A Volunteer Nurse on the Western Front: Memoirs from a WWI Camp Hospital

This important rediscovered memoir, written while on active service by a real-life Voluntary Aid Detachment during WWI, provides an extraordinarily vivid view of day-to-day life in a tent hospital

Plucky real-life V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment) Olive Dent served two years of World War I in a tented hospital on the coast of France, and kept this diary—ever cheerful through the bitter cold, the chilblains, hunger, and exhaustion. Resilient, courageous, and resourceful, nurses, doctors, and patients alike do their best to support each other. A Christmas fancy-dress ball, a concert performed by a stoic orchestra covered in bandages, church services held in a marquee, and letters from Blighty all keep spirits up in camp, as wounded soldiers suffer terribly with quiet dignity on the makeshift wards, and nurses rush around tirelessly to make them as comfortable as possible. With original illustrations throughout by fellow V.A.D.s, Olive’s memoir is a fascinating period piece, a rare first-hand account of this little-known story, which will resonate very strongly with viewers of the gripping drama The Crimson Field, starring Oona Chaplin as a V.A.D., and Suranne Jones and Hermione Norris as trained nurses.