Description:Duchess Millicent's Hospital was moved to St. Omer in March 1918. By this time it had 200 beds. As circumstances worsened, the Hospital’s status changed and in April 1918 it became a 2nd line casualty clearing station. Shortly after, in June, the hospital became a 1st Line Casualty Clearing Station in Roubaix.
Amongst Duchess Millicent’s papers is a printed booklet entitled ‘The Millicent Sutherland Ambulance in 1918’. The publication is in the form of a diary, with dated entries describing life at the hospital. The diary describes the bleak situation on the front line in April 1918: ‘Oh! These dreadful heartbreaking days, pray God a brighter day dawns soon, that all the gallant deeds and noble sacrifices of our splendid men, are not to be in vain. It can’t be, we must win in the end, but these days are indeed dark ones, and one longs for even a glimmer of light.’
Although the document is printed anonymously, is appears to have been written by a member of Duchess Millicent’s hospital staff. The diary writes of how the Duchess and her staff ‘tend the sick among the refugees.’
The hospital was forced to leave St. Omer in April 1918 because of the German advance. An entry for Saturday 13th April 1918 tells how the hospital was told to pack up and burn their huts in order that nothing was left behind which could be used by the advancing German troops. The writer recalls: ‘I was determined that they should not have our eggs either…so for dinner, our last together perhaps, I gave everyone poached eggs and spinach, followed by a pudding in which I put 24 eggs! It was a nice pudding’.
The document describes life in the hospital, noting that ‘we got so stiff with cold in the night that we broke up some of our furniture, and burnt it on our stove and took it in turns to stoke it all night.’
An entry for Saturday 20th April 1918 remarks on a visit to the market. The writer describes the dreadful hardships suffered by French civilians: ‘I went to the market this morning to buy vegetables. Streams and streams of traffic are pouring down this way, if only they were going the other way. A good many ambulances passed thro’ the market place while I was there, full of wounded, and in the middle, huddled on the floors of the ambulances, were refugees, picked up on the way. Poor old men and women, looking dazed and frightened, and too pitiable for words’.
The document provides a detailed first-hand insight into life in the Hospital at this time, describing everything from the military situation during 1918 to the food that was served to staff and patients. The document also includes statistical military information about air raids during this time.