WW1 snippets of interest

This week here is another few words from the WW1 years on this the 100th anniversary of the start of the war.
By The Newsroom
Published 30th Jul 2014, 13:15 BST

I’ve seen some beautiful flowers

Grow in life’s garden fair

I’ve spent some wonderful hours

Lost in their fragrance rare

But I have found another

Wondrous beyond compare....

There’s a rose that grows in no-man’s land

And it’s wonderful to see

Though its sprayed with tears, it will live for years

In my garden of memory

It’s the one red rose the soldier knows

It’s the work of the Master’s hand

‘Neath the War’s great curse stands a Red Cross nurse

She’s the rose of no-man’s land

So was sung just one of the heart wrenching songs of the first world war, for those dreadfully wounded soldiers that made it back to the Causality Clearing Stations, they thought that the nurses were the greatest vision they were likely to see this side of heaven, indeed they called them the Scarlett angels. Unarmed stretcher bearers over whelmed by the sheer numbers struggled through terrible conditions to rescue as many wounded as they could. But it was the doctors and the nurses who carried the almost impossible task to assess and treat all the shocking multiple injuries that a modern battlefield produced and in numbers never before experienced. The list of personnel involved in the early nursing services included (V.A.D) Voluntary Aid Detachments, (B.R.C) British Red Cross Society, (R.A.M.C) Royal Army Medical Corp, (QAIMNS) Queen Alexander’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, (TFNS) Territorial Force Nursing Service, (PCANSR) Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service Reserve, St. John of Jerusalem and finally to make up the eight organisations was the (SMP) Special Military Probationers.

A public appeal has been launched to raise funds for a bronze sculpture of a WWI Soldier to be installed at the Ballymoney Cenotaph. A number of donations have been received from businesses and individuals. It is appropriate that the local community should have the opportunity to be associated with the project and local groups and individuals who wish to make a donation can send this to the Appeal Fund c/o The Chief Executive’s Office, Riada House, 14 Charles Street, Ballymoney. Cheques payable to “WW1 Sculpture Fund”. All contributions will be acknowledged.