Pen made from a cartridge case

Creativity in the trenches

This pen, made from a used cartridge case, 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 significant as 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 case is brass, and is a tarnished-gold colour. A thread mesh adds a decorative pattern to the outside of the pen. There is a circular loop of thread at the end of the pencil. It has a bullet with a pen nib attached which can be extracted and fitted into the cartridge case to make a functioning 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.