WWI Army Nurse

Ida Massey Bates (1889–1984) served as a nurse with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. The artifacts she left behind help tell the story of her service as an Army nurse during the war.

In 1898 when she was 9 years old, Ida Massey’s family moved to Terrell, Texas. Ida dropped out of school in the seventh grade and went to work in the North Texas Hospital for the Insane (now Terrell State Hospital). She worked there for 10 years before enrolling in nursing school in Dallas in 1913. After volunteering as a Red Cross nurse, Ida enlisted in the military with the Army Nurse Corps in November 1917.

Ida was sent overseas in June 1918, where she first worked in Field Hospital 353. She was on the front lines near Toul, France, and witnessed the attack on St. Mihiel. In a 1977 oral history interview Ida recalled, “We could see the flares at the front. We took care of those that were not seriously wounded, and sent the worst ones back to the larger hospitals in the rear. For awhile they were bringing the gassed casualties into the hospital faster than we could get beds for them.”

Ida kept a number of items from her WWI service, including her gray crepe uniform and apron. This was the working uniform worn by Army nurses in field hospitals and replaced an earlier white uniform which the nurses found too difficult to keep clean under combat conditions. Ida also kept her Army Nurse Corps insignia, which would have been pinned to the collar of her uniform.

Ida also returned home with souvenirs she purchased while in France. At the end of WWI, the battlefields were littered with artillery shells and bullets made of brass. An industry grew in France of turning the used brass shells into “trench art.” Ida brought back utensils made from bullet shells with brass insignia attached. The knife features the U.S. eagle, but the fork and spoon feature the arms of Portugal, which is rare as Portugal only sent 50,000 troops to fight in WWI.