UNKNOWN WARRIORS Extracts from Letters K E LUARD Nursing Sister FRANCE 1914-1918

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Seller: dilapsus ✉️ (8,451) 100%, Location: Flamborough, Bridlington, GB, Ships to: AMERICAS & many other countries, Item: 382988555365 UNKNOWN WARRIORS Extracts from Letters K E LUARD Nursing Sister FRANCE 1914-1918.
 
 
 

Unknown Warriors

Extracts from the Letters of

K. E. Luard, R.R.C.

Nursing Sister in France

1914-1918

With a Preface By Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.

This is the scarce 1930 First Edition (though in worn external condition, with a damaged spine)

"Removing the Wounded, 60 yards from the Enemy" From the Picture by H. S. WILLIAMSON  

Front cover and spine

Further images of this book are shown below

 

 

Publisher and place of publication   Dimensions in inches (to the nearest quarter-inch)
London: Chatto & Windus   4¾ inches wide x 7¼ inches tall
     
Edition   Length
1930 First Edition   [xii] + 306 pages
     
Condition of covers    Internal condition
Original brown cloth gilt. The covers are heavily rubbed, particularly around the edges, and with some variation in colour, while both spine gutters have been split from end to end but have been partially re-glued by a former owner. The spine ends are bumped and badly frayed with some loss of cloth while the corners are bumped and also frayed (the front bottom corner being the worst). There is some old staining to the spine and a forward spine lean. Finally, there is a faint shadow on the front cover from the removal of an old "Boots Library" shield. The images below give a good indication of the current state of the covers.   There are a number of previous owner's names and addresses inscribed in pencil and ink on the front free end-paper (with the earliest dated "19.XI.32"). Apart from these, the text is clean throughout; however, the paper has tanned more or less evenly with age and there is some generally light scattered foxing. There are remnants of a "Boots Library" lending schedule on the rear pastedown, a narrow red mark on the rear end-paper and a faint black mark on the underside of the text. The edge of the text block is dust-stained and lightly foxed and the bottom edge is not uniformly trimmed.
     
Dust-jacket present?   Other comments
No   The Extracts from Kate Luard's Letters are now rare in the 1930 First Edition, but this example suffers from obvious wear to the covers (including damage to the spine ends and gutters) and some inoffensive old "Boots Library" markings; the internal condition, however, once past the front end-paper names and addresses, is quite clean.
     
Illustrations, maps, etc   Contents
There is a frontispiece and sketch map, both shown below.   Please see below for details
     
Post & shipping information   Payment options
The packed weight is approximately 600 grams.

Full shipping/postage information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing.

  Payment options :
  • UK buyers: cheque (in GBP), debit card, credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal
  • International buyers: credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal

Full payment information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing. 

Unknown Warriors

Contents

 

I. WINTER UP THE LINE Letters from Lillers, October 17th 1915 to April 25th 1916 II. ATTACKS ON VIMY RIDGE Letters from Barlin, May 11th to July 3rd 1916 III. VIMY RIDGE— continued

July 11th to October 12th 1916 IV. BATTLE OF ARRAS Letters from Warlencourt, March 3rd to June 3rd 1917 V. THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES Letters from Brandhoek, July 23rd to September 4th 1917 VI. THE GERMAN ADVANCE Letters from Marchelepot, Abbeville and Nampes, February 6th. to April 6th 1918 VII. THE ALLIED ADVANCE Letters from Pernois, May 13th to August 10th 1918

Unknown Warriors

Excerpts:

 

. . . Another one was buried for 15 hours— he died this evening. A boy who was trephined on Saturday night here, and has one eye destroyed and the other covered up, never speaks, but kicks every stitch of clothing off and breaks out into "Lead Kindly Light" and "God Save the King." To-night, when a Frenchman in the next bed was raving, he trilled out, "Thy Kingdom Come, O Lord" in a very sweet voice! Tuesday night, May 23rd. The boy is now singing his hymns in Heaven. Captain R. was called up directly we dispersed at midnight last night and was operating all night and doing his dressings this morning till 1. Operating continuously a day and a night takes a lot out of you—and he had to be ordered off duty for 12 hours after that. Two men died in the night and two more to-day, besides an officer who died just after he was taken out of the Ambulance. The big ward with beds all round and two lines down the middle is a very sad place—quite full of wrecks—and not one of them ever well enough even to speak to any other one. The next acute hut with beds also is very busy with compound fractures, heads and amputations, and some chests; but the worst chests, and the abdominals and the bombed people with several serious wounds . . .

 

 

 

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. . . They were brought down by a Boche Archie, and then the plane was shelled to bits on the ground, but the officer and the man got away. The man is delirious from head and face injuries, but the officer only had a broken wrist. October 1st. The man with no eyes and no nose mercifully died yesterday. My friend who says "Good-night, Mother" to me and is going on the train to-day, said this morning he "would think of me in terms of love till his dying day!" and he looked as if that day wasn't very far off, poor old thing. The Aeroplane man seems to be going to die. A baby Flying officer who came to see him tonight fainted gracefully into my arms at the foot of the bed, on to the floor, overcome by general fatigue, hot day, and ward air after The Air. We are trying to do a special rescue of a brave boy, H., hovering on the edge of gas gangrene; I have him in a marquee and have to put him into an iodine bath to-morrow. He dictated this afternoon, "Dear Mother, just a few lines to let you know I am in the pink of health, hoping it finds you the same." ("Mustn't let her worry," he explained.) When asked if he had a best girl he said, "No, only Mother"!

 

October 2nd. We have a sudden and unprecedented lull just now, very few wounded coming in. I believe they are taking the casualties we have always had to the nearest C.C.S. of the 3rd Army, which adjoins us to our right. As we are eight Sisters now instead of ten, this does no one any harm, while it lasts. The rescue of my boy H. is a tragic failure. He is dying of septic pneumonia from a clot from his knee wound, after a triumphantly successful cleaning up of the other wounds by the hip hath treatment. He sat in it smoking cigarettes as happy as anything, and now he is unconscious and babbling and quite hopeless. He is a very gallant boy in the Drake Battalion. Three of his officers and his Chief Petty Officer have been to see him. Wednesday, October 4th. H. died yesterday morning. In the afternoon J. and I went to Lillers in the lorry to fetch the beer and coffins. It is a pleasant drive, about 15 miles. We did a little shopping and looked up my various billet ladies (who were most welcoming and voluble) and then went to tea with Mme. F. She was very hospitable and affectionate. The house and garden and tea seemed very civilised and clean and spacious . . .

 

 

 

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 . . . An abdominal officer, Lt. S., 1/8th Middlesex, told me a few hours before he died to "tell them I've got a slight wound." All the time he thought of us and everybody but himself. On the other side of the picture there are many glorious "resurrections" smoking cigarettes and eating chicken and reading magazines. They have lots of champagne and eggs and oranges and jelly, and everything to make them buck up. It has been a fine sunny day at last, but windy. Sunday, April 15th. Early Service in the Church Tent at 7 a.m. The Padre has made it very nice with a red and white reredos and our own altar-cloth. It has a Communion-rail made of trees, and there is a duckboard with stretcher pillows to kneel on. The fine day was the usual solo. It has poured all day since 6.30 and the swamp squelches out loud. All the wounded to-night will come in soaking wet. We've had a very busy day, some of it very disheartening. They haven't yet begun to take-in over the road, so we may have a free night for once. The Theatre people have the longest hours, and for the Surgeons the greatest strain of work, but for the Sisters it is much less harassing and wearing than the work in the Wards, cutting off the caked khaki and the clammy socks and heavy boots, with the incessant cries of "Give me a drink" or "Sister, I do feel bad," and the everlasting saline infusion and men being sick or delirious or groaning or hemorrhaging. The younger Sisters who are new to this kind of work send for me as if I was a kind of Travelling Rescue Circus. We have been trying to keep a double amputation alive all day; he said to-night after something he liked, "I was in 'ell and am now in 'eaven." Tuesday, April 17th. We have had a lull the last two days, and everybody has been off duty long enough to go for a walk in relays and pick Lent lilies, cowslips, and anemones. Operations and funerals still continue, but the wards are not so full. I believe another Stunt is expected to-morrow. To-day we have had no bread, but only "dog-biscuits." At breakfast, with no porridge, and at tea they are rather a blight, as they are so hard they take hours to eat, but we manage to consume enough to support life! I got about 60 behind in writing Break-the-News Letters the first few days of last week . . .

 

 

 

____________________________________________

 

 

 

. . . No mines have gone up yet. 6.30 a.m. We have just begun taking in the first cases. An officer died soon after admission, between 4 and 5 a.m. The Air people began streaming over at daylight adding their whirring and droning to the din. The mines have been going off since 5 like earthquakes. Lots of high explosive has been coming over, but nothing so far into this Camp. The uproar is almost stupefying. I'm going now to see how they are getting on in the Preparation and Resuscitation Hut. Same day, 11 -p.m. We have been working in the roar of battle every minute since I last wrote, and it has been rather too exciting. I've not had time to hear any details from any of our poor abdominals, but the news has been good till this evening: thousands of prisoners—and Ypres choked with captured guns and ammunition, and some few miles (?) of advance. This evening they tell of heavy counter-attacks and some of our advance lost. He is not retreating because he wants to, but is putting up a tremendous fight. One Gunner Sergeant was pleased that he got his wound while dragging his guns over No Man's Land in broad daylight. We put up a terrific drumfire again this evening, and our monsters at our elbow are cracking away now at a frightful pace. You get tired of being violently jogged by the concussion every few seconds. We have a lot of Germans in—all abdominals. Everything has been going at full pitch—with the 12 Teams in the Theatre only breaking off for hasty meals—the Dressing Hut, the Preparation Ward and Resuscitation and the four huge Acute Wards, which fill up from the Theatre; the Officers' Ward, the Moribund and the German Ward. That, and the Preparation and the Theatre are the worst places. Soon after 10 o'clock this morning he began putting over high explosive. Everyone had to put on tin-hats and carry on. He kept it up all the morning with vicious screams. They burst on two sides of us, not yards away—no direct hits on to us but streams of shrapnel, which were quite hot when you picked them up. No one was hurt, which was lucky, and they came everywhere, even through our Canvas Huts in our quarters. Luckily we were so frantically busy that it was easier to pay less attention to it . . .  

 

____________________________________________

 

 

 

. . . I am writing this in my extraordinarily cosy stretcher-and-mattress bed at 9.30 p.m., with the comfortable knowledge of two feet of sandbags between me and anything that may burst outside. Anything that may burst on top of you, whether armour-piercing 9.2's like Tuesday's, or bombs from above—you would know nothing about, as you'd merely wake to a better and more peaceful world. Shells were singing over last night but not too close. We are bombarding rather sulkily to-night and may get anything in return. I have only 4 Night Sisters on duty to-night instead of the usual 9. It is no good worrying about patients or Sisters on duty: as long as they put hospitals in such places they've got to be there, day or night, and can't take any cover, and you can't cover 300 beds. It is no good worrying over anything that you can't alter, so the whole subject settles itself into a sort of fatalistic philosophy. Three of the men we have in will die to-night, and there's a brave Jock boy who's had a leg off and is to lose an arm and an eye to-morrow who said, "If you write to Mother, make it as gentle as you can, as she lost my brother in April, died o' wounds, and it made her ill." If he wants a drink when you're busy with somebody else, he says, "Carry on, I can wait." The "Prince of Wales" with the subclavian artery died on the way to Poperinghe on Tuesday after that awful day. Tuesday night, August 28th. Terrific gale all day, straining our Wards to their utmost limits. Each Ward is five big Marquees pitched as one, and containing 34 beds. The sky has been a brilliant blue since mid-day with dazzling Alpine banks of clouds, and it has been as peaceful as Peace Time till this evening, when the wind has died down and distant shells are travelling. This wind should help to dry the ground a bit. Friday, August 31st. We are having an extraordinarily slack and quiet time, with a total Staff of 291 (including Labour Battalion) and 18 patients! 12 Theatre Teams seem rather superfluous, but events are waiting on the weather, which is, of course, hopelessly vile. And in bad weather we see and hear very little of Fritz and have had some peaceful nights and days; it is glorious to sleep from 12 to 6 without waking; we all feel quite different. It had been an awful strain on the Surgeons with their close and critical work with no decent sleep for several weeks. We couldn't have gone on indefinitely with it . . .

Please note: to avoid opening the book out, with the risk of damaging the spine, some of the pages were slightly raised on the inner edge when being scanned, which has resulted in some blurring to the text and a shadow on the inside edge of the final images. Colour reproduction is shown as accurately as possible but please be aware that some colours are difficult to scan and may result in a slight variation from the colour shown below to the actual colour.

In line with eBay guidelines on picture sizes, some of the illustrations may be shown enlarged for greater detail and clarity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a number of previous owner's names and addresses inscribed in pencil and ink on the front free end-paper (with the earliest dated "19.XI.32"). There are remnants of a "Boots Library" lending schedule on the rear pastedown, a narrow red mark on the rear end-paper and a faint black mark on the underside of the text:

U.K. buyers:

To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the postage figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from postage and packaging. Postage can be combined for multiple purchases.

 

Packed weight of this item : approximately 600 grams

 

Postage and payment options to U.K. addresses:
  • Details of the various postage options can be obtained by selecting the “Postage and payments ” option at the head of this listing (above).

  • Payment can be made by: debit card, credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex ), cheque (payable to "G Miller", please), or PayPal.

  • Please contact me with name, address and payment details within seven days of the end of the listing; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the sale and re-list the item.

  • Finally, this should be an enjoyable experience for both the buyer and seller and I hope you will find me very easy to deal with. If you have a question or query about any aspect (postage, payment, delivery options and so on), please do not hesitate to contact me.

International buyers:

To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the shipping figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from shipping and handling.

Shipping can usually be combined for multiple purchases (to a maximum of 5 kilograms in any one parcel with the exception of Canada, where the limit is 2 kilograms).

 

Packed weight of this item : approximately 600 grams

 

International Shipping options:

Details of the postage options to various  countries (via Air Mail) can be obtained by selecting the “Postage and payments ” option at the head of this listing (above) and then selecting your country of residence from the drop-down list. For destinations not shown or other requirements, please contact me before buying.

 

Due to the extreme length of time now taken for deliveries, surface mail is no longer a viable option and I am unable to offer it even in the case of heavy items. I am afraid that I cannot make any exceptions to this rule.

Payment options for international buyers:
  • Payment can be made by: credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex) or PayPal. I can also accept a cheque in GBP [British Pounds Sterling] but only if drawn on a major British bank.

  • Regretfully, due to extremely high conversion charges, I CANNOT accept foreign currency : all payments must be made in GBP [British Pounds Sterling]. This can be accomplished easily using a credit card, which I am able to accept as I have a separate, well-established business, or PayPal.

  • Please contact me with name, address and payment details within seven days of the end of the listing; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the sale and re-list the item.

  • Finally, this should be an enjoyable experience for both the buyer and seller and I hope you will find me very easy to deal with. If you have a question or query about any aspect (shipping, payment, delivery options and so on), please do not hesitate to contact me.

Prospective international buyers should ensure that they are able to provide credit card details or pay by PayPal within 7 days from the end of the auction (or inform me that they will be sending a cheque in GBP drawn on a major British bank). Thank you.

(please note that the book shown is for illustrative purposes only and forms no part of this auction)

Book dimensions are given in inches, to the nearest quarter-inch, in the format width x height.

Please note that, to differentiate them from soft-covers and paperbacks, modern hardbacks are still invariably described as being ‘cloth’ when they are, in fact, predominantly bound in paper-covered boards pressed to resemble cloth.

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I value your custom (and my feedback rating) but I am also a bibliophile : I want books to arrive in the same condition in which they were dispatched. For this reason, all books are securely wrapped in tissue and a protective covering and are then posted in a cardboard container. If any book is significantly not as described, I will offer a full refund. Unless the size of the book precludes this, hardback books with a dust-jacket are usually provided with a clear film protective cover, while hardback books without a dust-jacket are usually provided with a rigid clear cover.

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  • Condition: Worn external condition, with a damaged spine : a detailed description of this item's current condition is given in the listing below but please do not hesitate to contact me if you require any further information.
  • Non-Fiction Subject: History & Military
  • Year Printed: 1930
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Publisher: Chatto & Windus
  • Place of Publication: London
  • Author: K. E. Luard, R.R.C.
  • Language: English
  • Special Attributes: 1st Edition

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