'I think I was more pleased to see her than any one ‘Cos she’s so fine': Nurses’ Friendships, Trauma, and Resiliency During the First World War

This article considers how two professional nurses described in their diaries their relationships with other women during their service on the Western Front, and how those relationships provided the solace and support necessary to cope with the traumatic sights and experiences they encountered. It also considers how women worked together to create spaces of peace, comfort, and solidarity in the midst of the masculine environments of war. In so doing, this article expands the study of women’s wartime emotional experiences to incorporate women’s traumatic experiences and the relationships that they developed in order to survive the hell of war. Specifically, it focuses on the diary of Nurse Hilda Wells, held at the Royal London Hospital Archive, and Eva Smith, whose diary is held by the Imperial War Museum. Both women’s diaries provide excellent examples of how nurses developed friendships, created spaces of solitude and support, and crafted entertainments for each other to make their war experiences endurable. These individual examples prove how women’s friendships were often key resources that women utilised to survive the war.