Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

NURSING THE WOUNDED.
Sister Dora Burgess, one of the nurses who went from Sydney to South Africa, writes to a friend from Pietermaritzburg, Natal, under date of 19th
February. Subjoined are extracts from the letter :
"I was sent to take charge of two wards in the Military Hospital, twenty-live beds in each. Orderlies do all the nursing, hut there is always a sister in charge of the wards. It Is only on active service that ' sisters' do the dressing. Sister Clarke worked first day in the Harrison Church, which at present contains forty beds ; she had another sister with her. I found my wards full of Dublin Fusiliers, Connaught Rangers, and Lancashire Fusiliers. Most of the wounds are small except the shell wounds. They burst the flesh 'open, making such a horrid gash. I have a bit of shell which I picked out of a wound one day while dressing it. I picked other bits out of the same man, but they were too small to keep/ He was quite an interesting subject. He was simply speckled all over his back and one arm with shell wounds. The Mauser bullets are most merciful, only making an opening about the size of the head of a bonnet pin. We got a lot with flesh wounds. It makes me marvel how many of them escape without broken bones. I saw a man under X rays the night before last. He had a bullet under his right shoulder blade. We could see it distinctly. The bullet went through the man's cheek, breaking his jaw, and buried itself in the shoulder. As well as the barracks here being turned into a hospital, the military have also utilised Parliament House, a large boys' college, and all large buildings. Since I began to write this, Sister C__________ and I have gone to work at the college : Sister C_____ is on night duty, and I have a ward of twenty beds in the building, and three rows of tents, about ten tents in each row, and eight beds in each tent. The mildest cases are there, and it is just like dressing casualties. Maritzburg is about as big as Parramatta, but the way it lies in a hollow, with hills and cliffs all round, is not unlike what Murrumbindi looks like from the train - magnificent green foliage everywhere, and plenty of grass. The other day we each received a box of the Queen's chocolate. It is just a plain tin box with the Queen's face nicely embossed on it, and her writing, 'I wish you a happy new years. - R.V.' Some of the men have already parted with theirs for large sums of money. We shall never part with ours."

The Brisbane Courier Tuesday 17 April 1900 page 7

Nurse Dora Burgess' Experiences.
Dr. Kearney, of Parramatta, has received a letter from Nurse Dora Burgess, who was for a time on the staff of the Parramatta District Hospital. She writes from the Military Hospital, Estcourt, Natal, under date April 6th. From her interesting communication (kindly placed at our disposal by Dr. Kearney) we cull the subjoined passages :—' Shortly after arrival at Port Natal, we were sent up by the Principal Medical-Officer to Pietermaritzburg, the 1st base Hospital. Here we had to wait a week for a vacancy. We got the first two, and were duly installed as ' Sisters ' in two wards of fifty-six beds each. My wards were barrack rooms They were fairly fitted up for hospital use, and there were eight orderlies to work them. ? I find there is very little done in the Army Hospitals as we do in the civilian. You know what a lot we do for patients; here it is just the reverse. There is very little expected of the sisters. We give out stimulants and take temperatures and do the dressings. This last is optional. I chose to do mine, which made the orderlies wonder. When I took charge, the ward was still full of patients from the battle of Colenso, Dublin Fusiliers and Connaught Rangers, and it was interesting to hear their experiences. These shot wounds get well very quickly, especially from Mauser bullets.
They call it ' the merciful Mauser.' But the shells cause a big lacerated wound, simply bursting the flesh open. The Rontgen rays were in constant use. They have proved a blessing to many a poor Tommie. I had not been many days there when a lot of these patients were drafted off to Durban and we got a lot down' from the battle of Spion Kop. Twenty-eight came to my ward and I did feel nervous for fear I shouldn't acquit myself well,
but I found I only had to go round with the medical officers, and an orderly fetched along the dressing trays. . Some of the things I saw done simply, astonished me. Of expensive materials there is no stint, but the handling they get makes you stare. Still the wounds heal very quickly. When we (Sister Clarke and myself) had been there about three weeks we were moved to another hospital, which was a large boys' college commandeered for the purpose. Here I had. charge of 24 marquees (8 beds in each). ' It will sound a great deal for one nurse, but not for the way in which things are worked in the army ? We were only ten days at the college when orders came for two sisters to proceed to Estcourt, so we were chosen, being friends. We have been here a month and a change is on the tap is again— this time to Sunday River, some miles north of Ladysmith. Here we have nearly all enteric nursing. Poor scarecrows that have been through the siege 1 . These poor starved ones are the saddest part of the war, far more to be pitied than the wounded, and not half as interesting.'

The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate Saturday 02 June 1900 page 12

Estcourt During the War.
From an Argus Correspondent
The following account of Estcourt (about 30 miles from Ladysmith, in Natal) is a contribution to The Argus from the pen of Sister Dora Burgess.formerly on the staff of the Parramatta District Hospital, and now on service in South Africa. Sister Dora, who is a skilled performer with the kodak, also contributed the photos which appear in today's supplement, illustrative of scenes in and about Estcourt.
Her own photo was taken by one of her sister nurses.
Estcourt is a scattered little township of some 300 white inhabitants, situated in a valley surrounded' by hills, as so many South African townships are. A river called the Bushman's runs half way round it and forms a very pretty bit of scenery where it joins another small stream at the foot of a picturesque kopje, and, dropping a distance of eight or nine feet, hurries on with a loud murmur that, can be heard all over the quiet little village. The Convent, standing on a prominence, has been used as a military Hospital since the war began. Here the poor soldiers were first brought from the armoured train disaster which occurred about ten miles up the line near Frere. The good nuns of a French order with very small command of the English language, tended these poor fellows with true devotion, and gave every possible help to the patient' members of the Royal Army Medical Corps, even giving up their hallowed little chapel to hold ten beds, their schoolroom and dormitories, containing over forty. These with some dozen or tents make up the usual number, that a Stationary hospital is equipped for, but in these exciting times hospitals near the front have had to prove their elasticity. It is an impressive sight on the' Sabbath, mornings, when the nuns with their good old Padre and a sprinkling of villagers, hold a service of mass in the yard and 20 or 30 Tommies are to be seen on their knees with the rest, joining in the prayers, whilst the sick ones peep from underneath their tents and feel the solemnity of it.
Willowgrange, the scene of one of the earliest battles, lies a few miles to the south and can be seen from the nearest hill in that direction, the; nothing now remains there to remind one of warfare except dilapidated trenches, and innumerable empty tins, that look like bits of white paper in the distance.
Estcourt has had its full share of martial excitement, for at one time, the Boers surrounded it and were only three miles away with their big guns on a very high peak. Women and children were hurried away to safety at a moment's notice as it was feared it would fall into the enemy's hands, or have a long siege. At times even now firing is heard from the direction of Skionkop, where a handful of Free State rebels are giving our brave defenders as much trouble as possible. High above sea level with a clear bracing air, Estcourt is considered one of the healthiest resorts of Natal, for which reason it has been fixed upon by the military authorities for a large base hospital for General Baller's forces, and in the last four weeks some acres of canvas have been erected on a slope close to the railway line, looking like myriads of white sails when the sun shines on the marquees. This hospital when finished, is expected to accommodate 1000 patients, but as yet only five hundred, mostly sent down from insanitary Ladysmith and Elandslaage, where is is feared we well lose 20 per cent of our men from sickness and hardship. Sir Thomas Fitzgerald, the celebrated Melbourne surgeon, now divides his attention between Estcourt and No 7 General Hospital, Mooi River, which has about 1500 beds.
The public school, a very good type of country town public, building, has recently been commandeered for convalescents from the Stationary Hospital which had been much overtaxed, and the master's, residence serves as quarters, for three nursing Sisters (one of whom is Sister Dora Burgess) sent up by the P.MO. who have, now taken over most of the nursing from the tired out nuns, and happen at present to be three Sydney nurses who came to South Africa and volunteered at Pietermaritzburg some months ago. The medical authorities here, insist on treating the Sisters as fine ladies, when they (the Sisters) are really longing to do lots of things for poor Tommie which a woman could do better. But she must not. It is an infra dig. A detachment of the Lancaster, Rifles and Irish Fusiliers Militia have, reared their little fly tents on a hill south-west of the
town. Almost wherever one looks, white canvas and kharki figures meet the eyes.
Estcourt boasts of four typical country town stores, supplying all sorts of goods in an un-pretentious way, and several shops, kept by coolies, containing very curious collections of native and imported Indian wares. Shopkeeping seems to hold, little or no attraction for the Kaffirs. The influx of military life, which far exceeds the civil, had brought along with it the inevitable camp followers who place their own canvas shops on any available space, and reap a golden harvest in supplying Tommies with luxuries not distributed by regulation.
The Army Service Corps and Ordnance Department have a camp on a large square close to the railway station, and here the bread is made for all the troops north of Ladysmith, long bullock wagons piled high with tiers of loafs by the Kaffirs for transmission to the railway station have to be seen, and one wonders how many bakers have been employed whilst others slept to turn out such an immense quantity by 11 o'clock every day. Who should grumble if at times it is a bit sour? The Dutch element is strong in this neighbourhood, and finds vent in giving as much petty annoyance as possible to the powers that be, not withstanding that the military authorities show them every consideration. The farmers find a highly remunerative market, for their produce- a fact which they are not slow to make the most of, despite their patriotic feelings.

The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate Saturday 30 June 1900 page 11

Sister Dora Burgess who was at one time a nurse in the Parramatta District Hospital, but went to South Africa on the outbreak of hostilities there, paid a visit to some of her friends on Wednesday. Sister Burgess is on sick leave, after an attack of fever. She intends to return to South Africa shortly. She holds the South African War Medal, and is a member of Princess Christian's Nursing Sisters' Hospital Reserve.

The Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 26 July 1902 page 12

​ "The best yet" was the general consensus of opinion about the Returned Nurses' Club Anzac eve reunion held at the club in Anzac House on Saturday night. "Lots of the 'olds and bolds' were there, and lots of the young ones, too," said a senior member.
One of the "olds and bolds" was Miss A. Burgess, now over 80, a nurse in the Boer War, and also in World War I, who said the reunion was worth living for. Miss Burgess, incidentally, is a trainee of Royal Melbourne Hospital.

The Argus Monday 26 April 1948 page 7