On October 8, 1904, Elise Kemp entered
nursing school at King''s College
Hospital at the age of 23, by which time the family''s home address was "Tarama",
Avenue Road, St Albans, Hertfordshire.
She graduated on February 12, 1908, and was described as: "A very capable
nurse, bright, intelligent, and very nice manners, better
surgical than
medical nurse as she did not seem quite able to grasp all the things necessary in a
thoroughly good Medical Nurse. Managing Powers Fair, Rather of a nervous
temperament and a little want of sympathy and self confidence but all ought to
improve with more experience. Health fairly good. A nurse who ought to get on in
the nursing world."
Shortly after her graduation, however, she became ill and spent nine weeks in
the hospital''s Fergusson
Ward. Three days after being discharged she was
appointed Ward Sister of the Albert and Victoria male surgical wards.
In August that year she was on a salary of £35 and her parents had moved to
"Oakhurst" at St Helen''s Park, Hastings.
In November 1909 her sister Violet Annie died and Elise Kemp resigned from
her job as a result. Notes written with her resignation state that she was "a
very good Ward Sister & an exceedingly nice girl, one much liked by
all".
In May the following year she returned as temporary Sister of the Wigram Ward
and in April 1914 was appointed Sister of the Lister male surgical ward.
Four months later she was called up for military
service and became a member
of the Territorial Forces Nursing Service (TFNS), working in London. Two of her
brothers who had qualified as physicians also joined up with the Royal Army
Medical Corps and served overseas.
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