A World War One Love Story

I thought I would celebrate Valentine’s Day by telling you about a love story that spanned the length of World War One and two young people – Agnes ‘Nancy’ Mann, a nurse with the Scottish Women’s Hospital (SWH)  and George B Logan Jr, an American student volunteer and Lieutenant in the American Air Service… grab a cuppa and settle down for an epic tale…

Nancy was born in Aug 1887 at Whitecross, Chapel of Garioch, Inverurie, Scotland. She was brought up by her mother, older siblings and extended family, after her father died suddenly in 1889. Nancy went on to train as a nurse and qualified just before World War One. She worked for a short time in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire in public health work and the county fever hospital.

Nancy applied to work for the SWH, and sailed with the rest of her unit on the Gloucester Castle, from Southampton, and eventually arriving in Salonika, Serbia. On arrival at the SWH base, she was asked to volunteer with a neighbouring hospital run by Lady Paget. Her hospital was struggling with staffing and dealing with the typhus epidemic which was running rife through the war-torn country.

About the same time that Nancy arrived at Lady Paget’s Hospital, a young American student called George B Logan Jr, was also volunteering there. He had been studying at Princeton University and had volunteered to come to Serbia with fellow students under the leadership of a native Serbian Professor, Prof Pupin, who was teaching in the USA. This group had worked as ambulance drivers and orderlies and had settled working with Lady Paget’s Hospital.

Nancy and George would have worked together under very difficult circumstances, which became worse when the Bulgarian Army invaded the country and took over the hospital. The staff had the option to leave but chose to stay, while they sent as many of the Serbian patients that could travel, to a chance of safety. George and his American group could have demanded to be sent back to the USA, because their country had not entered the war at that point – they choose to stay too. The Bulgarian Army stated that the hospital staff were prisoners of war, and they were forced to treat the Bulgarian casualties for 5 months.

Once the hospital staff’s freedom was arranged, a journey that took them to many Royal Family homes in Russia and Scandinavia, Nancy and George went their separate ways but vowed to keep in touch. Nancy spent a few weeks recuperating with her family in Inverurie before rejoining the SWH in Corsica, looking after Serbian refugees. She was based there for three months before being moved to Monastir in Macedonia, working there was very dangerous, under constant shelling and aerial attacks. In the meantime, George travelled back to the USA, where he served with the National Guard. On his discharge, he returned to Macedonia where he volunteered as an ambulance driver, with the French Red Cross.

Now Nancy and George would have known they were both in the same country but nothing more specific than that, due to the censorship of all their letters. As fate would have it - they met while he was delivering wounded to the hospital where she was based and under the barrage of shelling, they became engaged.

At this point, the war was still raging on. In April 1917, the USA entered the war. George travelled to France and signed up as a Lieutenant in the American Air Service. When Nancy’s contract finished with the SWH she returned to nursing at Blantyre County Hospital. At this stage Fate threw another curveball, amid George’s flight training in early 1918, he was struck down with cerebro-spinal meningitis. Nancy was released to nurse him back to health, and the couple had hoped that the American Air Service would allow him to convalesce in Scotland where they planned to marry, but permission was denied. So not to be deterred, Nancy and George met up in Biarritz, France where he was recuperating, and they married in a civil ceremony where there witnesses were the American and British Consoles. The ceremony was carried out in French and as Nancy didn’t speak French, George had to give her a bit of nudge to say “oui”! And here’s another thing about Fate – had Nancy spoken French, she may never have been sent to Serbia, she would have most likely been sent to the SWH based in Royaumont, France and the couple would never have met…

The American Services didn’t allow wives to stay with their husband’s so Nancy travelled back to Scotland and despite George’s best efforts on demobilisation, she was unable to travel to the USA with him but was shipped over later on an Army Transport ship, the “Plattsburg” with troops and 46 other army wives.
The couple initially settled in Pittsburgh, George’s hometown, where he worked in the family business. He later moved Nancy and their children, Henrietta, Alice, Jean and Georgia, to Chapel Hill, North Carolina when he took up a post as a university librarian. Sadly, George died of pneumonia in 1927.   
Nancy continued to raise their young family, she took in lodgers to help the finances and was able to make numerous voyages between the US and Scotland, visiting family up until the start of World War Two. All of George and Nancy’s daughters followed their parent’s footsteps and served in World War Two.
Nancy died on the 2nd August 1976 at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Nancy’s skills, service and courage were honoured by the British Government through the French Red Cross and she was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. She was also decorated by the Serbian government – with the Serbian Red Cross, the Cross of Charity (1916) and the Silver Medal for Bravery (1918). 
I hope you have enjoyed reading this epic love story. I have used several sources for this blog including Scarlet Finders, the Mitchell Library, the British Newspaper Archive, Ancestry and other journals. One of Nancy’s descendant’s shares a lovely, detailed tree with lots of pictures and details on Ancestry.]

If you would like to read more about Lady Paget – please check out this link - https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2018/11/lady-paget-and-serbia.html