The Five World War I Christmases of Constance Mabel Keys

Constance Mabel Keys enlisted as a nurse in the Australian Army Nursing Service on 21 September 1914 and was not discharged until 17 February 1920. She would spend 5 Christmases away from her family during her war service. She left Brisbane 3 days after she enlisted, one of 4 Queensland nurses on the HMAT Omrah.  The nurses arrived with the first Australian convoy in Egypt in early December 1914. 

Her first Christmas away was spent in the Egyptian Army / British Military hospital in Abbassia, Cairo. Our troops were based in a camp in Mena near the pyramids, so Constance was not nursing Australians at this time. She was on duty on Christmas Day. 

This letter from Constance to her father describes that first Christmas away from home. 

'Heliopolis 25th Dec 1914 

Dear Father, Today is Xmas day. It passed very happily here. The people have been most generous giving so much to the soldiers who are ill and they have appreciated it all. All who were well enough dined in the big dining hall which was decorated with poinsettias, red papers and big Union Jacks. Major Rowell and a couple of the Drs carved the turkeys and we sisters & some orderlies helped. First they had soup, then turkey and ham, potatoes, cabbage, plum pudding lighted & then fruit. They had the choice of beer or lemonade & cigarettes galore. Some of the men said they couldn’t remember when they had such a happy Xmas. It was a happy day from beginning to end. In the afternoon Matron and we sisters were at home to our visitors from 2 to 7. The N Zealanders sent us their band over and they played some fine old things and then the visitors gave a concert. It was just great. Some of our officers came over to see us. We were glad to see them. Capt. Butler our Medical Officer who has been so awfully good to us, sent us each a soldiers packet. Wasn’t it nice of him. The packets were made up and given by Morrows, Brisbane and have on the outside “Australian Expeditionary Force Queensland Contingent 1914, Queensland’s thoughts are ever with you.” 

The boxes were filled with chocolate and chewing gum. One of the women staying here put a lovely box of chocolates on our table. We were taking it to the hospital & while waiting for the car, the string broke and all the chocolates fell out. The little Arabs swarmed round like flies and ate them........ 

I wonder what the N Year has in store for us. I hope it will be brighter. Well father it is almost midnight so I must close. Good night love to you mum & the others. Love from Constance’ 

The sending of Christmas Boxes by the Red Cross and Comfort funds was a common occurrence during the war years. Morrows of Brisbane was a confectioner and biscuit maker which had opened a large factory at North Quay in 1913 and would later become Arnott's Biscuits. 

Constance joined the 1st Australian General Hospital in Heliopolis when it opened in a ‘palace’ on 24 January 1915. After nursing casualties from the Gallipoli campaign, who started arriving in Cairo from Thursday 29 April, she left Egypt on 3 December 1915, caring for the wounded returning to Australia.  This meant that her second Christmas away from home was spent on the hospital ship HMAT Themistocles. 

Her diary entry for 25 December 1915 tells how she woke early in the morning to find a big sock hanging on her cabin door filled with all sorts of ‘rubbish’ and a big bottle of champagne. She also mentions how some stockings that Nurse Kendall and she had brought had disappeared. The ship arrived at Freemantle that morning and they landed their ‘invalids’. Then crowds of visitors arrived laden with sweets, cakes, eggs etc which was a great treat for the men. The locals also gave a lovely concert before the ship left Freemantle about 11:30 am. The girls' stockings were given back by the Commanding Officer each with a bottle of Florida water in it. They found on their table at lunch boxes of chocolates. At drinks after Nurse Kendall sat at the Commanding Officer’s table, and they all had wine and champagne as they went through a great list of toasts. There was a speech made about the nurses. After dinner, Constance says she walked on the deck with Major Olde and the CO, with ‘mistletoe much in evidence’. Once again ‘a very jolly Xmas’. (Diary 24 September 1914 to 31 January 1916.) 

Constance continued to Brisbane and visited her family. While she was home her father, James, got dysentery and died. On 26 January she wrote: ‘Father died at 7am his head on my lap. Conscious almost to his last breath.’ 

She delayed her return to Egypt until March 1916. Back in Cairo, she briefly joined the 3rd Australian General Hospital in Abbassia before being transferred to England in early October. She was working at Kitchener’s Hospital in Brighton when Christmas 1916 rolled round. 

3rd AGH Dec 27th 1916 

‘Dear Mum, Xmas has come and gone. It passed off very happily here. Our 3rd Xmas of war. Surely it is the last. Everyone is so tired of it all & longing to be home again. Everyone did his & her best to make it a happy day. Some of the men said they had never had such a day in their lives. We gave the 80 women who do the cleaning morning tea. There was a great spread cake, sandwiches, biscuits, sweets and good tea with as much sugar as they liked – a great luxury these days. We poured out the tea I don’t know how many cups they drank. They did enjoy themselves. Poor old things I don’t think anyone ever bothered about them before. The reason so many women are employed is that most of them are married & have children, so can’t stay here all day. One lot works in the morning & the remainder in the afternoon. The men’s dining hall was a great sight. It was very festively decorated. Some hundreds of men all in their hospital blues sat down to dinner. In the middle of the meal a General came in and made a speech to much cheering and applause. He then read the messages from the King & Queen – more applause. It was all very thrilling. The turkey and plum puddings were a great treat. Every man in the hospital got a present from the Red Cross & in many wards the sisters put their money together & bought more presents for them. The evening before carol singers came & sang in every ward. Then Xmas night there was a big concert in the dining room. We had our Xmas dinner at night & by that time we were all so tired but soon livened up. Every sister who could possibly get off duty did so. Our dinner room is very pretty ordinary times, but when decorated was beautiful & to see 80 or 90 nurses in their little red capes & white caps seated in this pretty room was a sight never to be forgotten. We had many toasts including Matron & the home sisters who had prepared the great dinner – all drunk in coffee. The menu cards were in French. Sister got a patient to do it. Then we all adjourned to the drawing room. This had been a huge classroom with folding doors (I think I told you before that St Lukes was a school) It was all thrown into one big room & the lights prettily shaded & the room decorated. This room full of sisters was again a beautiful sight. I had many pretty gifts given to me including a pretty painting from Miss Michell in Cairo. Had photos from American cousin. The wards decorated by the men themselves pleased them better than anything. Many drew maps of Australia on the walls decorating them with bits of wool representing sheep stations etc. One lot put up Germany’s invitation to them when they first went to France - “advance Australia if U can”. I asked did they advance but they said “no not that time.”...The men from the front are more hopeful so things may be settled soon than we think. 

Goodbye Mum Love from Connie’ 

Constance stayed in Brighton until June 1917 when she was made Sister in charge of the Hospital for Australian Military Nurses, a hospital for sick nurses, in South Kensington, London.  Her time there was quite short as she was transferred to the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Abbeville, France on 15 November 1917. It was here that she would spend her fourth Christmas away. 

3rd A.G.H. Abbeville, France 31st Dec 1917 

'Dear Mum, Xmas is over. I know it would not be a merry one for you. Things passed off very happily here in spite of everything frozen and the snow kneedeep on the ground. We had our dinner on Xmas Eve & as soon as it was over the padre, about 8 sisters & a dozen orderlies went round the wards singing carols. We had practiced for a week beforehand “Come all ye Faithful, Noel, Hark the Herald Angels" & one or two more. As there were so many wards we sang in the open, so that ½ doz or more wards would hear at the same time. It was bitterly cold & drizzling rain but we kept on until the end. I played the little portable organ until the rain spoiled some of the keys. But the thanks & gratitude of the patients next day, more than made up for the discomfort we put up with. In my ward the Sisters & I filled a sock for every man (we had a nice lot of little presents) & we told the night sister to hang them on every bed in the early morn. The mens dinner was very good, poultry, vegetables, plum pudding bon bons, nuts etc that we had bought. Then for tea they had cake sandwiches etc. In the afternoon concert parties came round the wards. In the evening we dressed up one of the orderlies as Father Xmas. We had a little Xmas tree given us & we turned out the electric lights & left only Chinese lanterns burning (the wards had been decorated). Then Father Xmas came in carrying the little tree with all the tiny candles on it lit & it was a pretty sight. The men were amazed & delighted. They had no idea we had this surprise for them. Father Xmas went round to every man & gave him a present & that ended a great day for them. Next Evening Boxing Day there was a dance for the patients & orderlies in the Y. M. C. A. hut & that was a great success also. The costumes were wonderful. .......Well mum I hope things will be better in the New Year & Verner Charlie Tom & I all home for verily I am tired of it all & simply long for home & peace. Goodbye mum love Connie’ 

Verner, Charlie and Tom were Constance's brothers who were all serving with the AIF in 1917. They would not all be home by Christmas 1918 as she had hoped. Her eldest brother Thomas, who was married with 3 children, enlisted in October 1915 and was with the 4th Tropical Forces doing garrison duty in New Guinea. However, he left Rabaul in May 1918 and was discharged a month later, so he would be home for Christmas 1918. 

Constance’s time at Abbeville lasted only another 6 weeks after Christmas. On 9 February 1918 she went to the front lines as Sister in Charge of the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station (ACCS) at Trois Arbres in Flanders. She was still with the 2nd ACCS in Belgium for Christmas 1918. 

Belgium 26th Dec 1918 

‘Dear Mum, I intended writing yesterday (Xmas) but hadn’t a spare moment all day. We were so busy and everything went off well. To start with the day was gloriouisly fine. Every man received a gift of some kind. The Aus’n Red t & comfort’s fund supplied for the Aus’n’s boxes containing all sorts of nice things to eat. Then the other men each got a good soft flannel shirt, pr soxs, cigarettes & matches. The dinner was splendid. I enclose menu. Eat I never saw men eat as they did. We piled their plates with ham, fowl & cold meat, potatoes & peas & then they came back for more. The dinner was already cut up and about 6 of us served it. I took charge of the fowl, passed the plate on to the next for ham & so on. I never saw a dinner served so quickly. A couple of hundred men sat down. When it was nearly over one of the men played the piano songs that everyone knew, so all joined in. It was simply great. At 5 o’clock the men on the staff & the attached Ausn’s had their dinners which was the same. Then at night we had ours. It was some day I can tell you. At the 2nd dinner the staff one – cheers were given for me & for the sisters for decorating the room & tables & helping so much. Then there were cries of "speech, speech”. I refused to “speak” & was bodily carried on to the platform so simply had to say a few words. I've forgotten what I said, but anyway there was loud applause & many told me it was it was a fine little speech. I wonder what sort of Xmas you had. I hope we shall be home for the next. The sisters gave me the most exquisite jar. I think it is a powder one. It is of dark blue crystal & the outside is of beaten gold. Oh, it is a lovely thing. I won’t be happy about it until I get it home. They bought it for me in “Tournai” the day we left there. The cooee cake you sent me for my birthday I received about a month ago & I saved it up for Xmas. We had a few visitors Xmas Eve night so I cut it then & it was beautiful. Everyone asked where it came from. Thank you all for the Xmas parcels. There were quite a lot of things useful for Xmas presents there is so little to buy here. Love from Connie’ 

In early March 1919 Constance returned to England where she worked at the 1st Australian General Hospital at Sutton Veny in Wiltshire, nursing Australian troops waiting to return to Australia. 

In September 1919 she wrote the following in a letter to her mum. 

While she didn’t leave mid-October, Constance was on the HT Orvieto which sailed from England on 1 November. 

The Brisbane newspapers kept their readers appraised of her return to Australia. 

The Brisbane Courier, Tuesday 25 November 1919 

‘Word has been received that sister Constance M. Keys, R.R.C., Mde E, is to arrive in Melbourne about December 12 by the Orvieto. Sister Keys was one of the first four nurses who left Queensland by the Omrah in September 1914.’ 

The Brisbane Courier, Saturday 20 December 1919, had this article which confirms her arrival on 19 December 1919. 

One can only imagine the Christmas that was celebrated in the Keys’ house at Galloway’s Hill in Norman Park on 25 December 1919 when they were all finally home. Constance’s older brother Charles had arrived home in January 1919. He had served with the 15th Battalion on the Western Front but was invalided home after sustaining a severe shrapnel wound to his left knee on 19 May 1918. Likewise, her younger brother Vernor beat Constance home. Vernor enlisted in the Medical Corp on 29 July 1915. He worked at the 1st AGH and 2nd ASH in Egypt and Palestine after arriving in the Middle East early 1916. He sailed home on the Kantara which left Egypt 15 June 1919. After getting home, he was discharged from the army on the 1st of December. With all the family safe and back in Australia the sense of relief and the joy of reunion would have been immense.  

The loneliness of being away from family for years during the war was exacerbated at times like Christmas. For the thousands of troops and nurses serving overseas, the practice of Christmas traditions, as described by Constance, acted as a moment of relief. These seemingly normal Christmas events offered a connection to home; despite the horrific circumstances of the reality, they were surrounded by during World War I. 

If you would like to learn more about Constance Mabel Keys and her World War I service, you can explore her extensive collection, which is held at State Library of Queensland. 

Read More:

30674 Constance Mabel Keys Collection

Sharing Stories of Service: Constance Keys

Nursing the Wounded: Constance Keys' Account of the Aftermath Of The Gallipoli Landing

Margaret Thorsborne AO (Daughter of Constance Keys) Digital Story 2013