Gladys Crane was a young English girl who became a nurse and then a Sister in Bevan Military Hospital al Sandgate, Kent.  She worked there throughout 1916 and early in 1917 she was transferred to No5 General Base Hospital, Rouen, France where she worked in Ward 13.  She had constant contact with wounded soldiers of the Great War and asked many of them to write something in a small autograph book which she kept.

     Her Father, Andrew Crane, was a Dentist and born in Leicester whilst her Mother, Amy Constance, was born in London.  There were two of a family, Gladys Constance and her younger sister Muriel Amy but by the census of 1911 their Father had passed away.  They lived at the Bungalow, St Leonard, Hythe.  The births of both children were registered at Elham in the Parish of St Leonard, Hythe.

     The Mother and the youngest daughter, Muriel Amy, joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and were working with wounded soldiers at Hythe soon after the start of the Great War.  Gladys then joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment and was sent to the Bevan Military Hospital at Sandgate, Kent, the largest hospital of it's kind in Kent.

     On 20th March 1917 she was transferred to Rouen and remained there for the next two years.  In June of 1917 she was off sick but soon recovered and came back to work.  Some years ago Gladys passed away and today that little notebook is in my possession.  It is a wonderful record of the friendships that had been made in both hospitals.  Some of the writing has now faded and some names are difficult to read but most are legible.

     Many of those young men in the loving care of the Sisters of Bevan would return home with horrible injuries to be discharged as unfit for further duties and left to spend the rest of their lives as best they could.  Others would return to the front lines to resume the fight against the German oppressors and at least three to be killed in action.

     Not one of these young men ever complains of the pain they had to bear or the suffering they had to contend with so many miles away from home and from their loved ones.  All of them are grateful for the skills and - kindness of the Sisters of Bevan and the gratitude shows through in the many lovely verses and drawings done for Gladys in her little book.  It is something she must have been very proud of.  I wonder how many if them became lifelong friends.

                                            ............................       Robert Thompson