Wateringbury nurse honoured (1918)

Post date: Apr 29, 2014 1:48:41 PM

Extract from South Eastern Gazette of January 15th 1918

HONOURS FOR V.A.D. NURSES

Among, the ladies figuring in the New Year Honours List are Miss Elsie Blest, of Broomscroft, Wateringbury, and Miss M. E. Bunyard, of the Crossways, Mereworth, each of whom has been awarded the Royal Red Cross (2nd class). Miss Blest and Miss Bunyard are both members of V.A.D. Kent 148. Both served at Hayle Place¹ Hospital from its opening in October, 1914, to October, 1915 when they were transferred together to 24th General Hospital³, B.E.F., France.

Miss M. E. Bunyard was mentioned in dispatches year ago for an act of conspicuous devotion

to duty.

Notes:

1. A mid-C18th listed building in Cripple Street, Tovil, Maidstone, which was a VAD hospital and accommodated a large number of Belgian wounded.

2. See also Hopping 1915

3. Located at Etaples (Jun 15 - Jul 19) along with a number of other hospitals. Etaples is near the French coast just south of Boulogne and across the river from Le Touquet. It was described by Lady Olave Baden-Powell, "Étaples was a dirty, loathsome, smelly little town". In 1917, 100,000 troops were camped among the sand dunes and the hospitals, which included eleven general, one stationary, four Red Cross hospitals and a convalescent depot, could deal with 22,000 wounded or sick. In September 1919, ten months after the Armistice, three hospitals and the Q.M.A.A.C. convalescent depot remained.