"Einstein was right – time really is relative. Weeks feel like years and also like minutes at the same time"

Dispatches from the Frontline brings you podcasts from the diary of World War 1 nurse. At the same time, they also are a recording of how three artists re-directed their creative energies at home, on rehearsing on zoom and recording and editing on audacity during Melbourne’s lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Great War lasted four years (1914-1918). Everyone thought it was going “to be over by Christmas”. At the beginning of 2020, the world was asking the same question. How long will our “war on the pandemic” last? As we recorded the Sister Nan Reay’s descriptions of tending to the wounded soldiers from the trenches, we noticed how the language of war had become the current parlance of 2020. We were facing “the war on Covid”, the “frontline”, the “battle against the coronavirus” and daily reminders of how to survive our “war on Covid”. It seems that our language has not changed in over 104 years. In fact, the survival practices of keeping people alive – good hygiene, quality care, respect, tolerance and humour are enduring human qualities to help us survive.

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nan Reay arrived in England, from Australia, in December 1912 with her mother Lucinda (Louie) and sisters Millie, Beatrice, Amy and Alice. She then nursed privately in London until the outbreak of war in 1914. When war was declared she immediately put her name forward to join the war effort and was recruited to join the Australian Voluntary Hospital (AVH) established by Lady Dudley in England. 

Lady Dudley raised the funds and established the AVH in a remarkably short time in August 1914 to give expatriate Australians in Britain the opportunity to support the war. 

By August 27th the AVH left for the Front with Lady Dudley as Superintendent to establish their work at St Nazaire. 

There were eighteen nurses, sixteen of whom were Australian, eighty non-commissioned officers and men, including twenty-five medical students. 

Nan Reay records this day by noting that she received her “first army pay. In this episode she describes her journey into the “unknown” as she travels to the harbour of Le Havre, in north western France.

The AVH served as a military hospital from 1914-1916 on the Western Front and for much of this time, it was the only Australian presence on the Western Front. It has been described as the United Nations of emergency healthcare because it was established as an independent field hospital to care for French, Russian, Serbian and Portugese soliders, as well as Commonwealth soldiers. 

By the end of October 1914 the AVH moved to Wimereux, a coastal town situated five kilometres north of Boulogne on the north-west coast of France. The town was an important hospital centre during WW1.

At the end of the war, in 1918, Lady Dudley was appointed C.B.E. and was awarded the Royal Red Cross for her work with the AVH. 

World War 1 Timeline for Episode 1

28 June 1914.Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie Chotek, are assassinated by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. Austria suspects Serbia is responsible.

28 July 1914 

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

August 1914 

Germany declares war on Russia, France and Belgium.

Britain declares war on Germany.

Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.

France and Britain declare war on Austria-Hungary.

Japan declares war on Germany.

Austria-Hungary declares war on Belgium.

The United States declares its neutrality.

“The Retreat from Mons” is written across the left hand margin between the entries for 2 and 3 September in Nan Reay’s handwriting. 

The Battle of Mons took place in Belgium on 23 August 1914, when the German army forced the British Expeditionary Force into a retreat.

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Due to the advance of the German army, the Australian Voluntary Hospital is established at St. Nazaire instead of Le Havre. Nan Reay arrives on the 6 September and noticing St. Nazaire to be a little cleaner than Le Havre, sets to work with her colleagues to get everything ship shape at headquarters.

We are introduced to Gabriel, (Ida Gabriel) Nan’s Australian friend with whom she had sailed back to Australia in 1913 after accompanying a ship load of migrants from England to Australia in 1912. Nan Reay is comforted by meeting Melbourne Hospital colleagues and friends who have also joined the AVH. 

For the first time, Nan describes her patients and their injuries. We are introduced to the word “Tommies” which was slang for common soldier in the British army in WW1. 

World War 1 Timeline for Episode 2

4 September 1914.Germany invades Belgium and advances to within 48 kms of Paris. They are stopped at the First Battle of the Marne (6-12 September) in north-eastern France by the French armies and the British Expeditionary Forces. The Germans dig in north of the Aisne River, and a system of fighting known as trench warfare that is to typify the Western Front (areas of Belgium and France) for the next four years begins. 

During the battle, the French had around 250,000 casualties and the British lost 12,733 men. Although the French and British were able to prevent the Germans from a swift and decisive victory, the German army was not beaten and their successful retreat ended what was expected to be a war which would be “over by Christmas”.

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Nan provides us with more information about the people she is working with and specific details of the soldiers’ injuries and treatments. She writes about a conversation she had in French with a local driver, his attitude to “les allemands blesses”, the “German wounded” and how they will “finish them off”. 

After the entry for 14 September where she describes the work of the orderlies, she has handwritten: “These men all joined the fighting units soon after and several were killed on the Somme”. Nan Reay would have written this comment as a postscript. The Battle of the Somme did not take place until 1 July 1916.

Nan collected postcards of the places she visited and pasted these into the hardcopy of the diary: Le Havre; the Australian Voluntary Hospital, formerly the clinic of Dr. Dufreche at Boulevard de l’Ocean; Nazaire, and the beach at Nazaire.

World War 1 Time line for Episode 3

12 -15 September 1914. After the First Battle of the Marne, the Germans deployed its army along the north bank of the River Aisne. Aisne is in north-eastern France about 128 kms from Paris. The Germans really “dug in” here and this battlefield area was to mark the beginning of the entrenchments which would gradually spread all along an area known as the Western Front; a 400-plus mile stretch of land weaving through France and Belgium from the Swiss border to the North Sea. The war moved from a mobile to a static war.

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we gain insight into many aspects of Sister Nan Reay. She provides more details about the wounded and the living conditions in the nurses’ quarters. We hear how she manages when other nursing sisters are ill, her moments of assertiveness and her moments of empathy and sorrow.

When she refers to the padre, Mr.Sheppard, Nan Reay writes his full name in the margin: Mr. Sheppard, Canon Sheppard, St. Martins-in-the Field, London.

“Lay Down Your Arms” was a novel written by Baroness Bertha Von Suttner, a peace activist. 

World War 1 Timeline for Episode 4

From 22 September until end of November 1914, battlefields started to be established along the Western Front as each side tried to out manoeuvre each other in an attempt to gain more unoccupied ground. The Germans endeavour to capture more ground on their enemies’ northern flank as they try to reach Paris, resulting in a side stepping movement towards the Belgian coast and the Channel ports of Calais, Dunkirk, Ostend and Zeebrugge. This period of fighting has become known as “The Race to the Sea”. 

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No two days or nights the same. Nan Reay is only about six weeks into her work at the AVH hospital. The medical staff anxiously spend their time receiving and evacuating the wounded and her life is full of constant adjustments to the incessant “rush” that brings wounded soldiers to the clearing hospital.A man’s chances depend on how quickly his wound is treated. 

Oh, but the joys of the Grand Hotel and a trip into the country! A welcome respite for Sister Reay and her friends and colleagues.

Nan Reay’s entries are punctuated with postcards from her walks along Boulevard de l’Ocean and the beach at St. Nazaire, a port on the northwest coast of France. St. Nazaire became a significant port to transport soldiers and the wounded to and from the Front.

World War 1 Timeline for Episode 5

The most significant battles of World War 1 began around 22 September.. They were known as the Battles of the Somme and included First Battle of Picardy (22-26 September 1914)

A famous song of the era was “Roses are shining in Picardy” whose refrain was often printed on postcards below a picture of a of woman.

Roses are shining in Picardy, in the hush of the silver dew,

Roses are flowering in Picardy, but there's never a rose like you!

And the roses will die with the summertime, and our roads may be far apart,

But there's one rose that dies not in Picardy!

'Tis the rose that I keep in my heart!

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nan Reay has been at the base hospital in St. Nazaire for three weeks. She has been told that they have had over 650 patients during that time. We are introduced to Major Studdy and Colonel L’Estrange Eames, her Australian O.C – Officer in Command. Too old to be recruited into the Australian Imperial Forces at the age of 51, Col L’Estrange Eames, was recruited by Lady Dudley to the AVH. The British War Office only accepted the hospital on the understanding that a man holding a Royal Army medical commission should be put at the head of it, and this position was given to Colonel L’Estrange Eames with the title of temporary Lieutenant Colonel.

Rumours abound as to where the nurses, medical officers and orderlies will be moved onto next.

World War 1 Timeline for Episode 6

After the invasion of Belgium by the German army, most of the Belgian army fell back to the fortress city of Antwerp. The siege of Antwerp from 27 September to 7 October 1914 started with a major bombardment on the fort and city by the German army. The British began to land naval infantry but as the German army closed in the Belgians decided to abandon the city on 7 October and move towards Ostend to fight on more open terrain. Two days later, German troops entered the Antwerp and the siege was over.

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nursing in World War 1 was often exhausting, relentless and sometimes disgusting. Nan Reay’s entries in this episode describe the difficult living conditions the nurses had to endure. Despite her weariness due to lack of sleep, she is still able to enjoy the little excursions beyond base camp.

Rumours also abound and the nurses must be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice. Who knows

where?

World War 1 Timeline for Episode 7

On the 5 October 1914 the first German aircraft was shot down by an Allied plane, the Voisin V. This plane was used by the Royal Flying corps and British and Belgian airforces. It was the first bomber to be armed with a cannon instead of a machine gun.

For more information on Dispatches from the Frontline project, go to: www.dispatchesfromthefrontline.org

Dispatches from the Frontline is brought to you by:

Geraldine Cook-Dafner – Narrator

Naomi Edwards - Director

Alex Dafner – Voice recording and editing

Zoltan Fecso – Music composition, sound design and editing

Tristan Meecham – Creative Producer, All the Queen’s Men

Image – Sarah Corridon

Dispatches from the Frontline is supported by funding from the Public Record Office Victoria, Creative Victoria and Regional Arts Victoria

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.