t directly Lady Roberts returned to India in 1886 she drew up a
scheme for supplying lady nurses to the military hospitals throughout
India, and set to work to try and get the support of some of the
principal Medical officers. To her great joy, her recommendations
were accepted by Lord Dufferin and his Council, and her note upon the
subject was sent home to the Secretary of State, strongly backed up
by the Government of India. Lord Cross happily viewed the matter in
a favourable light, and consented, not only to a certain number of
nurses being sent out the following year as an experiment, but to the
whole of the cost of the movement being borne by the State, with the
exception of the provision of 'Homes in the Hills' for the nursing
sisters as health resorts, and to prevent the expense to Government
of their having to be sent home on sick-leave when worn out by their
trying work in the plains. The Secretary of State, however, declared
these Homes to be 'an important part' of the nursing scheme, 'and
indispensable to its practical working,' but considered that they
should be provided by private subscription, a condition my wife
undertook to carry out. She appealed to the Army in India to help her,
and with scarcely an exception every regiment and battery generously
responded--even the private soldiers subscribed largely in proportion
to their small means--so that by the beginning of the following year
my wife was able to set about purchasing and building suitable houses.

[Illustration: LADY ROBERTS OF KANDAHAR.
_From a photograph by Messrs. Johnson and Hoffmann._]

'Homes' were established at Murree, Kasauli and Quetta, in Bengal,
and at Wellington[1] in Madras, and by making a further appeal to the
officers of the army, and with the assistance of kind and liberal
friends in England and India, and the proceeds of various
entertainments, Lady Roberts was able to supply, in connexion with
the 'Homes' at Murree and Kasauli, wards for the reception of sick
officers, with a staff of nurses[2] in attendance, whose salaries,
passages, etc., are all paid out of 'Lady Roberts's Fund.' My wife was
induced to do this from having known many young officers succumb owing
to want of care and improper food at hotels or clubs on being sent to
the Hills after a hard fight for life in the plains, if they were not
fortunate enough to have personal friends to look after them. Although
it is anticipating events, I may as well say here that