If you would like to read more about the history of nursing, particularly the military nursing services, the following list should give some ideas. Many of the books are available through libraries, second-hand bookshops across the country, and online. Most of the books relate specifically to the history of nursing in general, and the military nursing services in particular. I've included some memoirs and private accounts, but be warned that a few of these contain a lot of one-sided comment and inaccuracy - reader enjoy, but beware!

There is also a selection of e-books, free to download, on this page of the Scarletfinders website:


NURSING IN WARTIME

Angels and Citizens - British Women as Military Nurses 1854-1914; Anne Summers; Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988

Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps; Juliet Piggott; Famous Regiments Series, Leo Cooper Ltd., 1975

One Hundred Years of Army Nursing ; Ian Hay [Sir John Hay Beith, CBE MC] Cassell and Co., 1953

Sub Cruce Candida - A celebration of one hundred years of Army Nursing 1902-2002; QARANC Association 2002

Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service; Kathleen Harland; G. Shepherd (Portsmouth) Ltd.

The British Nurse in Peace and War; Elizabeth S. Haldane; J. Murray, 1913

For Dauntless France - An Account of Britain's Aid to the French Wounded and Victims of War; Laurence Binyon; Hodder and Stoughton, 1918

The Women of Royaumont - A Scottish Women's Hospital on the Western Front; Eileen Crofton; Tuckwell Press, 1997

The Quality of Mercy - Women at War Serbia 1915-18; Monica Krippner; David & Charles, 1980

The Roses of No Man's Land; Lyn Macdonald; Michael Joseph Ltd., 1980

Fighting Different Wars - Experience, Memory and the First World War in Britain; Janet S. K. Watson; Cambridge University Press, 2004

Containing Trauma, Nursing Work in the First World War; Christine Hallett; Manchester University Press, 2011

Veiled Warriors; Allied Nurses of the Great War; Christine Hallett; Oxford University Press, 2014

One Hundred Years of Wartime Nursing Practices, 1854-1953; edited by Jane Brooks and Christine Hallett; Manchester University Press, 2015

The Hospital in the Oatfield; The Art of Nursing in the First World War; ed. Natasha McEnroe and Tig Thomas; Florence Nightingale Museum, 2014

More than Bombs and Bandages, Australian Army nurses at work in World War 1; Kirsty Harris; Big Sky Publishing, 2011

While You're Away - New Zealand Nurses at War 1899-1948; Anna Rogers; Auckland University Press, 2003

Great Days in New Zealand Nursing; Joan Rattray; A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1961

The Other ANZACS - Nurses at War, 1914-1918; Peter Rees; Allen and Unwin, 2008

Working for Victory? - Images of women in the First World War 1914-1918; Diana Condell and Jean Liddiard; Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987

Women at War 1914-1918; Arthur Marwick; Fontana, 1977

The Story of British V.A.D. Work in the Great War; Thekla Bowser; Andrew Melrose, 1917, and the Imperial War Museum, 2003

Wartime Nurse - One Hundred Years from the Crimea to Korea 1854-1954; Eric Taylor Robert Hale 2001

Front-Line Nurse - British Nurses in World War II; Eric Taylor; Robert Hale 1997

Nurses at War; Women on the Frontline 1939-45; Penny Starns; Sutton Publishing, 2000

Grey and Scarlet - Letters from the war areas by army sisters on active service; Hodder and Stoughton, 1944

RESEARCH

History of the Great War based on Official Documents: Medical Services (Volumes 1 to 4); Major-General Sir W. G. Macpherson; HMSO 1931; reprinted by The Naval and Military Press in association with the Army Medical Services Museum

History of the Great War based on Official Documents: Medical Services, Casualties and Medical Statistics; HMSO 1931; reprinted by The Battery Press, Nashville, in association with the Imperial War Museum

Reports by the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in England on Voluntary Aid Rendered to the Sick and Wounded at Home and Abroad and to British Prisoners of War, 1914-1919; HMSO 1921 and reprinted by The Naval and Military Press in association with the Imperial War Museum

British Red Cross Register of Overseas Volunteers 1914-1918; British Red Cross Society 1918 and reprinted by Savannah Press, 2004

Honours and Awards to Women to 1914; Norman Gooding; Savannah Press, 2007

Honours and Awards to Women, The Military Medal; Normal Gooding; Savannah Press, 2013

Tracing Your Service Women Ancestors; Mary Ingham; Pen and Sword; 2012

Hospital Ships and Ambulance Trains; John H. Plumridge; Seeley, Service & Co., 1975

Netley Hospital and its Railways; J. R. Fairman, Kingfisher Railway Productions, 1984
 
HISTORY OF NURSING

A History of the Nursing Profession; Brian Abel-Smith; Heinemann, 1960

A General History of Nursing; Lucy Seymer; Faber & Faber 1932

The Story of the Growth of Nursing; Agnes E. Pavey; Faber & Faber 1938

The Lamp and the Book - The Story of the Royal College of Nursing: 1916-1966; Gerald Bowman; Queen Anne Press, 1967

Nursing and Social Change; Monica Baly; William Heinemann Medical, Ltd., 1973

New Zealand Military Nursing - A History of the RNZNC Boer War to Present Day; Sherayl Kendall & David Corbett; pub. by the authors, 1990

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS AND MEMOIRS

Reminiscent Sketches 1914 to 1919 - by members of Her Majesty Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service; John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, Ltd., 1922

Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front 1914-1915; published anonymously by William Blackwood in 1915, but since attributed to Katherine Luard.
 
Unknown Warriors; Kate (Evelyn) Luard; Chatto & Windus; 1930. A continuation of the book above, taken from letters and diaries.
And a new edition now available: edited by John and Caroline Stevens; The History Press, 2014

A Nurse at the Front, The First World War Diaries of Sister Edith Appleton; edited by Ruth Cowen; Simon & Schuster, 2012

Dorothea’s War, The Diaries of a First World War Nurse; edited by Richard Crewdson; Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013

The First World War Diaries of Emma Duffin; edited by Trevor Parkhill; Four Courts Press, 2014

Stories from the War Hospital; Richard Wilcocks; Meerkat Publications Ltd., 2014

Medicine and Duty - The First World War Diary of Harold Dearden; Richard Dennis, 2014

In All Those Lines; The diary of Sister Elsie Tranter 1916-1919: Edited by J. M. Gillings and J. Richards; Published by the Editors 2008. Edited diaries of a member of the Australian Army Nursing Service.

King's Nurse, Beggar's Nurse; Sister Catherine Black (Blackie); Hurst and Blackett Ltd., 1939

Testament of Youth - An Autobiographical Study of the Years 1900-25; Vera Brittain Various publishers over many editions

Chronicle of Youth - Vera Brittain's War Diary 1913-1917; Ed. Alan Bishop and Terry Smart; Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1981

Four Years out of Life, Lesley Smith; Philip Allan, 1931

A V.A.D. in France, Olive Dent; Grant Richards Ltd., 1917. An account of Olive Dent's experiences as a nursing VAD at No.9 General Hospital in Rouen.
 
A Diary Without Dates; Enid Bagnold; William Heinemann, 1917.
 
Hearts and Pomegranates - The Story of forty-five years 1875-1920; Dame Katharine Furse, GBE, RRC; Peter Davies, 1940

The Personal Diary of Nurse de Trafford 1916-1920: [Moor Park Hospital, Preston]; Martin Kevill (Editor); The Book Guild, 2001

The Forbidden Zone - A Nurse's Impressions of the First World War; Mary Borden; William Heinemann, 1929 and Hesperus Press, 2008

We That Were Young; Irene Rathbone; Chatto and Windus, 1932: A novel, though strongly based on Irene Rathbones own experiences in France as both a YMCA canteen worker, and also as a nursing VAD.

Lady Under Fire on the Western Front – The Great War Letters of Lady Dorothie Feilding; ed. Andrew and Nicola Hallam; Pen & Sword, 2010

France in War Time; Maud Sutton-Pickhard; Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, 1915: A somewhat highly coloured American account

WORLD WAR TWO AND LATER

The Maturing Sun - An Army Nurse in India, 1942-45; Angela Bolton; Imperial War Museum, 1986

Many Coloured Glass - A Nurse in War; Mary Wrangham Hardy; The Pentland Press, 1989

The Will to Live - The Story of Dame Margot Turner, D.B.E., R.R.C.; Sir John Smyth; Cassell, 1970

A Nurse's War - Brenda McBryde; Chatto and Windus, 1979

Quiet Heroines - Brenda McBryde; Chatto and Windus, 1985

Once Upon a Ward - V.A.D.s own stories and pictures of service at home and overseas 1939-1946; Doreen Boys, 1980

Spike Island - The Memory of a Military Hospital; Philip Hoare; Fourth Estate, 2001

Sisters – True-life stories from the nurses of World War Two; Barbara Mortimer; Arrow Books, 2012