Kate Veronica Bruton (1872-1942)
Kate nursed in both the Boer War and the Great War, where she was known for her remarkable professional capacity (reference). She was one of the first Australian nurses to volunteer for service (reference).
Kate, also known as Catherine, was born to Irish parents Maurice and Sarah Bruton in Victoria, Ballarat (reference; reference; reference; reference; reference). She had many siblings, many of which did not survive infancy (reference; reference; reference). The surviving children were all educated at St Mary's School on Cecil Street (reference). In 1890 Kate passed her second-year examinations with a credit at the Working Men's College in Melbourne (reference). At some stage Maurice and Sarah moved their young family from Ballarat to Williamstown (reference). In 1895 at the Williamstown Court in Victoria, she took William Harrad to court (reference). She also went against James Ross, who owed her £1, and 13s 6d costs (reference).
The first mention of Kate’s nursing career is at the Eye and Ear Hospital of Melbourne (reference). In 1898 she transferred to the Menzies General Hospital in Western Australia where she Kate received £80 per annum and board and quarters as a nurse (reference; reference). In December 1901, Kate was matron at the Menzies Hospital. She had to testify in court against a medical officer, Dr Corlis, who did not correctly weigh, administer medication to patients. He was negligent, leading to the death of Daniel Flynn (reference).
In 1900 Kate was a bridesmaid in Kalgoorlie for Beatrice McInerney (reference). By 1906 she had moved to Perth where she worked as a certified nurse at a private hospital at 76 Mount Street (reference). Then, in November 1909, Kate returned to Perth from London on the R.M.S. Orsova (reference). By 1914 Kate was living in Bunbury as the matron of the Bunbury Hospital (reference; reference).
In 1914 Kate again was travelling (reference). She had been to Singapore before travelling to London in June with Marion Spaven, a nursing colleague who was going to England to get married (reference). Kate was to attend a nurses conference then travel for a year before returning to Australia (reference; reference). However, the declaration of war put a halt to her travel plans (reference). By September, Kate had volunteered for service and was sent to Belgium with fifteen other British nurses to care for the wounded (reference). Kate was attached to the French Red Cross run by Lady Dudley (reference).
In December 1914, Kate returned from Antwerp, where she was working in a military hospital (reference). The hospital in question was organised in London at the request of the Belgian Queen and was run entirely by volunteers (reference). The volunteers consisted of women with little to no nursing experience (reference). The women had short-cropped hair, wore breeches and boots (reference). Some even occupied themselves in their time off by going to the front at Maines and watching the fighting (reference). The volunteer nurses cared for hundreds of wounded (reference). The nurses lived in a private mansion when off duty lent by the mansion’s owner (reference). In October, the Antwerp hospital was in a precarious situation as the Germans approached, but they stood their ground and evacuated the patients (reference).
Kate wrote home to her father in a letter, describing her trip to Antwerp and her work at the British Field Hospital for Belgium (reference; reference):
"On September 5th I left Charing Cross for Folkestone with Miss Bryan's party for a field hospital for Belgium. A unit of 35 of us met at 12 10 p.m. and after nearly two hours waiting around the station where we were the centre of attraction to a crowd, with our purple cloaks, bonnets, and the lady farmers in khaki overcoats, riding breeches, top boots and helmets. There were only ten fully trained nurses, four lady doctors, three men doctors and three students. The rest of the crew consisted of four lady farmers, two wives of colonels, an Italian lady who was to act as interpreter, an American, who was bringing a motor car to use as an ambulance, a rich merchant with two cars and two chauffers and an English maiden lady with a car which she also was to use as an ambulance, A nurse rigged out in an army cape took upon herself the duties of chieftainess and ordered us around in a most insolent manner, spoke of her relations, Lord So-and-so, and was a queer party. I had about 20 Australian and New Zealand friends down seeing me off and I did not feel at all "alone in London.' The men, with their customary Australian generosity, provided me with some oranges and apples.
When we got to Folkestone the yacht which was to take us across to Ostend had not arrived, so we were left on the station for another couple of hours until some of the heads went to find accommodation. The only consolation we had whilst waiting was to hear the lady with the peerage relations tell a porter (for our benefit) that she had had a wire to go to Netley at once and join a troop ship so off she went and left us in peace.
We at last got to our various places, most of them schools where the pupils had holidays. The people were very kind and we stayed there until Monday, when the yacht still had not arrived. We left by mail steamer for Ostend and arrived safely there at midnight. Several cruisers put their searchlights on us and we hugged the coast for fear of mines.
We slept at the railway station on train cushions in the waiting room and next day sort of picnicked on the Quayside. Crowds of refugees were making for England as they thought the Germans were nearing Ostend. Next day some of our party went by train and the rest of us by motors. I was lucky enough to be in the first car and our driver had the password. We were challenged eighteen times along the road and once were sent a longer way round as the soldiers feared we might fall in with some Germans. However, we got to Antwerp safely and joined the others in a large schoolhouse lent by the Belgian Red Cross Society and fitted up with 200 beds. We crossed the river on a bridge made of barges lying side by side. Some being smaller than others made it look like a switch back railway.
For two days we unpacked our stores and tried to get things ship shape, but the head lady only thought of the look of things and brought oilcloth to cover the ink stained floor and pot plants for the halls ; mackintosh sheets for the beds and other useful things were not forgotten. Two hundred and fifty hot water bottles came from London and they were intended for a hospital of 40 beds. Pie dish frills and other ridiculous things revealed the fact that our organiser was not fitted to prepare a field hospital. No one seemed to have a say in the management but she, and as she was too excited and fussy to arrange anything, everything seemed in a state of muddle. We would be told breakfast was at 7.30 a m. and then someone else would come along to see why we were not at breakfast.
On Saturday morning patients began to arrive and before night we had 140 poor wounded Belgian soldiers. Some of them were very ill, those shot through the abdomen and one in the head dying soon after admission. The majority had shrapnel wounds in the legs, nasty big wounds they were, causing fracture of bone as well. We worked at high pressure and three of us (I one of them) were told off for night duty; we tried to get two hours rest once in the afternoon when there was a lull in admissions, but could not manage it with the noise. I have never met such a noisy lot of people-the doctors and students in heavy hoots and the lady farmers in their big boots seemed to tramp and the loud voices of most of our corps echoed all over the big rooms and galleries.
By 11 am next day we three tired and weary nurses crawled to bed in a large gymnasium room in a wing building where there were beds ready for more wounded should they arrive. We fervently hoped they would not arrive until we had a few hours sleep. We were very poorly fed. The lady farmers and colonels' wives, etc., who were going to do everything and anything in the kitchen department did not make progress. There was a supply of tinned tongues and Dutch cheeses, so we existed on them until a couple of weeks later a good cook was engaged, also some working women to clean up the place.
Two of the lady farmers had read up first aid books and considered themselves quite au fait in the nursing line; the other two helped in the dining room, the elder one being very good, the younger, only a girl, resented not being allowed on the field to bring in the wounded, so did not do much. They did not bring their horses from Ostend. What they thought they would do on horseback on the battlefield I'm sure I don't know. Their costumes might have suited farm life but hardly hospital wards. The English papers made great yarns on "The Spurred Ladies" who were going to "dash on to the battlefield and rescue the wounded." They vent out to Malines several days to help the Belgian Red Cross Society, but all we ever heard them say they did out there was peel potatoes, and we wondered why they did not stay with us and peel potatoes for our large crowd, seeing that at Malines there were no patients then.
All lights had to be out by 8 pm, and only hurricane lamps or candle were allowed, but as operations were often done at night we infringed the rule.
The lady doctors did not appear to be surgeons and the three male doctors sent for two others. One on stayed two days, the other was a London hospital man and keen only plating fractures, so he had plenty of practice there. He did six femurs and a couple of shoulders. How they were going to turn out was rather doubtful as the wounds were not healing very well when we got orders to quit and some of our patients were lost sight of.
On Saturday, October 3, we got orders to get all our patients that could be dressed, up and down stairs to go by train to Ostend, and then there was a rush Those who could hobble at all were helped down, others were carried and most of them went off by trams and ambulances. Three hours later we got fresh instructions to resume duty and take our patients back as Antwerp was safe. The British marines and big guns had arrived. Some of our patients returned and some from other hospitals returned to us, some of ours went elsewhere and some had gone to Ostend. We had a busy day trying to get 100 people back comfortably to bed, Sunday, we heard nothing fresh. Monday, we could hear guns and then some English soldiers were brought in— One told me that their guns were not big enough against the Germans and he feared his regiment would be wiped out. Tuesday, we were told if we wanted to go to England there was a boat out late that night and as I had been feeling knocked out and some nurses from another hospital could take my place, I left. Wednesday morning early the shells began to fall in Antwerp, and the patients were brought to the cellars, then on Thursday taken by cars to Ghent and Ostend and later to England. None of our party got hurt, although shells burst on houses on each side of the Hospital.
Antwerp was a fine city and such lovely homes. We were all billeted at various houses to sleep. We night nurses had most comfortable quarters, bedrooms as big as ballrooms and a bathroom on each floor; a maid to see to our wants as the mistress was at her Mother's.
One afternoon we were awakened by a cannon shot, and we jumped out of bed and ran to see what was wrong. We had been warned when we first came to Antwerp in the event of a cannon being heard we were to go to the cellar and keep away from the window. Of course this we didn't do. On looking out we saw the man and maid servant out on the road looking over our roof where it seems a "Taube" was flying. It had been seen by the forts and was fired on but got away. The next time one came we got a good view of it. It dropped a bomb on the water works and destroyed it, so that we were short of water for days. They had to pump water from the river into dry docks and condense it before we could get any laid on-all we could get was from some neighbor's well."
Upon Kate's return to Australia, she re-entered nursing training at the Ballarat Hospital and commented on her five-week experience at Antwerp to the Melbourne Nurses' Journal (reference). Kate was unimpressed with the discipline and organisation of the corps in Antwerp (reference). The issue stemmed from untrained and unskilled women volunteering as nurses and preventing proper care of the wounded (reference).
In 1915 Kate was included in an honour roll as a nurse of the Imperial Forces (reference). At the end of the war, she was awarded the British Victory Medal (reference). During her service, she was part of the British Committee and the French Red Cross (reference).
In 1917 Kate returned to Western Australia ad when she could not get work there moved to New South Wales, where she obtained a position at Bowral (reference). In 1917 Kate had a good nursing reputation and was certified in midwifery and surgery (reference). She also became the manager of Dr Barretts Private Hospital in Toora Victoria (reference). In 1918 Kate was back in Bunbury, lost a gold stud, and offered a reward in the newspaper (reference). In 1921 was appointed as matron for a girls' grammar school outside of Sydney (reference).
Kate also worked at the Mon Repos rest home in Cottesloe where she was the sister in charge in 1929 (reference). She was also the sister-in-charge at the Perth Hospital, where she worked on and off until she died (reference; reference). She visited her home state of Victoria on occasions, such as in 1938 she attended the Williamstown races (reference).
Kate died in Perth on 23 December 1942 at 70 years old and was buried on Christmas Eve in the Roman Catholic portion of the Karrakatta Cemetery (reference; reference; reference). Her friends and colleagues remember her as having remarkable endurance while serving in the A.I.F. during the First World War (reference).
More details on the field hospital can be found in the British Medical Journal 9 January 1915 in A Field Hospital In Belgium by J Hartnell Beavis and H S Souttar (reference).