Violetta Thurstan

Nursing and World War One

"Nurse training at the London Hospital, Whitechapel, under the guidance of the exceptional matron, Eva Luckes, prepared her for a string of hospital appointments from 1905 until the outbreak of war in 1914. Parallel studies in modern languages, fine art, and geography by correspondence and external examination showed her grit and determination to learn (LLA, St Andrews). Having joined the British Red Cross Society in 1913, her call-up sent her to Brussels the following year as Matron at Marcelline. Already established in the city for some years was the outstanding nurse, also working with the Red Cross and a London Hospital trained nurse, Edith Cavell. When two months after her arrival, Violetta was expelled to Denmark, Edith remained to her ultimate end.

From Denmark, Violetta offered herself to the Russian Red Cross, joining Prince and Princess Volkonsky at the front in the Flying Field Ambulance Surgery Service, working as both a nurse and an ambulance driver. Operating contemporaneously was another famed nurse, Florence Farmborough, whose diary Nurse at the Russian Front offers graphic descriptions of their work. Both were awarded the Russian Cross of St George and The Military Medal. Based on her own experiences in war, Violetta wrote three memoirs, Field Hospital & Flying Column (1915) and The People who Run (1916) and much later about Russia in particular, The Hounds of War Unleashed (1978). Ill-health pursued her throughout her long life, including fevers, pleurisy, TB shoulder, and eye troubles, requiring furloughs for recuperation, but always she rapidly returned to work, almost fanatically volunteering at every opportunity."

Post-war she embarked on learning handcrafts and especially weaving, acquiring diplomas in Sweden (near Goteborg), then Italy, Paris and Berlin. Simultaneously she built up a bag of diplomas and her facility with languages. These were to be her sustaining skills, and the genesis of future achievements at home and abroad. Her first major appointment was as Director of the Bedouin Industries for the Egyptian Government, located in the Libyan Desert west of Cairo. Her work was to supply and select textiles, oversee Bedouin workshops, and this was where all she ‘had learned previously about weaving was superseded’ and enhanced along with a knowledge of Arabic. Her diaries describe a life full of travels to Cairo and Alexandra, and periodically back through continental Europe to Britain, stopping off to advise on crafts in Albania, all within a seven year period. In her own estimation, these were her most fulfilling years. In 1924, her ‘Articles on Dyeing’ were published by the Egyptian Horticultural Review, and by 1930 her best-selling book, Use of Vegetable Dyes for Beginners, was published by Dryad, remaining a standard text today. In following years she lectured, tutored in languages and weaving, and in 1934 published A Short History of Decorative Textiles and Tapestries". - See more at: http://womenincornwall.org/content/anna-thurstan#sthash.u03V00yt.dpuf

References and Sources

• http://alanpaulstevens.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/christmas-1914-miss-v...
  

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Births Mar 1879

(Jan Feb March) Thurstan Anna Violet Hastings 2b 16