As we remember the soldiers who fought and died in the World Wars, it is important also to bear witness to the great courage and self-sacrifice of the medical personnel who cared for the conflicts’ sick, wounded and dying.  One of Bradfield’s much-loved matrons, Kate Evelyn Luard (1872-1962), served with great distinction as a nurse during the First World War.  Through letters written to her family at home, Luard created one of the most powerful records of the horrors of war and the extraordinary suffering and heroism on the Western Front. 

Luard’s father was an Anglican clergyman and she grew up at Aveley Vicarage in Essex.  She studied at Croydon High School for Girls during 1887-1890 and was inspired by its founder and headmistress, Dorinda Neligan, an advocate of female suffrage and women’s rights, who had served as a nurse during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71).  In 1895, Luard’s parents moved to Birch Rectory, near Colchester, Essex, which became the destination of the letters Luard sent home. 

After graduation, Luard worked, including as a governess, to finance her training as a nurse at London’s King’s College Hospital.  In 1900 she joined the Army Nursing Service and was posted to South Africa during the Second South African War (1899-1902).  Upon her return Luard worked as a nurse, and two days after the outbreak of the First World War, at the age of 42, she joined Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve, becoming part of the very first British medical corps deployed to France and Belgium in 1914.   

During 1914-15, Luard served on ambulance trains which transported the wounded from Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS) to base hospitals at the Channel ports.  At first, some of the trains were old trucks where the wounded lay upon straw; others were converted passenger trains.  Later the trains developed into mobile hospitals with operating theatres, bunk accommodation and kitchens, and complements of orderlies, nurses, surgeons and physicians.   

From 1915 until 1918, Luard worked in CCS, where battlefield casualties were sent from regimental aid posts and field dressing stations.  The CCS were usually established near rail or water transport to allow efficient evacuation of the wounded to base hospitals, and often moved at short notice with the advance or retreat of the army.  Some stations were housed in buildings while others sheltered beneath tents.  In 1917, during the Battle of Passchendaele, Luard served as Head Sister of CCS 32, which treated abdominal wounds, supervising the work of 40 nurses and almost 100 orderlies.  It was a dangerous posting due to its proximity to the front lines.   

Casualties often reached the CCS within a few hours of being wounded, and the nurses' immediate task was to keep them alive, treating injury, bleeding, pain, exposure and shock.  Medical officers and trained nurses assessed cases, deciding which required urgent operation. Others stabilised the less severely wounded while they awaited treatment.  The most experienced treated and dressed wounds. They assisted at operations, administered oxygen, stimulants and anaesthetic, or carried out minor surgery themselves during periods of crisis.  Casualties inflicted by gas attacks were particularly distressing.  Maintenance of hygiene and the control of infection were other important responsibilities. 

Work in the CCS frequently entailed considerable physical hardship: rough accommodation, minimal supplies of food and fresh water, poor lighting and exposure to the elements in all seasons.  The mental and emotional burdens imposed upon the nurses were immense, alleviating the physical and psychological pain of the wounded, and comforting the dying.  The letters of Luard and her colleagues reveal the great inner cost of the constant pressure to appear outwardly calm, confident and cheerful.  She received the Royal Red Cross and Bar (a rare honour) and twice was mentioned in Dispatches for brave and distinguished conduct.  

After the war, Luard worked in the South London Hospital for Women before joining Bradfield as Lady Matron in 1924, working first in the House on the Hill and The Close, and then in College itself.  Luard published her first volume of letters ‘Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front 1914-1915' anonymously in 1915.  Her second book, ‘Unknown Warriors: The Letters of Kate Luard, RRC and Bar, Nursing Sister in France 1914-1918’ was prepared and published in 1930 during her tenure at Bradfield.  When reviewing it in the 'Bradfield Chronicle', a colleague commended her for being ‘humble in the face of such great suffering and pain, and exalted in the presence of such selfless courage.’  He continued, ‘If you know her, feel honoured that you have met such a woman, if you do not, you will when you have read this book.’   

When Luard passed away in 1962, a Bradfield obituarist remembered a strong and caring presence, ‘The standards she set were high; unflinchingly she saw that they were maintained by the boys... the ill received every sympathy and learned too, the full benefit of her great experience and skill... and in senior boys, who were privileged to experience her friendship, she aroused a genuine affection.’   

A new edition of ‘Unknown Warriors’ was published for the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War and is available in the College Library. 

Photographs in the gallery courtesy of the Wellcome Trust.