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[Page 9]
In November I, with two other nursing sisters, went on leave to England. Had a wonderful time seeing as much as we could in the few days, then returned to Le Tripoli and night duty. We organised a concert for Xmas which was a great success. We were asked to repeat it at Dieppe, which we gladly did in a real theatre. Saw the old year out and the new one in, celebrating with champagne with the nurses and officers, and our wish was for a better year and the end of the war.
April 14th. transferred to Moore Barracks No XI Canadian General Hospital near Folkestone. In England we nursed mainly Canadians, whereas in France they were mostly British with just a few Germans.
I worked there until Sept. 29th when myself and about ten Nurses had movement orders to go to Salonica. We left London the next day for Southampton, saied at 5 pm on the "Brittanic" - it was a grand ship, most comfortable and although we had a complete blackout we enjoyed the rest and the luxury after our hard work.
We steamed into the beautiful harbour at Naples. The town was most picturesque, blue sky above, houses with coloured shutters and the fruits hanging from the windows and balconies. The Corso Vittoria Emmanuel commanded a magnificent view of the city and the bay. Had tea at Bertitmioves, drove around the town and watched cameos being cut from shells. All very interesting.
The Soffalura, about seven miles from Naples is a volcanic crater from which sulphurous fumes rise, the ground is warm. In many places the mud is bubbling - southward lies Vesuvius. Matron slipped into one of the pools (thank goodness it was not a boiling one) and came out a muddy mess, cape and all. We cleaned her up as well as we could and she then said it was a good thing it wasn't one of us. We heartily agreed for we would have got the very devil for looking too much at the scenery and not watching our step. We left Naples after seeing many places of interest and sailed at 6 pm Oct. 1st.
Wednesday we steamed into Meidros Harbour. There were six hospital ships there and some British ships. The searchlights were wonderful that night - probably no U"boats around. Thursday we left the Brittanica"1 and sailed on the S.S. Nandilla - not nearly so luxurious. Friday we arrived in Salonica, a lovely sunshiny day, the harbour full of bright little boats, and the mosques and minarets clustering up the hillside looked most picturesque and romantic. We stayed on board all day and landed in Greece at 8 pm. We were met by Captain Bastian and taken to No. 1 Canadian Stationary Hospital starting immediately on night duty.
About two weeks later went on relief duty work. Some days later went into Salonica where we had coffee at Flocas - a well known place to go. We got coffee served at little round tables, but it was not to our liking.