Katharine Asquith's Nursing Diary

Katharine Asquith worked as a nurse followingthe death of her husband Raymond, killed on the Somme in 1916. Well connected,she was born in 1855, daughter of Sir John Horner of Mells; and daughter-in-lawof H.H. Asquith, prime minister from 1908 to 1916. Perhaps the deaths of her husband and brother Edward (killed on the Front in 1917) prompted her to make thechoice between her role as mother to three children and her calling to serve inthe war effort. She worked as a volunteer close to the front lines in St Omer underMillie, Duchess of Sutherland. The diary is afascinating and moving account of hospital life, weeks of quiet interspersedwith bursts of activity when fresh batches of wounded arrived. The work wasleavened with the unique social life of the Western Front, meetings withofficers who were often stretched to the limits of nervous exhaustion,surprising adventures in the air or visiting the front lines. And as abackground to all this a love of poetry and prose lighting up a brave andsensitive character.

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