Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 2
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[Page 2]
[Transcriber's note:
Honorary Lieutenant Colonel John Brady Nash VD (Volunteer Decoration) (1857-1925), a parliamentarian and surgeon from Sydney, NSW, joined the Army on 19 October 1914 aged 57, and embarked from Sydney, NSW, on HMAT A55 Kyarra on 28 November 1914 with the 2nd Australian General Hospital. He left Egypt to return to Australia on the Themistocles in early December 1915, escorting invalided soldiers.
This is a series of letters from him to his four daughters in Australia: Agnes (Sister Mary Hyacinth), Caroline, Josephine, and Kathleen. Caroline, Josephine and Kathleen lived in the family home at 219 Macquarie Street, Sydney. Agnes was a Dominican nun, usually resident in Moss Vale, NSW.
Mentioned frequently in the letters is Private Edward George Jerrom, sometimes written Jerom or Jerome, No 778, a Parliament House Messenger in Sydney, NSW, who enlisted on 22 October 1914 aged 41 and embarked from Sydney on 28 November 1914 on HMAT A55 Kyarra with the 2nd Australian General Hospital, serving as Lieutenant Colonel Nash's orderly or batman in Egypt and Gallipoli, returning to Australia with Lieutenant Colonel Nash on the Themistocles escorting invalid soldiers. He later served in France with the 1st Field Ambulance and returned to Australia in September 1917.
The letters describe Dr Nash's voyage on the Kyarra in November 1914, the places visited, life on board the ship until disembarkation in Alexandria, and his experiences in Cairo where he worked in two different hospitals and also visited many historic sites. Towards the end of his time in Egypt, he visited Gallipoli and describes the voyage and the situation he found there. Throughout his letters he mentions a number of other serving medical personnel and soldiers, as well as many friends and prominent citizens in New South Wales, and news items from home and abroad, including the Gallipoli landing, the sinking of the Emden by HMAS Sydney, and the capture of German New Guinea.
The series also includes a small number of letters or documents from other people, including:
An account by Lieutenant John Williams (11th Infantry Battalion) of his voyage from Fremantle to Aden on HMAT A11 Ascanius in November 1914, including an account of the sinking of the German cruiser Emden (pages 379 to 386);
A letter from Sister Blanche Sutton who served at the Queen of Belgium's Hospital in La Panne, Belgium, about a fire there, and an encounter with the royal family (pages 444 to 455);
A letter from Engineer Lieutenant Clarence Walter Bridge, of HMAS Australia, about the fall of German New Guinea in August 1914 (pages 546 to 549).
Short biographical details have been added for people referred to in the letters where it is possible to identify them sufficiently. Errors in spelling have generally been preserved although those considered to be typographical errors in typed letters have been corrected. Line or paragraph breaks have been introduced as necessary to improve readability.]