The service and sacrifice of our soldiers predominated coverage of World War One centenary year but we should not forget the contribution of those women who volunteered to care for the wounded in the front line and at home. 

Among them were a band of young ladies who staffed the military hospital which was established at the Vestry Hall, a disused Calvinist chapel in North Street, Bourne, where wounded servicemen were treated between 1914-18. They had joined the Red Cross as members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) at the outbreak of war when more than 2,500 such units were formed throughout the country to help ease the shortage of trained nurses and other medical staff. 

Once the local authorities in Bourne received notification from the War Office, a hospital was established within a few weeks and by the time the first seventeen wounded soldiers arrived by train on Tuesday 15th December 1914, it was fully staffed by the volunteers who had been recruited from the town to work as nurses, orderlies, cooks and drivers, together with two of the town's family doctors, John Galletly and John Gilpin, who provided the necessary medical experience. 

So began the regular arrivals of wounded soldiers from the trenches that continued for the rest of the war. A report from September 1915, during a week in which there were 16 fresh admissions, said that the patients came from a variety of regiments fighting in France, some who lived locally, and most of them were suffering from gunshot wounds or had been gassed while others had lost limbs or were suffering from the effects of shell shock. By the time the war ended in November 1918, the number of beds had doubled to forty and the hospital had cared for almost 950 servicemen. 

The women who volunteered came mainly from the middle and upper classes and were unaccustomed to hardship and traditional hospital discipline but were soon proving their worth in caring for the wounded and carrying out the daily routines of life on the wards. The exact number of those who worked there is not known but the records indicate that some fifty names were on the duty rolls during that period and the personal stories of some have survived. 

Ethel Pool was the daughter of Joseph Pool and his wife Mary who lived at the Bourne Institute in West Road where Mr Pool was caretaker, living in a flat on the premises. She was 29 when the war broke out and served as a nurse until the hospital closed. Afterwards, she lived at home with her parents, caring for them until they died, her mother in 1932 and her father the following year, and shortly afterwards she moved to live at a cottage in St Peter's Road and then to one of the almshouses in West Road where she died in February 1956, aged 71. 

Ida Shilcock, aged 30, was one of the five daughters of John and Annie Shilcock, landlord of the Nag's Head public house. She enjoyed a busy social life and even played cricket with the town’s ladies’ team but gave it all up to train as a nurse and work at the hospital. Among her patients was a young officer in the Machine Gun Corps, Lieutenant Charles Morton Wiggin, who had been gassed and wounded. He was there for six months before returning to the front but their friendship continued by letter and they met again after the war had ended and married at King’s Norton, Birmingham, in 1920. She died in 1974, aged 90. 

There were other romances between patients and staff and at least one wedding at the Abbey Church in 1916 but the names of the bride and groom are unknown. 

The hospital finally closed 1st January 1919 when the last patients were transferred to Lincoln Hospital although a farewell dance was held the night before, New Year’s Eve, for the nurses and orderlies and those inmates who were able to take part. 

In the summer of 1919 during a ceremony at the Abbey Lawn, 19 former Red Cross nurses received a gold bar brooch with the inscription "Bourne V A D Hospital, 1914-18" in recognition of their work. The presentations were made by the hospital commandant, Dr Gilpin (1864-1943) who had been awarded the MBE in June 1918 for his services in conducting the unit in such an efficient manner.  

Then in January 1922, medals were issued by the Red Cross to 39 nurses and orderlies who had each devoted 1,000 hours in attending the sick and wounded at the hospital, the presentation being made by the Countess of Ancaster, president of the Bourne branch. 

The countess expressed her pleasure in taking part in the ceremony which, she said, was a suitable symbol and fitting ending of those strenuous years in which the population of Bourne and district had helped in so many directions. Her ladyship said that she had equal pleasure in presenting medals to those nurses and orderlies who had done such splendid work in attending to the sick and wounded. 

She then unveiled a bronze plaque on the south wall of the Vestry Hall bearing the inscription: "The South Lincs Branch of the British Red Cross Society gratefully acknowledges the loan of this building as an Auxiliary Military Hospital from Nov 1914 to Dec 1918. 40 beds, 945 patients treated. Staffed by VAD Lincoln 46 and 17." 

The hall subsequently had various uses until bought by Bourne United Charities in 1961 and then sold again in 2004 to the present owners who have turned the building into a private home. The plaque was removed for safe keeping for a while but has now been returned by the charity trustees to the new owners who have given it pride of place over the front door in the entrance foyer, a fitting tribute to the courageous ladies who answered the call of duty to work there.