HOSPITAL SHIP LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23997, 21 June 1941, Page 19

HOSPITAL SHIP LIFE

NURSE FROM DOMINION

BRAVE AUSTRALIAN WOUNDED Tributes to the courage and good spirits of the Australian wounded soldiers is paid by a New Zealand nurse, Sister Leah Hood, who is at present on a hospital ship travelling between Bombay and Africa. Sister Hood, who nursed in private hospitals in Auckland for some time, is a daughter of Mr. James Hood, of Paparata. She was trained at the Wanganui Public Hospital and went to England before the war.

At the outbreak of war she volunteered for service and was sent to France, going all through that campaign. She was then sent, to the British Military Hospital, Bombay, India, and about, two and a-lialf months ago was transferred to the hospital ship. Writing her letter from a port of call. Sister Hood refers to the pleasure of feeling solid earth under her feet after a month on the ship, not knowing at what moment they might be blown

up by a mine or bombed from the air. She mentions that the ship had just brought back 550 Australians from the battlefield.

"The men were grand, laughing and singing all the time," she writes. "The ones able to hobble about washed and shaved their friends and helped with the cooking of the meals They were so pleased to see water after weeks in the desert that the ones able to bath stayed there for hours. The first morning' out we 'served (300 plates of bacon ami eggs for 550 patients," she continues."We discovered tjiat some 50 patients able to hobble about were going the rounds of the wards having two or even three meals. We did not care, however, as long as they were fed."

Sister Hood is on a half Indian ship and mentions that the ward boys, sweepers and half the orderlies and medical officers are Indian and that they simply could not cope with the "Atissies." The ward boys were actually so frightened at first that they went into hiding.