A multi-nation hub
‘The place is full of French regiments, Zouaves, Senegalise, Algerians etc, besides Hindoos, Soudanese, Australians, British, then Greeks who have enlisted in the French also New Zealanders. Add to these a sprinkling of nomads of other races & a good mixture is made.’
– Private Harry Gissing, diary entry, 27 May 1915
Lemnos brimmed with people from many countries. Staff from one nation would sometimes assist another. For example, Canadian nurses briefly worked at No. 2 Australian Stationary Hospital (2ASH). Sister Olive Haynes commented that they were ‘awfully nice – five of them here’.
Australian hospitals cared for casualties of other nations. This included Turkish prisoners of war, who were in two separate hospital compounds, and Greek civilians.
Greek and Egyptian labourers were part of the diverse cultural landscape. Many of the Greek Labour Corps came from Lemnos or nearby Lesvos and Tenedos. Recruited on six-month contracts, they helped establish the base. They cleared ground, made roads and constructed huts and hospital buildings. An estimated 2,000 also laboured on Gallipoli.
The Egyptian Labour Corps comprised many thousands of men, recruited by Britain as labourers. Around 3,000 served on Lemnos and Imbros and, from July 1915, at Helles and Suvla Bay. They built roads, carried supplies from piers to depots and cleared ground for huts and camps.
