specialty focus
Injured soldiers aboard a hospital ship off Anzac Cove . Photo : Australian War Memorial
Edith ’ s war
New book uncovers the lost letters of an Australian nurse during WW1 .
By Eleanor Campbell
From a bundle of old letters and a diary from 1914 , Krista Vane-Tempest unearthed the story of the only Australian nurse to die in action during the First World War .
As a child , Krista knew she had a great aunt who had served and died on a sinking British hospital ship . But her family , namely her grandmother , had rarely mentioned her big sister Edith .
It wasn ’ t until Krista inherited Edie ’ s diary at age 19 , did she realise the harrowing journey that her lost relative had embarked on .
Years later her father found a bundle of tied up letters stuffed in the bottom of a wardrobe . They had been written by her great-aunt during her nearly four years of war service .
“ I was shocked ,” Krista told Nursing Review .
20 | nursingreview . com . au
“ So it wasn ’ t until that , I or Dad , in fact , became aware that all of this treasure trove of letters and photos and things existed .”
In around 100,000 words , Edie had penned her days as a trainee nurse in south-east Sydney , her voyage over to Egypt with the British army , and her mixed relationship with German prisoners of war in England .
In 2014 , Krista began typing up each of the 135 handwritten letters , and slowly brought Edie ’ s story to life .
Her book , Edith Blake ’ s War , was published in October .
“ The first point to make is I ’ m not a nurse ,” said Krista , who studied English , law and history before becoming a lawyer .
“ My only experience with nurses is when I ’ ve been to the doctor or had my kids in the hospital .
“ Writing this book really showed me how tough and practical they had to be or became in doing that role , and it was really clear that nurses do tend to be pretty no-nonsense about stuff .”
Edie Blake grew up in Darlington in inner Sydney and came to train at the Coast
Hospital , now known as Prince Henry Hospital , when she was 23 years old .
Choices for women were limited back then , but nursing was an acceptable option for young , middle-class girls , or as Krista puts it , “ the eldest , unmarried daughter ”.
It was almost 30 years after the smallpox pandemic had hit Sydney and the conditions at the infectious diseases hospital were horrific .
When the Great War broke out , more than 2,000 civilian Australian nurses would enlist for service , including Edie .
In 1915 , she was allocated to the British Queen Alexandra ’ s Imperial Nursing Service .
She boarded a ship headed for Cairo and would spend 18 months tending to the shrapnel , bayonet and shell wounds carried by soldiers fighting in the trenches of Gallipoli .
“ In those days , you hoped that you were born with a pretty resilient constitution , I think , because you ’ d be exposed to all sorts of things ,” said Krista .
“ They ’ re really expending a lot of physical and emotional energy , doing all of those