For several days early in 1917, May Bradford sat beside Corporal George Pendlebury in a British field hospital in France, comforting him and writing to his family as he edged towards death. By the time he succumbed to pneumonia, the young soldier believed she was not his nurse, but his mother.

Unlike her colleagues, she rarely dispensed drugs to relieve the agony of injuries inflicted on the Western Front. Instead, her medication was administering the written word and empathy in the gruelling surroundings of No 26 General Hospital, near Etaples.

A volunteer nurse for the British Red Cross, she followed her surgeon husband, Sir John Bradford, to northern France at the outbreak of the war and spent the duration of the conflict performing the remarkable yet unsung role of “hospital letter writer” for injured soldiers either too unwell or too illiterate to communicate with family members scattered across the globe.

Lady Bradford was, by any standards, prolific. By the end of the war, she had written no fewer than 25,000 letters and notes – an average of about a dozen a day – on behalf of her charges at No 26 (which was the real-life basis for the BBC1 drama series, The Crimson Field). In so doing, Lady Bradford filled an information vacuum. Her Red Cross letters added precious details of injuries and condition to loved ones who otherwise received only a terse War Office note informing them that their husband, brother or son had been wounded.

In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments Show all 149 1 /149 In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Supporting troops of the 1st Australian Division walking on a duckboard track near Hooge, in the Ypres Sector Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Final moments: The Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand with his wife Sophie in Sarajevo minutes before his shooting AP In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Arresting Princip’s fellow conspirator Nedeljko Cabrinovic after a failed attempt to kill the Archduke on the same day Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Crowds in central London cheer Britain’s declaration of war on Germany Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War The innocents: New recruits, with bicycles, training with the British Army in 1914 Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War 1914: A lone soldier with a bicycle stands amid the remains of a German motor convoy which lines a country lane after an attack by French field guns in the battle of the Aisne in France Topical Press Agency/Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Troubled waters: The Cambridge eight included John Andrew Ritson (fourth from cox) Museum of London, Christina Broom In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War John Andrew Ritson (left) Museum of London, Christina Broom In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Dennis Ivor Day Musuem of London; Christina Broom In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War German infantry advance through Belgium in August 1914 Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Civilians near the Austrian lines in Serbia are strung up – probably as a reprisal for guerrilla resistance to the invaders Miroslav Honzík/Hana Honzíková In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Captured soldiers of the Russian 2nd Army after their defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Wounded and exhausted British and Belgian soldiers retreating after the Battle of Mons Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Crowds gather outside a recruitment office Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War French General Joseph Joffre (second right), Commander- in-Chief of the French Armies, and General Michel Joseph Maunoury (right) on the front during the First Battle of the Marne. 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His bravery won him the Military Cross in July 1916, but he later turned against the war Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War The sinking of the ‘Queen Mary’ Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Admiral John Jellicoe, commander of the British fleet Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War German destroyers off the English coast Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War One of the architects of the revolt: Sharif Hussain, religious leader of Mecca Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War One of the architects of the revolt: Sir Henry McMahon, British minister in Cairo Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Emilio Lussu, who fought in the battle with the Italian Army, on the side of the allies, against the Austrians, who sided with Germany In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, whose face appeared on the recruitment poster ‘Your Country Needs You’ Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Conscientious objectors at a protest on Dartmoor in 1917 Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Objectors were forced to cultivate the soil although many were said to have spent much of their time "strolling on the moors, reading, smoking and talking" Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War British conscientious objectors leaving Dartmoor Prison under a gateway inscribed with the words "Parcere subjectis" ("Spare the conquered") Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Going over the top during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 PA In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War The British Machine Gun Corps during the battle Hulton Archive/Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Canadian troops prepare for the charge Hulton Archive/Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Remains of the German airship shot down over Cuffley Popperfoto In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Captain William Leefe Robinson received the VC for his courage Hulton/Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War A British Mark 1 tank on the Western Front Topical Press/Hulton/Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War A British soldier covers a dead German on the firestep of a trench near the Somme Hulton/Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Carnage on the road to Romania’s Turnu Rosu Pass. A German NCO stands beside an Italian-made cannon and the body of what may have been a gun crew member In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Edward Thomas, a Second-Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery, at home on leave in early 1917 Edward Thomas Fellowship In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Edward’s wife Helen with two of their three children, Merfyn and Bronwen In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War May Bradford writing a letter for an injured soldier in a French hospital In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Composer and poet Ivor Gurney (left) and the artist Paul Nash Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Filling shells at the Vickers munitions factory, Barrow-in-Furness. 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Here he is seen with Carl Laemmle of Universal Pictures (left) Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War The conscription of reserve soldiers in Greece to fight on the Salonika front in 1916. The Greek city was ravaged by a fire the following year, which devastated the area and left thousands homeless Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Allied troops marching down the Boulevard de la Victoire in Salonika in 1916, the year before the great fire which devastated the Greek city Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Women leaving a munitions factory on Eiswerder Island in Spandau, near Berlin, at the end of their shift, in around 1917. 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Perhaps 70,000 Allied soldiers died between 31 July and 10 November Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War A British stretcher party Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War German prisoners on a duckboard track at Yser Canal, Belgium, on the opening day of the battle Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War 3rd September 1917: Veterans of the American Civil War at the opening of the Eagle Hut Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War US Ambassador Page greeting veterans of the American Civil War at the opening of the Eagle Hut Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War 22nd December 1917: Christmas preparations at the Eagle Hut Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Albin Köbis, who was shot as one of the ringleaders of the German naval mutiny in 1917 Alamy In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Stokers of the SMS Prinzregent Luitpold in 1913 Alamy In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Allied troops in what is now Zambia, in vain pursuit of the forces of the elusive German general Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck Getty Images In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Genius in the art of bush warfare: German general Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck Getty In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War German women and children queue for food rations Alamy In pictures: A history of the First World War in 100 moments First World War Crowds at Petrograd’s Winter Palace during the October Revolution. 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No less importantly, she also became a form of professional confidante and conduit for the love, sorrow, horror and longing transmitted between soldiers and those at home.

A member of the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs), as the Red Cross volunteers were known, the nurse-cum-scribe was part of a force that became the backbone of military nursing during the war. Some 38,000 VADs were deployed as assistant nurses, ambulance drivers and cooks, serving as far afield as Mesopotamia, Gallipoli and the Eastern Front.

Dressed in a dark suit topped with a formal hat, Lady Bradford eschewed the uniform of her fellow VADs for something akin to her Sunday best and saw her role less as matronly than maternal.

Summing up her job after the war, she wrote: “The duties of a letter writer were very varied. She must ask many questions – she must never be in a hurry; the men liked to pour out their troubles and anxieties. I was not in uniform, and this absence of uniform introduced a personal touch that must necessarily be absent in any relationship impressed by discipline.”

Recalling her care of Cpl Pendlebury, she wrote: “I would tell these men that I was there to mother them until they return to their homes.

“I said this to an Australian and he quickly replied ‘Mother, give me my tea’. I gave it to him, and then wrote to his mother in Australia. The next day he called me as I entered the ward, ‘Mother, tuck me up’. I did so. ‘You do tuck up well,’ said he, ‘just like mother’.” The soldier, who had lost a leg when he was hit by a trench mortar, slipped away to pneumonia, before dying on 1 March 1917. Lady Bradford added: “From calling me his hospital mother he thought I was his own dear mother, and he died thinking she was by his side.”

Unlike other correspondents writing from the front, Lady Bradford, who became known to her charges in the hospital as “Tommy’s little Mother”, was allowed to seal her letters and thus avoid the military censor. The intimacy of the relationship between letter-writing nurse and the injured was lost neither on Lady Bradford nor on those to whom she was writing.

One mother, concerned that her son was falling for the charms of his warm-hearted carer, wrote to his matron: “Please let me know who May Bradford is, my son is very susceptible.” It was only when she was assured that the writer was middle-aged and happily married that such anxieties abated.

Writing for men whose education and literacy were often limited, this Florence Nightingale of the pen, who frequently received letters addressed to “Major Bradford”, was also not afraid of educating her patients on how to treat women.

She recalled: “To one man I said, ‘Shall I begin the letter with my dear wife?’ He quietly answered, ‘That sounds fine, but she’ll be wondering I never said that before’.”

From writing on behalf of a soldier to his brother in India in the hope that “he may leave me a lot of money” to reading to another a letter from his mother expressing a desire to visit him “if I need not go into the trenches”, Lady Bradford was privy to nearly every emotion and need in the hospital. Her role brought with it moments of levity, such as the reaction of one Scottish soldier who, when presented with a Christmas card by the nurse with a picture of dogs, rejected it, saying: “My mither canna thole [abide] dogs.”

But the grim consequences of war were never far away. She later recalled: “One day a youth was brought in with both eyes shot away. After all his messages to his wife and children had been written down, he put his hand to try and find mine. ‘Sister,’ he said, ‘is it a fine day, and are the birds singing?’

“I pictured it all to him. ‘Well,’ he answered, ‘I have much to live for still’.”

Tomorrow: A Poet and a painter pine for home