Latest News/Events

23 August 2016. It is now exactly 100 years since Rifleman James Lennox died in Edie’s care at No. 1 General Hospital in Etretat on the Normandy Coast. Over a six week period Edie mentions him almost every day as he hangs onto life and it is one of the most poignant and heartbreaking accounts… Read more

For the benefit of those who couldn’t be at Sue Light’s funeral at Worthing Crematorium on Thursday 28 July here are some links which tell you more about her. For those of us who only knew Sue through her research into nursing history the tributes from her daughter, Hannah, and from the celebrant, Simon Smith… Read more

On Sunday 3 July we went to St Anthony’s Centre, near Trafford Park in Manchester, to hear a concert by Paul Frost and friends commemorating the Battle of the Somme. One of the items was the beautiful song, I See No Stars, sung by Steve Robinson and Helen Hall. This was a duet, composed by… Read more

Update 9 August 2016 Click here for a page which includes the tributes to Sue and the words of the celebrant at her funeral at Worthing Crematorium on 28 July 2016. Sue Light, the person to whom I am most indebted in bringing my great aunt Edie’s diaries to public notice, died on 15 July… Read more

We felt very proud to attend the service of commemoration and later the vigil in Westminster Abbey on 30 June, the eve of the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.  Extracts from Edie’s diaries were read during the vigil by Miss Tessa Miles, a teacher, and by Lorna Mistry, a student, at St Albans… Read more

Update 25 July My interview on BBC Radio Oxford with Howard Bentham can now be heard here: Update 11 July Click here to read about, and see images from, the Service of Commemoration and the Vigil in Westminster Abbey which we attended on 30 June and which included extracts from Edie’s diary. The filming we… Read more

We had such a wonderful time in Glasgow on 18-20 June. We came to give our Edie presentation at the centenary congress of the Royal College of Nursing (https://www.rcn.org.uk/) but we also had time to look around this amazing city. The river Clyde does look sadly empty now that the ship-building has all but gone… Read more

News seems to have traveled surprisingly fast for the time as Edie mentions the Battle of Jutland – 100 years ago today – just three days after it began.  Here are three extracts from her diaries which record her hearing about it and commenting. June 4. Too terribly sad news of a naval battle in which… Read more

With the centenary of the Battle of Verdun currently in the news it’s interesting to note that Edie does make references to it and it is possible that her hospital in Etretat was taking in casualties, including German wounded. The battle was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916, was one of the largest… Read more