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Overview
Creativity from the trenches
This pen, made from two used cartridge cases and bullets, was probably made by soldiers recuperating in a French or Belgian hospital where New Zealand nurse, Margaret (Daisy) Hitchcock, was working. Margaret Hitchcock nursed for the duration of the First World War. She first served with the French Flag Nursing Corps and then with the New Zealand Military Nursing Service.
The pen is an example of trench art or rehabilitation craft made during the Great War. It is made from battlefield debris, which is one of the characteristics of this form. The cases are brass, soldered together at their bases, and are a tarnished-gold colour. The lead bullets are removable and one still has a steel nib attached to it which forms a functioning pen when the bullet is inserted into the cartridge. The words 'soissons' and 'makne/mikne' are inscribed on the pen.
A gift to a nurse
Margaret Hitchcock was born in 1883 to parents Maria and Henry Hitchcock of Wellington. She trained as a nurse and left Wellington in 1910, with her friend Lily Lind, to undertake midwifery training in Dublin, Ireland. On completion of the training, they travelled to England, and were living in London working privately as nurses when war broke out in 1914. The French Flag Nursing Corps, like the French Red Cross, accepted volunteers of all nationalities, providing board and lodging, or an allowance for such. Hitchcock and Lind were among a small group of New Zealand nurses already in England who joined the French Flag Nursing Corps and quickly travelled to France.
During her service in the war, Hitchcock received a small collection of trench art and rehabilitative art from soldiers she cared for. Some of these were donated to Te Papa, including an engraved plate and cup from Steenvoorde in northern France.