Your Daughter Fanny
by Bill Rompkey and Bert Riggs

                                                                                               Rouen

                                                                                               10 Gen Hos.

                                                                                               26-10-17

Dear Mother,

This is Friday night. I did not get off duty time enough for dinner. I had to wait for the night nurses to come on which is at 8 pm; but one of them which does my wards did not get in until 8.30 pm; dinner is not served after 8.20 pm.

We have one very sick person, gassed terribly; he has oxygen turned on him every hour for 5 minutes; every 4 hrs he has to have gas mixture medicine: then his throat has to be sprayed; he has been awfully miserable this afternoon and evening; the perspiration would pour off him when trying to breathe; I hate to think of him lying there tonight suffering agonies; he has been calling to us every minute to sit with him. He used to say “I am frightened”; every time I passed through the ward, I had to go and sit with him; he could scarcely speak when I came off at 8.30; poor chap! I wonder if he will live until mid night. All his back and one side of his face and a part of his thigh are burnt. You haven’t any idea mother what he is suffering: he was put on the D.I. list (Dangerously ill) this evening. His eyes were shut for three days when first he came in: he could not see or speak. It is really too terrible to think about. Oh! the difficulty I have had to get through the work this afternoon. I had three wards to attend to. Sister was having a half day off; one thing specially I had to report another gas blistered man to the Medical Officer to night; and I quite forgot all about it. He came through the ward too; I had to tell him about the very sick one and a few others. Sister will be mad in the morning because I said nothing about it. However, there it is.

Nearly all the patients we have got lately on the Medical Lines are gassed; that means their eyes have to be bathed and inhalations of boiling water and Friars balsam; a teaspoonful of balsam to a pint of boiling water. Many of them are burned but not blistered: that is with mustard gas; we do the burns with Baking Soda and Boracic Powders which heal them very quickly.

Sometimes I relieve on the Surgical Lines: It is there the horrible sights are; you would not believe me mother if I tell you about what I have seen and gone through. I always think of what Lil told me about not being able to stay in a ward with the dead. Tell her, I have stood by many a bed side in the middle of the night, with lights darkened, watching for the last breath, then put screens about him, and in addition to that, the rats would rush underneath the beds with a swish. I do not think about them mother; but I shall never forget some of the most piteous sights that ever could possibly be.

I don’t think I ever told you I did night duty in the German Compound for Prisoners of War. I had five German wards to look after, and one of the wards was an acute surgical, where amputated legs and arms had to be watched for hemorrhages.

I think had you known that was where I was doing night duty you would have felt a bit uneasy. Of course there was an English night orderly also. It was funny, I did not feel at all scared; but perhaps I did feel a bit nervous sometimes.

I knew they would not harm me there, or at least I suppose they couldn’t: I have passed through their wards with them lying on either side; sometimes I used to think, if they would only jump up; but then on the whole I had nothing whatever to complain about; they were always very respectful to me. The Colonel came to me one night and asked me if I had any complaints to make against them; I could speak quite a bit of German while I was there; but I have forgotten most of it now, not having reason to speak it. I could tell you heaps of things but I daren’t. One night in the German Compound I was stopped by the English Sentry outside the barbed wire who wanted to know about one of the German orderlies; he said he was carrying a light in his hand which he would revolve at intervals: of course, I knew nothing about it; but had to go through the wards and inquire if either one of them had been using an electric torch; but they hadn’t; I think it must have been a cigarette that security saw; being a VAD is not all sunshine mother.

We were awakened the other night by the air raid. Oh the awful noise of the guns.

I used to stand by the barbed wire Compound when I was on night duty and listen to the guns on the battlefield. About 2 pm they would be at their loudest. We always know after a rush at the front that our wards will soon be full again.

Sat. 8 pm.

The patient I was telling you about that was so badly gassed died at 1.30 pm last night: I knew he was dead before I went for duty this morning: for mother I thought he called me during the night—however I woke up, and of course when I went on duty, the first thing I saw was the empty bed: poor chap—he suffered terribly; out of all we did for him, we could not save him.

I have had a half-day today. Nurse Taylor and I went into town about 2 pm and got home again at 7 pm, We walked into Rouen which is quite a nice long walk: We then went to the jewellers to get my watch, I took it there to get a glass put on it: afterwards we went to Cox’s Bank to change a cheque for Taylor, but alas! they had closed. I think it is closed on Saturday afternoons, or from mid-day on.

We next went to a shop to get a sketch book, then after trying a considerable length of time for a pair of nail scissors, which we could not get without taking the manicure set; we suggested that we had better try another place which we did without success.

Taylor wanted to get a transfer for her tea cloth, but we could not get it in any shop.

Then we went to a tea room and had something to eat. I had café au lait! Taylor had black coffee. We dawdled about from one place to another until it was time to come home, which meant another long walk. Of course we could have taken the train; but we just loved to walk, the night was so beautiful.

On our way to Rouen, we went into the Public Gardens. Oh mother it is a place worth visiting: I am going to send you some slips shortly of the most beautiful chrysanthemums you ever saw.

I cannot write anymore tonight mother.

Good Bye. Tell Bish to write.

I am writing Susie shortly.

Your loving daughter Fannie.