WARTIME sweethearts

CLARICE AND ERNEST FOUND HOPE AMID THE THEATRE OF WAR

- Emma Levett

There was a black-and-white photograph on display in Glenn Chapman's grandmother's house that, as a boy, always fascinated him. It was of his great-grandmother, Clarice Daley, in her nursing uniform.

“Clarice was a registered nurse [and] in 1915 signed up to serve in the army nursing service,” Glenn, now 41, tells New Idea. “She was posted to the Greek island of Lemnos to help establish a hospital there.”

While Clarice could hear the battle raging in nearby Gallipoli, she was far enough away not to be under any imminent threat. But that didn't mean her life – and those of her fellow nurses – was easy.

The day after Clarice arrived, hundreds of injured soldiers were brought in. Over the coming months the numbers kept rising. They weren't just wounded Anzacs – some were seriously ill, suffering from dysentery, typhoid and pneumonia.