WW1 Service Scrapbooks

Personal stories and first-hand experiences of World War I nurses are now available free online via a new website launched by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).  The project was funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and brings together the RCN’s collection of scrapbooks, diaries and photo albums belonging to nurses who served during the First World War.

Image from the pages of the Royal College of Nursing's Service Scrapbooks

Service scrapbooks showcases the stories of nine nurses and one VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment), just a few of the over 15,000 nurses who served during the First World War as part of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service and the Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS). The project has digitised, transcribed and researched nearly 2,000 pages of photographs, poems, diary entries and illustrations, ranging from 1909 – 1919.
It reveals the experiences of nurses who travelled as far as Greece and Italy to work in military hospitals or occupied the halls of Oxford University and tin huts in the New Forest, whilst treating wounded men who had returned from the frontline. The scrapbooks also contain paintings, sketches and poetry by the soldiers and officers that they cared for, offering a unique perspective of daily hospital life.
This collection brings their history into the digital age and shines a light on the unsung heroes of the nursing profession.