Sisters of the Somme

Following the outbreak of WWI, the Order of St. John appealed for volunteers to train as frontline medical staff at a major volunteer field hospital in Etaples, France. One such volunteer was Lily Fielding. Despite her training she was ill-prepared for the stench of gangrene and other gruesome realities of war. This book is a heart-warming account of camaraderie and compassion based on the true stories of the VAD nurses who were at the Somme. "I am liking it here very much and could never have thought I would for a moment. Of course there will always be days when the horror of nursing unnerves one." - Lily Fielding's diary, July 1916. Penny Starns is a writer and historian with a PhD in the history of medicine from the University of Bristol. She has written many books about female heroines in the twentieth century, including 'Odette: World War Two's Darling Spy' (The History Press, 2009), 'Surviving Tenko: The True Story of Margot Turner' (The History Press, 2010) and 'Blitz Families: The Children who Stayed Behind' (The History Press, 2012).

Auteur

Penny Starns has a PhD in the history of medicine from the University of Bristol and is an established historian and writer who has written about many of the female heroines of the twentieth century. She is the author of Odette: World War Two's Darling Spy (2009), Surviving Tenko: The True Story of Margot Turner (2010) and Blitz Families: The Children who Stayed Behind (2012), all published by The History Press.

Résumé
With First World War casualties mounting, there was an appeal for volunteers to train as front-line medical staff. Many women heeded the call: some responding to a vocational or religious calling, others following a sweetheart to the front, and some carried away on the jingoistic patriotism that gripped the nation in 1914. Despite their training, these young women were ill-prepared for the anguished cries of the wounded and the stench of gangrene and trench foot awaiting them at the Somme. Isolated from friends and family, most discovered an inner strength, forging new and close relationships with each other and establishing a camaraderie that was to last through the war and beyond. Based on the previously unpublished true stories of its nurses and medical staff, this book is a heart-warming account of the joys and sorrows of life in an extraordinary Somme field hospital.