Don’t miss World War 1 Tales
On Thursday 28 September, in keeping with Heritage Week, the general meeting of Knysna U3A will be focusing on the bravery and untold stories of South Africans who participated in World War 1.
Margaret Dewar, a Scottish girl who emigrated to South Africa with her parents, qualified as a nurse and worked in local hospitals.
On the declaration of war, she went to England and applied to join the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) but their tardiness to send women abroad made her join the Scottish Women’s Hospital and she was sent to Royaumont Abbaye just north of Paris, close to the frontline.
She nursed there under horrendous conditions during 1915.
She returned to England and was accepted by QAIMNS and sent to Brighton. She was posted to Salonika and it was while she was there that her heroic act – which resulted in her death – occurred.
Who better to tell the story of this unsung heroine than our own modern heroine, Judge Kathleen Satchwell, who battles for justice in South Africa?
Kathie grew up in the Eastern Cape and did degrees in anthropology and African languages at Rhodes University before studying law. She practised as an attorney in Johannesburg with much of her practice involving human rights work. She was appointed a judge of the high court in 1996.
Her hobby is the research of South African war memorials to the dead of the Great War of 1914 to 1918. This hobby has involved visiting the memorials but also tracing the families and those soldiers and nurses who never returned home to South Africa.
She has traipsed through the mud of potato fields to follow the line of battle, trespassed in woods to find still extant trenches, marched down country lanes to work out how long it took to reach a first aid post or collect a ration of rum.
All of these activities lend an authenticity to her accounts of the people who served in this Great War.
Her presentation is scheduled to take place in the Brenton community hall at 10:00. The doors open at 09:00 when tea, coffee and biscuits will be served. All are welcome. Members pay R5 and visitors R10 towards the hire of the hall.
Info/enquiries: Judy Dixon 072 390 6667
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Source: Knysna Plett Herald News