Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 17
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[Page 17]
ould Ireland on a fine frosty morning, crossing the English Channel to Liverpool, there to take ship for their destination, which in our case was Melbourne Victoria, the writer was borne on board the good ship Samuel Lock one fine May morning in the year 1857 AD. when off the Canary Islands, now is he the sole survivor of the whole family. Such is fate. and his cause of work finds upon the S.S. Kyarra bound for the seat of war wherein is being contested the greatest fighting of all time, those battling having as a goal the supremacy of British or German ideas throughout the world. We must win! But at what cost none can tell. Cost not alone in Money, which is the least of the evils, but of the red blood that glows along the areteries of our fellow men, of the distress of our womenfolk, of the suffering of their children, and of the dislocation of trade & commerce which has been built up with energy & grit during one hundred years.
Our population has become a hive of industry the women knitting, sewing, reading, & exercising, the men drilling, taking turns at guard duties as hospital orderlies & such like, studying medical or surgical books, reading ordinary litterature. Games are popular with both men & women, & the study of the French language is universal. Lieut. Col. Ramsay Smith, M.D. Edinburg. is the greatest reader on board. He is a well known citizen of Adelaide. Some 20 years ago he came to that city as an opponent to a course of action which the resident medical men there adopted in regard to some trouble. Mr. Kingston, a member of Parliament of exceptional merit, brought him and a Dr. Napier from Britain to support his action. My profession was at once opposed to men of knowledge and industry greater than that possessed by any of themselves, the consequence was that the battle was prolonged & Ramsay Smith is on top. He was ostracised, as long as possible, to no effect.
[Lieutenant Colonel William Ramsay Smith, 1859-1937, physician, naturalist, anthropologist and civil servant, was principal medical officer in South Australia from 1906. Following the outbreak of War, he embarked from Melbourne on 5 December 1914 on HMAT A55 Kyarra in command of the 1st Australian General Hospital. He commanded the hospital in Cairo, Egypt, from October 1914 to 15 October 1915 when, as a result of problems with the hospital's administration, he and the principal matron, Jane Bell, had their appointments terminated.]