Boer War Nurse: Diary of a Nurse in South Africa with the Dutch-Belgian Red Cross During the Boer War

A Nurse for Boer and British during the Boer War

The author of this book, a young Belgian woman, was a vocational nurse from an early age. As a child she had assisted in caring for the wounded of the Franco-Prussian War. Serving as a nurse in a private hospital she answered the call for trained medical help by joining the staff of an ambulance sent out to South Africa by the Dutch and Belgian Red Cross. She worked in the war zone especially caring for Boer wounded and sick until the summer of 1900 when she was recalled to Europe upon the sudden death of her husband. After quickly settling her affairs she felt compelled once again to return to Africa, on this occasion volunteering to serve as a Nursing Sister caring primarily for British sick and wounded. This remarkable woman tells her story across time providing the reader with a vivid view of her humanitarian work in two opposing camps and on both sides of the lines, thus giving the modern reader a possibly impartial but inside view of the protagonists of the Boer War.