Page:SLQ OM81-130 Eleanor Elizabeth Bourne Papers p6.jpg

(6 malaria was spread; this Sir Ronald Ross after laborious work proved to be true. Castellani was another Tropical expert who lived in the hotel and was responsible for introducing threefold  immunization of typhoid, para-typhoid and dysentery. Staying in the hotel also was the mother of Owen Nares, the matinée idol of these days, who was herself something of a poetess. As in most hotels in war-time, strange and suspicious characters appeared from time to time. I remember three, supposed to be a brother and sister and maid escaped from Russia; someone remarked that the maid looked very like the brother and sister. They were very good-looking and the sister, accompanied by a forbidding bull-dog, used to dine delicately on a grape and a glass of champagne. She also had a parrot and when one day the trio disappeared, Polly was left to foot the bill.

Christmas of course seems to bring more gaiety and good cheer to hospital than anywhere else and on that occasion the orderly officer had no need to ask whether there were any complaints about the dinner; each medical officer had the duty and pleasure of carving the turkey