britain from France aboard hospital ships and 29,000 returned aboard hospital ships from Malta, the Middle East and Africa cited in the book The Roses of No Man's Land by Lyn MacDonald. There is a photo of the wreck of the Hospital Ship Rohilla in the book Sub Cruce Candida: A Celebration of One Hundred Years of Army Nursing. HS Rohilla had left the port of Leith and was lost just off the Yorkshire coast. It was thought to have hit a mine but its sinking was more complex. Wartime restrictions made it very difficult for ships to navigate the open water especially with all shore lights extinguished and the navigation buoys silenced. This was the same down the coast and many navigation fixes were at best estimates. This placed the Rohilla quite off from where it was believed to be and her course took her over a treacherous patch of rock known locally as Whitby Rock. The scar extends some distance out to sea and it was this that the vessel struck although it can be appreciated why the captain thought the ship had struck a mine. The gale force conditions spelt the end for the former liner and troopship and over the course of that fateful weekend one can only imagine the horrors facing those stranded aboard Rohilla. (My thanks to author Colin Brittain for this information. Read more in his book Into the Maelstrom: The Wreck of HMHS "Rohilla" ). Hospital Ship Salta The Hospital Ship Salta was sunk on the 10 April 1917 with the loss of 52 lives which included a Matron, 3 Sisters and 4 Staff Nurses (cited in It's a Long Way to Tipperary: British and Irish Nurses in the Great War by Yvonne McEwen). Hospital Ship Rewa The Hospital Ship Rewa was sunk by a U boat off the Bristol Channel on the 4 January 1918 and four lives were lost. Hospital Ship Warilda The book The Roses of No Man's Land by Lyn MacDonald describes the sinking of the Hospital Ship Warilda that was torpedoed after leaving Le Havre on its passage to Southampton on 3 August 1918 at 1:30am. There is an account by Sister Jean Calder of the QAIMNS(R) who knew many of the patients on board having nursed them at No. 2 General Hospital, Quai d'Escale, Le Havre and then settled them onboard the HS Warilda. 115 patients, one Nursing Sister and one RAMC Orderly were lost at sea when the Hospital Ship Warilda was sunk. Glenart Castle In February the Glenart Castle was sunk in the Bristol Castle and 162 lives were lost which included 8 nurses, 7 Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) medical officers and 47 medical orderlies (cited in It's a Long Way to Tipperary: British and Irish Nurses in the Great War by Yvonne McEwen). The Matron of the Glenart Castle was Miss Kate Beaufoy who was a veteran of the South African War. HMHS China HMHS China served during the Great War. It hit a mine at Scapa Flow on the 10 August 1918. Four lives were lost which included dental surgeon and Royal Navy officer Lieutenant Herbert Myers Marshall who was aged 23 years. Herbert Myers Marshall had only recently obtained the L.D.S. (Licentiate in Dental Surgery) In his memory Lt Marshall’s parents, Septimus and Margaret Marshall, provided money to built the Marshall Memorial Hall in Sunderland. His memorial plaque is pictured above. Qaranc.co.uk would like to thank Alan Vickers for this information. Towards the end of the First World War many of the hospital ships were painted grey so that enemy ships, planes and U-boats could not tell them apart from merchant ships in an attempt to stop them being targeted. Usually hospital ships are stripped of any weaponry and war supplies other than medical treatment supplies though the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship RFA Argus, an aviation training ship, did have armaments and when acting as a medical facility it was designated as a primary casualty receiving ship. Second World War Hospital Ships During the Second World War hospital ships continued to serve the British Army in evacuating the wounded and injured back to Britain. The number of hospital ships were supplemented by Hospital Carriers which had a shallow draught and could go close inshore to facilitate swifter evacuation of casualties. They were assisted by water ambulances with flat bottoms that could go ashore and carry stretchers. Once again members of the QAIMNS nursed aboard these floating hospitals and again faced the dangers of war. For example whilst the hospital ship Maid of Kent and the HS Brighton were being loaded with patients they were bombed by enemy Stuker planes. Geneva Convention International Law of the Geneva Convention ruled that hospital ships had to display electrically powered lights to illuminate their red cross signs on the sides of the ship and upon the deck. Hospital ships were painted all white with a broad green stripe round the hull and red crosses painted on the sides to make them easily identified by U-boats, warships and enemy ships. This should have given enemy pilots and gunners far off recognition that this was not a legitimate target and was not to be fired upon. Sadly the reality was that they provided an easy target. Hospital Ship Talamba Front-line Nurse: British Nurses in World War II cites a Daily Telegraph war correspondence witnessing the Hospital Ship Talamba being so obviously targeted by a flight of German planes that was no where near warships or merchant boats. The Talamba was bombed off Sicily whilst it was embarking casualties and sunk with the loss of many patients and QAs such as nursing sister Maud Louise Johnson. Despite the odds though some patients and staff survived. For example Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War by Brenda McBryde tells of a surgeon who had just finished an amputation operation and had no alternative than to bind the stump, secure the unconscious serviceman to a stretcher and hope he floated in the sea. Fortunately he did, was rescued and made a full recovery. The Matron, Violet Innes QAIMNS was able to rescue some patients and get them aboard the safety of a lifeboat. It was said she did this calmly and without even getting her veil soiled. She was later awarded an OBE. June Hawes recalls her aunt, Miss Hannah Broadhead "Hettie", of the QAIMNS, telling her about her time aboard the Talamba when it was sunk. June was ten years old at the time of the sinking of the Hospital Ship Talamba. She kindly shared her memories with QARANC.co.uk: My aunt served with the QAIMNS during WW2. Sister Hannah Broadhead was on the Hospital Ship, Talamba, when it was deliberately targeted, according to my aunt, by the Germans and sank. She told us they were fully lit up, taking on board wounded when they were hit. Sister Broadhead was put into a life boat; she was at one end and another nursing sister at the other with the wounded men between them. The life boat was lowered but one rope lowered and the other did not. They were all thrown into the sea. The other nurse could not swim and in spite of entreaties to not try to hang onto the ship, she would not let go. They had to leave her as they were being pulled down into the water with the ship. My aunt told us she was certain none of the soldiers thrown into the sea would be able to swim as they were badly wounded. She also said it was a beautiful night for a swim! Sister Hannah Broadhead was picked up by one of the British vessels and the sailors loaned her some of their clothing because hers were covered in oil. There was a doctor on board and I think she knew him. She had a £5 note pinned into a pocket of her uniform. I recall when this happened we were listing to the BBC radio news, when we heard a hospital ship had been sunk. My Mother, my aunt's sister, and my Grandma, their mother, were also listening. They wondered if she was aboard the ship as they thought she was somewhere in that area. Some time later a telegram arrived from my aunt, saying something along the lines: Safe and well, letter following. They were then sure she had been on the ship that was sunk. Hospital Ship Newfoundland Front-line Nurse: British Nurses in World War II also sites the case of Hospital Ship Newfoundland which was deliberately bombed by German aircraft as it approached Salerno and all the doctors aboard were killed along with the matron Miss Agnes McInnes Cheyne, five nurses and many RAMC orderlies. As HS Newfoundland sunk British wireless operators heard one of the German pilots say: "I’ve hit a hospital ship! She’s on fire. Sure to sink." Though Brenda McBryde in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War does argue that an enemy scout plane may have seen the crew, doctors, nurses and orderlies board the ship wearing their khaki uniforms and carrying their entrenching tools of spades and picks for digging in upon their arrival at Salerno. She considers that the pilot may have mistaken this as a hospital ship being improperly used as a troop transport ship making it a legitimate target. Names of World War Two Hospital Ships The other names of World War Two hospital ships included Hospital Ship Tarai, Hospital Carrier Leinster, Hospital Carrier St David, HS Llandovery Castle, HS Aba, HMHS Amarapoora, HS Vita, HS Oxfordshire, HS Ophir, Hospital Ship Telemba, HS Amsterdam, Hospital Carrier St Julian, Hospital Carrier Perak, Hospital Carrier Dinard, HS Dorsetshire, HS Empire Clyde, HS Vasna, Hospital Ship the Isle of Jersey, Hospital Ship the Duke of Lancaster, HMHS Tairea, Hospital Ship the Duke of Rothesay and HS St Andrew. There were also hospital ships operating from Africa where the wounded and injured were transferred from the seaport of Tobruk to Alexandria in Egypt. During their sea voyage they were cared for by QAIMNS nurses aboard ships such as the Hospital Ship Somersetshire and Oranje. Many of the hospital ships were given nicknames. For example the Somersetshire earned the nickname Old Tobruk War Horse because she made eleven voyages from Tobruk harbour to take casualties to the safety of Alexandria whilst under fire. Hospital Ship Oranje Hospital Ship Oranje was a unique ship because she was a Dutch ship that was making her maiden voyage when the Germans invaded the Netherlands and sanctioned her as a prize of war and ordered the Captain to return her to the Netherlands. He bravely refused and the former passenger ship HS Oranje sailed to Australia and was offered as a hospital ship to the Allies though under Dutch command. Though it now had Red Cross status the Hospital Ship Oranje had threats against her issued by the German High Command because it had disobeyed direct orders. It found itself staffed by a variety of nationalities such as Dutch, Australian, New Zealanders, and British. Betty C Parkin was one of 11 British QAs who nursed aboard HS Oranje and she narrates life aboard the hospital ship in her book Desert Nurse: A WorldWar II Memoir. This includes the emergency drills and the different rites of the Dutch when they attended a burial at sea. In Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War Brenda McBryde tells the moving tale of Alice Elliott who was so overcome by depression and sea sickness which left her prostate and unable to nurse her patients that she went to the stern of the ship intent to throw herself overboard. Fortunately she was seen by a medical officer who talked her into continuing her duty. Alice Elliott went on to care for displaced people in post war Germany. More can be read about her in the book Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War including how an Egyptian fortune teller helped to save her life and the duties that the Matron of the Oranji gave to sick nurses. Strathallen Some nursing staff found themselves aboard troopships and these were legitimate targets for enemy planes. One such troopship was the Strathallen that sailed from the Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland, with the staff of the general hospital led by Matron Lucy Wane. The Strathallen was torpedoed in November 1942 but took some time to sink. During this time two QAs, Sisters Julie Kerr and Olive Stewardson, stayed in the sick bay to nurse five badly injures soldiers. A Destroyer came to rescue survivors but sadly the two Sisters lost their lives. Also aboard ship was Kay Summersby the driver and secretary of General Eisenhower. There is more written about how she and the nurses survived the sinking of the Strathallen by a torpedo in the book Women Who Went to War by Eric Taylor. The Douglas C47 transport aircraft Unlike WWI casualties were able to be evacuated by to the UK by airplane and many wounded and injured soldiers of WWII were casevaced back to England to Royal Air Force RAF Hospital Wroughton in Wiltshire. The Douglas C47 transport aircraft, nicknamed the Dakota airplane was the most commonly used aircraft for taking home casualties from France. The soldiers were cared for by the nurses of the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service (PMRAFNS) and the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). Hospital Carrier Leinster In January 1944 an Allied attack at the German lines at the bay of Anzio resulted in heavy retaliation by Germany. The Hospital Carrier Leinster took casualties from the shore and out to the relative safety of the sea. Though her Red Crosses were brightly lit she was attacked by German planes and was set on fire. Hospital Carrier St David During the same operation Hospital Carrier St David was also helping to save the wounded and whilst at sea was also attacked and was sunk. It took six minutes to sink and this gave little time for the brave QAIMNS and RAMC staff to help their patients evacuate. The Captain of the Hospital Carrier St David, the Royal Army Medical Corps Commanding Officer, two QA nurses and several RAMC orderlies went down with her (cited in the book Women Who Went to War by Eric Taylor). Hospital Carrier Amsterdam During the Battle of the Falaise Pocket of Operation Overlord the Normandy Landings casualties were evacuated aboard the Hospital Carrier Amsterdam. She made several successful Channel crossings where soldiers were taken to English ports but sadly she struck a mine on the 7 August 1944. The engine room was destroyed along with about half of the craft and it started to list. The QAs on board were up against the clock to get their patients below decks to the safety of the lifeboats. This quickly became dangerous and those patients who had lost lower limbs were helpless. The Sister in charge was Miss Dorothy Anyta Field of the QAIMNS and she bravely returned to the lower decks with fellow Sister Molly Evershed. Together they rescued 75 men even though the Hospital Carrier Amsterdam deck was angled to the surface of the water. Without a thought to their own safety they returned once more to rescue the wounded soldiers and sadly the Hospital Carrier Amsterdam sank taking the two QA Sisters with her. Sisters Field and Evershed were posthumously Mentioned in Dispatches and each man wrote to the parents of each Sister thanking them for their lives and brave actions. (Cited in Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War by Brenda McBryde). A mortality list of the members of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) who died at sea during World War Two after sinking of the hospital ships or troop ships are included as an appendix in the book Quiet Heroines: Nurses of the Second World War by Brenda McBryde. Korea War Hospital Ship Less than 5 years after World War II and one year after becoming a corps the QAs served aboard another hospital ship in another war. HS Maine II was mobilised to care for and transfer casualties from the Korea War in 1950 until relieved by three American hospital ships. Read more about the Korean War and the QARANC. Falklands War Hospital Ships During the Falklands War in 1982 the cruise ship Uganda was converted into a hospital ship. It was supported by ambulance boats and ships from the Ocean Surveys Ships of Hecla, Herald and the Hydra. Royal Yacht Britannia Before its decommission the Royal Yacht Britannia could have been easily turned into a troop hospital ship in the event of a war or conflict. American hospital ships include the USNS Comfort and the USNS Mercy. Mercy Ships Hospital ships are still in use today by the charity mercyships in third world and war torn countries like Africa, and nations like Liberia and Sierra Leone performing life saving surgery or operations to save or improve eye sight, deformities or relieve pain and illnesses. Read more about Mercy Ships at www.mercyships.org.uk A British Army Nurse In the Korean War A newly published book about the QARANC is A British Army Nurse In the Korean War by Elizabeth Jilly McNair. QA Sister McNair saw active service in Korea and Japan and this book is based on her letters home and photographs she took during her 18 months spent nursing at the British Commonwealth General Hospital in Kure, Japan and the British Commonwealth Zone Medical Unit in Seoul, Korea. Buy Now! If you would like to contribute to this page, suggest changes or inclusions to this website or would like to send me a photograph then please e-mail me. The photos and pictures on this page have been kindly sent to us for inclusion on this page. If you would like to contribute photographs then please contact us. Findextrawork Since leaving the QA's we have done an assortment of self employed work and jobs, some which only take an hour a week, others have been full time. We have written about these at our other website Findextrawork at www.findextrawork.co.uk where we share the information for free to help others with information and resources about earning more money. 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