Brown boxes of papers

I'm very excited about going to the Imperial War Museum Archive next week. I have asked to see the records of about twenty women who travelled abroad - usually as nurses - during the First World War.

Their stories are enticing. They went to Italy, Serbia, France, Egypt, Malta, Russia, Belgium, usually as nurses or VADs. There's even a pair of sisters who seem to have worked together through the War. One record mentions witnessing a shipwreck. There are letters to their families and from their brothers, often on the front line, and there are diaries and albums.

I really hope they come in brown boxes.