"Mademoiselle Miss"

Beschreibung

Letters from an American nurse who volunteered to join the French Army and served on the Western Front from 1915-1918.
"Mademoiselle Miss" as her soldiers called her was in Europe at the outbreak of WW1 and trained for the nurses diploma with the French Red Cross. She passed and was accepted into the regular army serving with the rank of Lieutenant at French Army hospitals near the trenches of the Marne. Her letters home during 1915 were published without her knowledge in a book entitled 'Mademoiselle Miss" for the benefit of raising funds for the American Fund for French Wounded. By 1918 over 40,000 copies had been sold in the USA. Many further letters were recently discovered covering the period of 1916 -1918 which reveal more of the experiences of this dedicated nurse who was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her services to the wounded soldiers she nursed.

Autor*in

Anne Lewis
Through the search for my own family history story in WW1 Paris I came across the book 'Mademoiselle Miss' published anonymously in 1916. A tenuous link within one of the letters with my great aunts employer in Paris led me to search for the author of this book. Eventually I discovered she was Miss Norman Derr an American artist who volunteered to serve with the French army as a nurse in 1915. This led to the discovery of many more letters she wrote home which were published in various American newspapers during WW1. These beautifully descriptive letters reflected her selfless desire to help the wounded soldiers of the war. I believe her experience of service in France should reach a wider audience.

Themen in »"Mademoiselle Miss"«

WW1 Nursing American French Army Letters Western Front Reims Women Nurses Atlanta

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