Constance Dalmorton Fradd [nee Sanders] 1890

Constance Dalmorton Stuart-Sanders was born on the 22^nd July 1890 in North Adelaide, South Australia and trained as a nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital for 3 years. She lived at American Beach, Kangaroo Island, South Australia when she enlisted as a Staff Nurse on the 20^th April 1917.

When war broke out in 1914, the Australian Government raised the first Australian Imperial Force for overseas service. The nurses to staff the medical units, which formed an integral part of the AIF, were recruited from the Australian Army Nursing Service Reserve and from the civil nursing profession.

More than 3,000 Australian civilian nurses volunteered for active service. While enabling direct participation in the war effort, nursing also provided opportunities for independence and travel, sometimes with the hope of being closer to loved ones serving overseas.

Nurses served wherever Australian troops were sent, and numerous other countries besides these. Some also served in British hospitals in various theatres of war including Burma, India, The Persian Gulf, Egypt, Greece, Italy, France, Belgium and England.

The record of service for these sisters is a brilliant one, and one which set a very high standard for all who were to follow.

The workloads and consequent stress these nurses endured, during the First World War, included  a 1,000 bed hospital, in Cairo, completely under tentage, without any floor covering that was staffed by 1 Matron, 15 Sisters and 30 Staff Nurses with male medical orderlies from the Australian Army Medical Corps. In 1917, the hospital had to be extended to 2,000 beds during a “heavy rush.”

 

Fig1: Depicts tents at the 3rd Australian General Hospital, Abbeville, north-western France (near Amiens).

 

Compare this to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1990... 700 beds and a staff of 670 nurses, excluding administration and education.

Acting under such adverse conditions, these ladies proved themselves to be of awesome dedication, courage and spirit, and truly professional.

 It was said …'Your qualifications as a nurse must include - Gentleness, Cleanliness, Truthfulness, Observation, Order, Courage and Coolness, Tact'

 “I pledge myself loyally to serve my King and Country and to maintain the honour and efficiency of the Australian Army Nursing Service. I will do all in my power to alleviate the suffering of the sick and wounded, sparing no effort to bring them comfort of body and peace of mind. I will work in unity and comradeship with my fellow nurses. I will be ready to give assistance to those in need of my help, and will abstain from any action which may bring sorrow and suffering to others. At all times I will endeavour to uphold the highest traditions of Womanhood and of the Profession of which I am Part.”

Constance embarked with the unit Nurses (July 1915 - Nov 19-18) from Adelaide, South Australia on board a royal mail steamer RMS Khiva on the 31^st of May 1917 and served in Bombay, India where conditions were awful. She was probably based at Deolali which was a British Army camp 150 miles north-east of Bombay.

Between 1916 and 1919 more than 500 AANS nurses served in British hospitals in India, where their patients included hundreds of Turkish prisoners of war and wounded British troops. The nurses found the tropical monsoonal climate debilitating.

“English nurses could not stand the heat and cholera … that is why they have sent Australians.” Sister Jessie Tomlins

Constance married Leonard Collins William Fradd on the 10^th October 1918 in St Thomas Cathedral, Bombay, India. Captain Leonard Fradd, 6^th South Lancashire Regiment, was attached to the 4^th Reforms Battalion, in Bangalore India. Constance resigned on the 12^th October 1918 due to marriage.

For the next 45 years Constance is found in shipping records travelling by sea to London, England and Durban, South Africa right up until aged 64 where she was recorded as having lived in Kadina, South Australia. It is not known whether any children were issued from this marriage.
Constance died on the 26^th November 1972 aged 82 years and is buried in the North Road Anglican Cemetery, St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria.

The Newton Abbot Workhouse

Thomas Fradd was born to (as yet) unknown parents on September 1^st 1869 at Tormoham, a parish in Newton-Abbot district, Devon, England. He was named as a 15 year old inmate in the Newton Abbot Workhouse during the 1871 Census.

A Workhouse was a place where people who were unable to support themselves could go to live and work. Towns rarely subscribed to the idea of issued relief. It was much easier to pack the poor into a Workhouse and make them suffer unpleasant conditions to ensure that these people avoided being such charges to the ratepayers.

Because of the complete loss of dignity the Workhouse became the ultimate shame for the poor.

The 1834 Poor Law Act required changes and incorporation where villages were required to group into "Unions" for assistance of the poor. The "Union House", serving a group of parishes, was controlled by a Board of Guardians, hardly familiar with the poor they were supposed to help, and more concerned with the cost to the rates.

To some extent the system became self-perpetuating. On the old system of "out-relief" the poor received help and had some chance of getting back on their own feet again. In the workhouse they had nothing; they worked for a pittance and thus had little chance of finding decent work and re-establishment in the community.

The original Newton Abbot ‘poorhouse’ was based in East Street, and the cellar of the Devon Arms was used as the oakum picking room—where paupers were assigned the unpleasant job of untwisting old rope to provide oakum, used to seal the seams of wooden boats.

 

 

The Workhouse, East Street, Newton Abbot - c 1880

 

In 1839, a new workhouse was built in East Street and was used to house paupers from the surrounding areas. It was proposed to accommodate 350 inmates from 39 constituent parishes which surrounded Newton Abbot.

Records from the poor law unions, which were created from this time forward, include the following:

Guardianship

Creed Registers

Rate books

Workhouse Lists of Inmates

Register of Apprentices

Register of Births

Register of Deaths

Vestry Rate Books

Admission and Discharge Registers

Board of Guardians' Records

 

A 'bastardy clause' in the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act had made all illegitimate children the sole responsibility of their mothers until they were 16 years old.

The putative father therefore became free of any legal responsibility for his illegitimate offspring.

Unmarried pregnant women were often disowned by their families and the workhouse was the only place they could go during and after the birth of their child.

The highly controversial measure in the 1834 Act was overturned in a subsequent Act in 1844, which enabled an unmarried mother to apply for an affiliation order against the father for maintenance, even if she was not in receipt of poor relief.

However unmarried mothers from poor backgrounds still entered the workhouse to have their babies.

Pregnant women who were ill, infirm, very poor or deserted by their husbands, and who became dependent on poor relief, were also forced into the workhouse to give birth.

In 1878, the Newton Abbot workhouse had room for about 400 inmates. The wards, yards etc. occupied 2 acres and there were gardens adjoining.

By 1890 there were reports of cruel treatment. In 1894, the workhouse was the focus of an inquiry by the Local Government Board.

It was claimed that a strait-jacket, called a 'jumper' was in regular use, and that elderly paupers had been placed in it naked, and then tied to beds. This had led, it was alleged, to the deaths of some inmates.

Witnesses described that the wards were filthy, and the inmates infested with vermin. A nurse testified that she had found a female inmate dying, her hair had been cut off, and her toe-nails were like claws. Another paralysed inmate had injured herself with her uncut finger-nails.

Another nurse said she had been given sole charge of about 150 sick paupers. The beds were filthy and sick children were under the care of two partially blind women. One child had been tied to a bed with string to prevent it from running about as it had no shoes and stockings. Eleven children had four nightgowns between them. Neither brushes nor combs were provided and their food was kept in the lavatories. Another witness said she saw two men tied to the same bed.

A woman with, what we would now call, learning disabilities was observed in the workhouse yard crouched in a corner with a bruised face. A shed had been built for her in the yard, but the boys threw stones and snowballs at her. Her tormentors included the master's son. Fighting amongst the inmates (who were described as 'idiots) was common, as was 'immorality' amongst them.

The matron for almost thirty years, Ann Mance, was accused of neglecting her duties, having visited the sick ward only five times in three months. She was dismissed, and died from a heart condition a few weeks later.

The workhouse era ended, officially at least, on 1st April 1930; the Boards of Guardians were abolished and their responsibilities passed to local authorities.

Newton Abbot Workhouse became the Newton Abbot Public Assistance Institution; more of a hospital for the sick, infirm and aged poor. A new infirmary was built, and during the wars some of the buildings were used as a military hospital. By 1950, the workhouse buildings were incorporated into part of Newton Abbot Hospital.

Thomas went on to marry Mary Unknown in about 1893 and raised 8 children in Hennock, and Torquay in Devon, and then in Darwen, Lancashire (1911 Census).