78
J. L. CRANMER-BYNG
guard was reinforced by marines from the warships in the Gulf of Chihli, and arrived in Peking on May 31st. Seventy-five was the number fixed for the French, British, and Russian contingents. On June 10th, an immediate attack on the Legation area was expected, while at the same time reinforcements were awaited from Tientsin. On June 20th, the German Minister, Baron Ketteler, was murdered by Boxers on his way to the Tsungli Yamen, the Chinese department dealing with Foreign Affairs. As a result, all the women and children in the various Legations, together with the non-combatant men, gathered inside the British Legation, since this was alone regarded as capable of any serious defence. In here, there were eventually over eight hundred people, including the Ministers of eleven different nations and some Chinese Christian converts. At this time, the Legation was only half its final size, being roughly 700 yards long and 200 yards wide, but containing eight different walls, some of them very thick, which made it good for defending.
Meanwhile, the German Minister's interpreter, Cordes, who had been wounded, was brought into the Legation, and a hospital was hurriedly set up, under the charge of Dr. Poole of the British Legation, with Dr. Welde of the German Legation as his assistant. The nurses consisted of one fully trained and certificated nurse (Miss Lambert of the Church of England Mission), who was made Matron, and a number of partly trained missionary women under her, together with Fuller, a naval sick-berth steward, who had been sent up with the marines. One of the partly-trained missionaries was Jessie Ransome, who kept a diary of the siege, giving the story of the hospital work. As she recorded:
The first thing to be done was to find a building which could be set apart for a hospital, and this, in the crowded state of the British Legation, was not very easy. It was decided to use the Government offices and reading-room, commonly known as the Chancery, and two rooms were hastily cleared and prepared for use, one as an operating theatre, and the other as a ward. Even then, we had not an idea of the task before us, thinking that a few days would certainly bring Admiral Seymour and his column to our relief; and so it was only by degrees, as our patients increased in number, that we cleared out more rooms and even encroached upon
78
J. L. CRANMER-BYNG
guard was reinforced by marines from the warships in the Gulf of Chihli, and arrived in Peking on May 31st. Seventy five was the number fixed for the French, British and Russian contin- gents. On June 10th an immediate attack on the Legation area was expected, while at the same time reinforcements were awaited from Tientsin. On June 20th the German Minister, Baron Ketteler, was murdered by Boxers on his way to the Tsungli Yamen, the Chinese department dealing with Foreign Affairs. As a result all the women and children in the various Legations, together with the non-combatant men, gathered inside the British Legation, since this was alone regarded capable of any serious defence. In here there were eventually over eight hundred people, including the Ministers of eleven different nations and some Chinese Christian converts. At this time the Legation was only half its final size, being roughly 700 yards long and 200 yards wide, but containing eight different walls, some of them very thick, which made it good for defending.
Meanwhile the German Minister's interpreter, Cordes, who had been wounded, was brought into the Legation and a hospital was hurriedly set up, under the charge of Dr. Poole of the British Legation with Dr. Welde of the German Legation as his assistant. The nurses consisted of one fully trained and certificated nurse (Miss Lambert of the Church of England Mission) who was made Matron, and a number of partly trained missionary women under her, together with Fuller, a naval sick-berth steward, who had been sent up with the marines. One of the partly-trained missionaries was Jessie Ransome who kept a diary of the siege giving the story of the hospital work. As she recorded:
The first thing to be done was to find a building which could be set apart for a hospital, and this, in the crowded state of the British Legation, was not very easy. It was decided to use the Government offices and reading-room, commonly known as the Chancery, and two rooms were hastily cleared and prepared for use, one as operating theatre, and the other as a ward. Even then we had not an idea of the task before us, thinking that a few days would certainly bring Admiral Seymour and his column to our relief; and so it was only by degrees, as our patients increased in number, that we cleared out more rooms and even encroached upon
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