Miss Louisa Watson Tulloh, Matron of Guildford War Hospital during World War One, is, as far as I am aware, the only nurse to have been decorated with the Royal Red Cross Award, twice! Born in Scotland, Louisa started her nursing career at Crumpsall Workhouse but she was pleased when she was accepted into Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service in 1887 at Netley Hospital until she was posted to Egypt the following year. The work was tough with no clean water and high temperatures:
The hospital was a stable diverted from its proper use for the time being, and the Sisters’ quarters were a mud cabin and they hung up a blanket at the entrance for a door. The temperature was then 100 to 120°, so the heat may be imagined. The only water for the use of the patients was Nile water, which, as the river was rising, was very muddy. It as filtered, and necessarily so, for the Sisters had to undergo the unpleasant experience of seeing dead camels and donkeys floating down this, there only supply of drinking water. A live camel is an unwholesome looking object enough, but a dead one, in one’s drinking water, must be a sight calculated to make one extremely moderate as to the amount one consumes. In additional to the heat, and the dead camels and donkeys, there were mosquitoes and sand flies to reckon with, so that the trials of the time were very real.
Nursing Record & Hospital World, 7th Oct 1899
In recognition for her services – tending to the sick and
wounded in Egypt – Louisa Watson Tulloh received her first Royal Red Cross
Award in June 1896. Leaving Egypt in 1900 she travelled to South Africa to care
for the wounded soldiers in the Anglo-Boer War. She was mentioned in despatches
by Lord Roberts and received her second Red Cross Award in September 1901 for
services in the Boer War. As highlighted at the time, being honoured with two
Royal Red Crosses must have been a unique occurrence!
From 1909 until 1912 Miss Tulloh worked in Hong Kong and was
Matron of the first unit of QAIMNS to nurse troops in China.
Tulloh moved to Guildford to become Matron of the Guildford
War Hospital during The Great War. Again, she was awarded for her services with
a Bar to the Royal Red Cross for war services (March 1919). At this point she
retired to Bournemouth after 31 years nursing service.
In 1951 Louisa was interviewed for Queen Alexandra’s Nursing Corps Association Gazette. She described an exciting meeting with Florence Nightingale.
She also described meeting Queen Victoria in 1897
Louisa’s scrapbook and medals can be found at the Army
Medical Services museum in Keogh Barracks
References:
Nursing Record & Hospital World 1889 7th October, 290-291
The Edinburgh Gazette 1897 22nd June, 1897
The Edinburgh Gazette 1901 1st October, 1094
The London Gazette 1919 14th March, 3583.
The London Gazette 1919 May 20th
The London Gazette 1919 20th May
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