Asleep In The Deep: Nursing Sister Anna Stamers And The First World War

by Dianne Kelly

On 27 June 1918, the Llandovery Castle, a Canadian hospital ship returning to England, was sunk by a German U-boat in contravention of international law. Two hundred and thirty-four crew members died, including fourteen nursing sisters. It was the most significant Canadian naval disaster of the First World War.

Anna Stamers, a thirty-year-old nursing sister from Saint John, was on the ship. Now, her story will finally be told. In this well-researched volume, Dianne Kelly explores Stamers’s childhood and nursing education in Saint John; her decision to enlist and her transition to military nursing; her service during the war in field hospitals in both England and France; and her final posting aboard HMHS Llandovery Castle. This vivid reconstruction of Stamers’s life is both an illuminating biography of a young woman’s experience of war and an important examination of the role nursing sisters played during the Great War.

Asleep in the Deep is volume 28 of the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series.

216 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2021

Reviews

[Jim Gallen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An aspect of warfare frequently overlooked by readers and historians, but of crucial importance to warriors, is also the story of those who care for the wounded. “Asleep in the Dee”p is the story of Nursing Sister Anna Stamers of St. John, New Brunswick and the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC). A 1913 graduate of Saint John School of Nursing, Stamers worked two years as a private nurse before signing up with CAMC in June 1915.


Beginning on July 1915, Anna’s first overseas assignment was Moore Barracks near Folkestone, Kent. where she served for eight months. Rising casualties led CAMC to establish two Canadian Casualty Clearing Stations (CCCS), Canadian Stationary Hospital (CSH) No. 1 and Canadian General Hospital (CGH) in France. Anna was assigned to CGH near Etaples, France on February 19, 1916. After a two year deployment, Anna returned to Canada on leave in June 1917. Treated as celebrities, returning nursing sisters were called on to give speeches on conditions in France and attend patriotic events.

Returning to England in October, Anna was assigned tot No. 16 CGH in Orpington, England. Many of her patients had already been stabilized in France and would be repatriated to Canada on hospital ships as invalids for further treatment. In March 1918 Anna was transferred to the Canadian hospital ship Llandovery Castle. The 1907 Hague Convention, to which Germany, Britain and all the naval powers were signatories, granted special protection to hospital ships with the proviso that they not be used for any other purpose.

Both sides made claims that hospital ships were used for transportation of troops or war materials and for observation. In an October 1914 battle the British captured the German hospital ship Ophelia on the claim, upheld by the Prize Court, that it was acting as a signaling ship and had never attempted to act as a hospital ship. Germany would cite this precedence to justify actions against British hospital ships for the rest of the War. On February 4, 1915, waters around Britain and Ireland were declared a war zone, subjecting all ships in the zone to German attack, although “hospital ships are to be spared; only to be attacked when obviously used for the transport of troops from England to France.” Subsequent attacks targeted the Russian hospital ship Portugal, Portugal’s replacement, Vpered and British Asturias ,HMHS Gloucester Castle, Asturias, HMHS Lanfranc, HMHS Donegal, and Britannic.

Anna knew she was undertaking hazardous duty whenever she boarded Llandovery Castle. On June 27, on the seventh night of a return trip to Liverpool, a torpedo from U-86 struck the ship at 9:30 p.m., sinking her in ten minutes. The explosion destroyed the wireless and prevented the crew from sending a distress call. Witness claimed that seven lifeboats made it safely into the sea. One was sucked into the whirlpool created by the sinking ship, two others capsized. The captain’s lifeboat was rescued after 36 hours at sea and. A British sloop and four American Destroyers continued the search, yielding one lifeboat.

All massacres have survivors. Major Thomas Lyon, a Canadian surgeon, gave his testimony. The U-Boat commander took Lyon and Captain Sylvester of Llandovery Castle aboard for questioning. After their release, the U-Boat went on “a smashing up cruise among the survivors and by hurling it hither and thither he succeeded in ramming and sinking all the boats and rafts except one…which escaped. The survivors in this boat heard the sound of gunfire behind them for some time.”

The sinking of the Llandovery Castle became a staple of the Allies’ propoganda war. After the sinking, hospital ships proceeded as ordinary transports, with no distinguishing markings, armed and with naval escorts. Convicted of war crimes in 1920, U-86 commander Helmut Patzig, was included in a general amnesty in 1931 and he served as a U-boat commander from 1943-1945.

Anna Stammers was killed in the sinking and is commemorated in her home province of New Brunswick.

Readers will appreciate this short book for its insights into the Canadian Army Medical Corps in World War I and for the details of the perils of hospital ships in that War. The attention to Anna Stamers is intermittent and often seems forced. Stamers left neither diary nor first person narratives on which Author Dianne Kelly could draw. Her location and actions could be determined or inferred from newspaper articles, military records or writings of others from which. I believe she was featured primarily to provide a connection to qualify the book for The New Brunswick Military History Series of which it is a part. “Asleep in the Deep” has earned its niche in the history of World War I.

[Kelly Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

2,500 nursing sisters served overseas as part of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (CAMC) during WWI. Of this number Anna Stamers from Saint John was the only one from New Brunswick to die by enemy attack. In one of the most egregious events in naval warfare the Canadian Hospital Ship HMHS Llandovery Castle was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. Onboard were 258 souls, including 14 nurses. Following the strike the German submarine then rammed the lifeboats and shot at the survivors. Only one boat survived with its 24 occupants; all the nursing sisters perished including Anna.
It was Anna’s story and that of the Llandovery Castle that drew me to this book. Unfortunately, Anna did not keep a diary and if she wrote any letters home they have been lost in time. Her military service, in fact her entire life, is viewed only through documents and newspaper articles. Despite this author Kelly has done an incredible job at piecing her together and placing her into the various hospitals where she worked based on these documents and one many other written sources from other members of the armed forces who describe the conditions Anna would have found herself.
The first 2/3 of the book was a bit dry for me as it focused on the various medical facilities and protocols for the CAMC. This is a wonderful source for anyone wanting a clear picture of this aspect of the war and it did create a personal spark for me as my own grandfather served in the CEF and was wounded in France. I transcribed his journal a number of years ago and he followed the same course that Kelly lays out in this book from the Dressing Station to the Field Ambulance to No 1 CCS then to No 7 General Hospital for surgery before being returned to England for convalescence. He also arrived at Shorncliffe just after Anna would have left for France.
The latter portion of the book is devoted to the Llandovery Castle and the aftermath of the sinking which was very interesting and, as stated, the reason I picked up the book in the first place. Another aspect that Kelly touches on that I found fascinating was the subject of the fight for women’s suffrage which was going on at the same time and the fact that Canadian women serving overseas were “given” the right to vote as were their female family members at home. So in the middle of the battlefields of Europe these women got to vote for the first time. Amazing!
A vast amount of research went into the writing of this book which has to be commended.