The Siege of Mafeking from a medical point of view

All through the siege every lady in Mafeking engaged in nursing the sick worked under conditions such as I hope no woman will ever have to live or work under again. Ill-fed (but with the best we could give them), hard worked, in constant danger of shell and bullet, their true British pluck came out. No order given was disobeyed month after month in the terrible heat, and when we were constantly being disappointed by rumours of relief close at hand no murmur was ever heard. Every day women unaccustomed to such work or to the sights incident on war braced themselves together, and held bleeding and mangled limbs whilst myself or my colleagues operated. I am afraid the public has heard very little of those ladies who did the really hard and dangerous work in attending the sick and wounded during the siege. Like all true nurses they are satisfied with the thanks of their grateful patients, and prefer not to see themselves figuring as heroines in the daily prints. W. A. Hayes, principal medical officer during the siege. (BMJ 1901;i:28)