Alice 'Maynie' Mary Bagshaw was a Red Cross Voluntary Aid nurse at Ripon, then Calderstones, Military Hospitals. Her brother, Arthur Walmsley Bagshaw, was conscripted into either the Fusileers or Bombadiers, near the end of the war & probably didn't see action. She was at Ripon when the Duke of Connought visited the Hospital to award honours to Mr Heughan (Seaforths), Mr Dawson M.C. (Manchesters), Mr Wilson (Gordons), & Mr Bircumshaw (Notts & Derbys). A Nurse Braithwaite is also in the photo with Maynie celebrating the occasion.
Part of life at a military hospital were Equipment Days. These were a combined inspection and inventory. Maynie was a slim young lady & if equipment was missing in other wards she would slip out of a lavatory window of an inspected one, and take replacements to top up the inventories of those yet to be inspected. A cartoon by H Richardson, dated 15th November 1918, shows the chaos of Equipment Day Block1. This depicts Maynie as one the nurses and was probably drawn when she was stationed at Calderstones.
Near the end of the war she met & married, Jack Wilfred Trueman, an 'Old Contemptable' who had served in Mesopatamia during the war. He remained in the army until 1926. They were stationed in India for sometime after the War. He was also stationed as consulate guard in Peking, prior to this and immediately after they were married on special license.
