New Hampshire WWI Military: The Nurses of Base Hospital No. 6 aka “The Bordeaux Belles”

Posted on 18 April, 2017 by Janice Brown

Upon arrival at Bordeaux France on July 28
1918, Base Hospital No. 6 occupied French
Hôpital Complémentaire No. 25 (Petit Lycée de
Bordeaux). Office of Medical History, U.S. Army
Medical Department.

According to the Massachusetts General Hospital Museum web site: “In May 1917, U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 6, a medical-surgical unit of Massachusetts General physicians and nurses, was activated under the command of Col. Frederic A. Washburn, MD, director of the hospital.”   Base Hospital, No. 6 was constructed in a school and other buildings in Bordeaux France–an area that was close to the battlefields of WWI. The Massachusetts General Hospital archives state that the nurses in this hospital were later known as the “Bordeaux Belles.”

Among these nurses were six from New Hampshire, one (Lucy N. Fletcher) dying while in service. I have managed to locate photographs of all of them, and their biographies can be found later on in this story. The New Hampshire nurses were:
– Leonora [Leonor A.] Field, Orford, NH
– *Lucy Nettie Fletcher, Concord, NH
– Glee Marshall, Colebrook, NH
– Edna L. Ricker, North Conway, NH
– Hope F. Romani, 8 South Myrtle street, Milford, NH
– Laura E. Sanborn, Contoocook, NH Continue reading →

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New Hampshire World War I Military: Private Ralph W. Shirley of Conway NH (1896-1918)

Posted on 14 April, 2017 by Janice Brown

A Boston Post newspaper of 2 August 1918 announced Ralph W. Shirley’s death.

Ralph Wellington Shirley was born on 28 May 1896 in Conway, Carroll County NH, son of Arthur R. & Bessie (Moody) Shirley and grandson of  Joshua & Mary E. (Woodward) Shirley.  He had siblings Lela E. (b 1894), Earl A. (b 1899) and Leon A. (b 1897).   According to newspaper and other records, Ralph grew up in Conway NH and Fryeburg Maine, a farmer’s son, attending Fryeburg Academy.  He was studying at New Hampshire State College (now called the University of New Hampshire) in the future graduating Class of 1919, but he left to enlist in the United States army.

Ralph was assigned to F Company of the 101st Engineers. His brother, Leon Arthur Shirley also appears to have been a member of the same military group.  He was trained and sent to Europe, where he was killed in action on 13 July 1918, probably in the Pas Fini Sector, Lorraine France, where his battalion would have been stationed from July 8 to the 14th, 1918. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire WWI Military: Heroes of Exeter

Posted on 10 April, 2017 by Janice Brown

Circa 1910 postcard of Exeter New Hampshire’s Town Hall. The upstairs of this building was renovated in 1919 as a place for World War I military veterans to gather.

At Exeter New Hampshire’s town meeting of March 1919, a committee was appointed to consider the building of a memorial to the soldiers and sailors of the town. They recommended a sum not to exceed $10,000 be appropriated to remodel the upper story of the Town Hall building “to fit it for the use of said soldiers and sailors.” This remodeling would be overseen by a committee with the following members: Albert E. McReel, John A. Green, Albert J. Weeks, Thomas Smith and Thomas McLaughlin.

Also recommended was the employment of noted local sculptor Daniel Chester French, who would design and construct a “suitable memorial to Exeter’s soldiers and sailors” not costing more than $20,000. The committee to oversee this memorial would be John E. Young, Wendell B. Folsom, Albertus T. Dudley and James W. Bixler. Both sums were raised by means of town bonds, with an additional $3,000 raised as part of the town tax for that year. Albert E. McReel, Secretary for the Committee submitted this report. Continue reading →

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100 Years Ago: NH Headlines of April 6 1917–U.S. Enters World War I

Posted on 6 April, 2017 by Janice Brown

April 6 1917 Headline from the
front page of the Nashua Telegraph newspaper (Nashua NH)
stating that war had been declared.

The New Hampshire newspaper headlines of April 6, 1917 greeted readers with bold announcements that the United States was now at war. The Nashua Telegraph added a slightly smaller headline at the top of the front page “McElwain Co. To Have Big Addition” then posted two rows down “President Signs War Proclamation.” On that day the addition of new jobs to Nashua would have felt more important than the conflict in a distant land. Continue reading →

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New Hampshire WWI Military: Phillips Exeter Academy Infirmary Nurse Katherine Patterson Irwin (1870-1918)

Posted on 4 April, 2017 by Janice Brown

Memorial photograph from The Pean, the 1919 graduate yearbook of Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter New Hampshire.

She was born Katherine Patterson Irwin on 14 March 1870 in Dayton, Montgomery County Ohio, the daughter of Andrew Barr & Jane (Schenck) Irwin. Her family nickname was “Kitty,” as shown in the census, and she grew up in Dayton, attending the local schools.

What is known is that she served as a Red Cross Nurse for the A.E.F. in Europe from April 1918 to 24 June 1918  when she died of spinal meningitis,  in Evacuation Hospital, at Baccarat France.  The disease was probably contracted from one of her patients.  It is also known that prior to her enlistment she worked as a nurse in the infirmary (Hooper Building) at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire.  Her photograph (as shown at right) was published in the 1919 graduate yearbook The Pean.

She is not acknowledged (though she should be ) on the WWI memorial plaque in the New Hampshire State House NOR at the memorial of the University of New Hampshire.   She is listed in W. M. Haulsee, F. G. Howe, A. C. Doyle, comp., Soldiers of the Great War, vol. 2 (Washington, D. C.: Soldiers Record Publishing Assoc., 1920), under those from New Hampshire who died from Disease, Rank Nurse. Continue reading →

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