A book review of 'Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War' by Jan Bassett. More volunteer army nurses have come from rural Victoria than elsewhere in Australia. One hospital matron who volunteered for the front suring the Boer War wrote. "No one who has experience the satisfaction that arises from such work of this stature...ever cares to go back to the dill routine of earing a living in any othe the other spheres at present open to women." Not much seems to have changed by the Vietnam War. In an inquiry, in 1968, into why army nursing was failing to attract enough recruits, it was revealed that young nurses 'were disappointed at the lack of dramatic nursing opportunities.' Though a dense, turgid tome, the book educates on such things as the misery endured by many army nurses on return to Australia after the two World Wars, who tried to exist on their tiny gratuities only for many to fall into destitution and starvation. The nurses who joined up because they admired 'order and efficiency' soon found that the army is anything but. In WWI and WWII medical personnel were shipped to war zones without accompanying equipment.A newspaper clipping and a photocopy of it, consisting of title, five columns of text and a black and white photo (two photos on the photocopy). The photo on both the clipping and the photocopy shows a large group of women in nurse's uniforms in a boat. The photo at the bottom of the photocopy shows a large group of women in nurse's uniforms and a man in an army uniform organised for a group photo outside.'L.7.' [crossed out, blue ink, top left, also on the photo copy] 'Page 7.' [blue ink, top left, also on the photocopy] 'WWII' [only on the photocopy, half way down, right side] 'NC9' [reverse side, blue ink, top left]ww2, wwii, world war two, ww1, world war one, korea, korean war, oxford university press, victoria, 2/9th, morotai, 2/5th agh, australian general hospital, 102nd agh, tamworth, new south wales, edith cavell trust fund, circe, sirens, british army nursing corps, batavia, rabaul

A hymn written by Margaret Dryburgh, whilst in a Prisoner of War camp. It was first sung on the 5th of July in 1942 at Irenelaan, Palembang, Sumatra. Margaret Dryburgh was a Presbyterian Missionary in Singapore when the Japanese arrived, she died in a camp hospital in 1945.An A4 sheet of paper that has been cut down to a smaller size. The front contains the typed words of the hymn in black ink, the title in underlined in red pen ink. There are handwritten inscriptions on the back of the page.'Jessie Hookway / (Simons) / AANS 2/13th AGH / passed away / 23 December 2004' [Handwritten in pencil on the back of the paper] [Handwritten information regarding Miss Margaret Dryburgh, written in black ink on the back of the page, refer to media image] prisoners of war, margaret dryburgh