The Uren family - Activities
Examine the images, film, and sound file below, and answer the discussion questions.
This was the first time many of these nurses had travelled outside Australia. Imagine you are a nurse on board this ship or a soldier traveling to the battlefields.
- Write a letter home to your family in Australia. How do you think you would be feeling?
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The hospital was composed of a series of canvas tents. What challenges might the nurses have experienced working in this kind of environment?
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More than 2,000 Australian nurses served in the First World War. Why might they have wanted to enlist?
Silent film showing wounded soldiers receiving treatment at a casualty clearing station (extract), c. 1916. (Geoffrey Malins and John Benjamin McDowell, AWM F00050)
- How were the wounded transported to casualty clearing stations? Once they arrived, how did others look after them?
- How do you think Australians at home might have reacted to seeing footage of seriously wounded soldiers?
- 30:09
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Leila Brown discusses her service as a nurse on the Western Front, c. 1980. (AWM S00395)
Details
An ABC Radio program hosted by Peter Stanton featuring an interview with Leila Brown, a nurse who served on the Western Front during the First World War. Broadcast on Saturday evening, 15 November 1980.
- Who did the nurses have to care for? How did they acquire information from them? Why would this be important?
- What does Leila recall about the conditions of the hospitals and medical services available to those who had been wounded?
- What weapon does she say was the worst? Use the Memorial’s website to investigate the development and use of this weapon during the First World War.
- How useful are oral interviews as a source of information? What might affect their reliability?