How Did Laura Gamble Contribute To The Great War

The Great War was a long and dangerous journey in which there was a lot of death and sadness. Many people contributed in different ways, whether they fought, nursed, volunteered or took over the jobs of those who had gone to fight. Since all the men went to fight in the war, they needed women to start taking over their jobs. Women started working in factories and jutting out of domestic roles. One of the many women who had significantly contributed towards the Great War included a nurse named Laura Adelaide Gamble, who will be further explored throughout this report.

Laura Adelaide Gamble was born on the fourth of September in 1887. Her birthplace was Wakefield, Quebec, and she was the daughter of Richard Gamble and Adelaide Isabelle Musgrove.

She was awarded the Victory Medal in 1920 for her distinguished service during the war.” (Source 2) Laura also worked in hospitals in England and France. A main role she played was keeping many wounded soldiers uplifted - nurses such as Laura were known greatly for their kind, caring, and loving spirits. An American nurse quoted, “It is a marvelous life; and strangely enough, despite all the tragedy, I call it a healthy one.” Although the nurses were in terrible conditions and constantly in danger, they still loved what they were doing and looked on the bright side of things. However this quote by Gertrude Doherty, a nurse serving in the war, tells someone by the name of Muriel the reality of the war. “We look forward to our letters on mail day. Of course we can never make our letters sound as cheerful as yours. I am sure you will understand why when I tell you that we are surrounded by sadness and sorrow all the time ... do you know, Muriel, that as many as 72 operations have been performed in one day in our hospital alone ... you could not imagine how dirty the poor beggars are, never able to get a wash, mud and dirt ground in and nearly all of them alive with

There were over 3,000 nurses that served in the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) alone. The nurses were very well-known for their kindness, efficiency and professional appearance, they were very brave and compassionate.They were greatly admired by soldiers, so much so that they received a sobriquet - Bluebirds. Laura, like many nurses, talks about her patients with respect and sympathy, although in her diary only a few of them are mentioned. These nurses worked extremely hard each day and risked their lives with each person they helped. The conditions they worked in were terrible and they had barely any medication or tools to work with due to the scarcity of resources, difficulty of bringing them to the sites, and the fact that most of the diseases weren't even curable at that time, or very difficult to treat. Nurses of WWI worked from sun up to sun down, and barely got any sleep. However, this did not bother many nurses because they were so dedicated to their work and wanted the soldiers to be healed as soon as possible. "We had another air raid. This time the bombs were dropping all about us. Everyone was more or less terrified and indeed one can not soon forget the horrible whizzing noise of those bombs…. After this raid fatigue parties were sent to dig dug-outs for the sisters which were to be bomb proof" (Gamble diary, entry starting January 7,