Biography
Excellence in Scholarship and Learning
Excellence in Scholarship and Learning
‘Petals and Bullets’
Dorothy Morris – New Zealand Nurse in the Spanish Civil War
Mark Derby is a New Zealand writer and historian. His books include Kiwi Compañeros – New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War (2009). A Spanish translation, Compañeros ‘Kiwis’ – Nueva Zealanda y la Guerra Civil Español, appeared in 2011.
In these words New Zealand nurse Dorothy Morris described
her journey to a Republican medical unit of the Spanish civil war
in early 1937. This book is based on the vivid, detailed and evocative
letters she sent from Spain and other European countries. They have
been supplemented by wide-ranging research to record a life of outstanding
professional dedication, resourcefulness and courage.
Dorothy Aroha Morris (1904–1998) volunteered to serve with
Sir George Young’s University Ambulance Unit, and worked at an International
Brigades base hospital and as head nurse to a renowned Catalan surgeon.
She then headed a Quaker-funded children’s hospital in Murcia, southern
Spain. As Franco’s forces advanced, she fled to France and directed
Quaker relief services for tens of thousands of Spanish refugees.
Nurse Morris spent the Second World War in London munitions factories,
as welfare supervisor to their all-female workforces. She then joined
the newly formed UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, working
in the Middle East and Germany with those who had been displaced
and made homeless and destitute as a result of the war.
Dorothy Morris’s remarkable and pioneering work in the fields of
military medicine for civilian casualties, and large-scale humanitarian
relief projects is told in this book for the first time.
Published in association with the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies
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| Hardback ISBN: | 978-1-84519-684-4 |
| Hardback Price: | £19.95 / $29.95 |
| Release Date: | June 2015 |
| Page Extent / Format: | 195 pp. / 229 x 152 mm |
| Illustrated: | No |
Introduction
1 The
Morris family yacht
2 Good
bombing light
3 Hospital
Inglés de Niños
4 With horsebox and lie-low
5 Wearing the snood
6 The conscience of the world
Notes
Bibliography
Index
From the Series
Preface, by Angela Jackson
Mark Derby has skilfully blended a variety of sources
to contextualise the life of Dorothy Morris. To Dorothy’s
own letters with their perceptive comments and descriptive
delights he has added the views of her family, friends and
colleagues. The collection of images helps to convey a sense
of the rich history of the times in which she lived: a history
which is explored in a clear and well-expressed style by the
author, drawing on a wide range of archival material. Readers
will find much of interest in his description of New Zealand
society and the political atmosphere which influenced Dorothy’s
early years. The poverty she saw there goaded her to action,
just as similar injustices at the other side of the world
in Britain spurred other mettlesome women to volunteer for
Spain. The chapters concerning Dorothy’s experiences during
the Spanish civil war give a highly personalised perspective
on the work of the International Brigade medical services
and make an important contribution to the record of the daunting
tasks undertaken by the Society of Friends in Spain to help
thousands of refugees, many of them children. Dorothy’s organisational
skills developed through her role working alongside other
stalwart women with close links to los cuáqueros and led her
to refugee work on an unimaginable scale during the Second
World War. This gives Mark Derby the opportunity to explore
the role of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
(UNNRA).
Drawing on a variety of sources, including Morris’s family, friends and colleagues, Derby contextualizes New Zealand society, politics and the poverty that gave Morris the impetus to volunteer for the Spanish Civil War as a nurse to “fight against the forces of evil.” The book also illuminates Morris’s refugee work during the Second World War, and the work of the International Brigade medical services and the Society of Friends in Spain. Seven chapters are: the Morris family yacht; good bombing light; hospital Ingl<’e>s de Niños; with horsebox and lie-low; wearing the snood; the conscience of the world; “brazen and tyrannical.” Protoview.com
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