Welcome to the Boer War Nursing site
For Army nurses, the Boer War (South Africa War 1899-1902) was in retrospect a rehearsal for the two World Wars of the 20th Century (Harrison, 2004). The Boer War was a large-scale deployment for the British Army, and for the first time in Africa it faced an enemy equipped with modern weapons and using modern tactics (de Villiers, 1983).
The lines of communication between the front line and the rear areas became extended and caused issues for casualty evacuation (Conan Doyle, 1900; Treves, 1900). In common with all conflicts since then the major issue proved to be getting casualties off the battlefield and into the care of trained medical and nursing staff (Neel, 1991; Harrison, 2004). There was also the same problem of locating valuable clinical assets close enough to be effective in terms of supporting serious battle casualties, but safe enough to operate without disruption or damage (Conan Doyle, 1900; Treves, 1900; Pakenham, 1991; Carver, 2000).
The other remarkable similarity to the 20th century wars that followed was the reliance on Reserve forces to augment the Regular staff, something that remains today (Ministry of Defence, 1996). At the start of the Boer War the Army Nursing Service had less than 100 trained nurses. By the end of the Boer War over 1,400 trained nurses had deployed to South Africa (Hay, 1953).
Who were the nurses that came forward to deploy to South Africa? Where did they come from, and what contribution did they make to the care of the sick and wounded during the Boer War?
I hope that you will find this an interesting resource. Please feel free to email me with any information you have and I will update the records. I do have other information to place here, so this is always a "work in progress"
News: I have switched to a database format rather than a list of the nurses. They are all in the list but I have only tidied up the 'A's so far.
