Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is a tremendous engraved M1910 Mess Kit named to Nurse Nellie Gertrude Storey, who spent a year in France with the American Expeditionary Forces, and was stationed in the French commune Bazoilles-sur-Meuse, as indicated by the engraving on her mess kit.  Many Base Hospitals were stationed in this commune which was very close to the fighting in the Meuse-Argonne Forest.

Storey was born on June 5th, 1894 in Baltimore, Maryland. According to a newspaper article we found in our research, Storey passed her Nurse examination in November of 1915, and was assigned to the Maryland General Hospital. She enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps Reserved on November 28th, 1917, and embarked to the Base Hospital Camp in Shelby, Mississippi. On July 13th, 1918, she was assigned to Base Hospital 42 and traveled overseas. She served in the Advanced Sector as indicated by the AS Cross of Lorraine insignia she engraved onto her mess kit.

She worked for months assisting wounded soldiers whose wounds were bad enough to warrant transfer to a base hospital. In December 1918 she was transferred to Base Hospital 79, which is the unit she engraved on her mess kit. Even though the fighting ended in November 1918, tens of thousands of wounded soldiers still required constant treatment & care even into 1919 as the demobilization of troops was underway. Nurse Storey indeed would remain overseas until June 19th, 1919, 7 months after the war ended, due to the dire need for medical personnel. She returned home and was discharged on August 3rd, 1919. She married physician James Frederick Bampfield and lived in Maryland until her passing on May 29th, 1992, at the age of 98.

The mess kit is in fair shape and is dated 1918 on the handle, manufactured by L. F & C. The Mess kit is engraved:

NELL STOREY
A.N.C.
(ADVANCED SECTOR INSIGNIA)
B.H. 79
BAZOILLES SUR MEUSE

This is a truly phenomenal mess kit, it is incredibly difficult to find pieces named & identified to World War I Nurses or any female personnel for that matter. Comes ready for further research and display.