BRITAIKS CIVILIAN 
 VOLUNTEERS 
 
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BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN 
 VOLUNTEERS 
 
 AUTHORIZED STORY OF BRITISH VOLUNTARY 
 
 AID DETACHMENT WORK IN THE 
 
 GREAT WAR 
 
 BY 
 
 THEKLA BOWSER, F.J.I. 
 
 Serving Sister of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 
 1917 
 

 Copyright, 1917, by 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 
 Fablislied May, 1917 
 
FOEEWORD 
 
 HISTORY must needs record with what splen- 
 did devotion the women of the warring na- 
 tions, nobles and peasants, rich and poor, shoulder 
 to shoulder, like members of one stricken family, 
 have united in their endeavour to relieve suffering 
 humanity. 
 
 The war has clearly demonstrated that whilst 
 women have been eager and willing to use the 
 greatest gift which God has bestowed upon them — 
 the desire to render service — such service only 
 reached its maximum of efficiency in organised 
 effort. 
 
 I fear that any attempt on my part to do justice 
 to one of the finest examples of organised effort — 
 the Voluntary Aid Detachments — must needs be 
 inadequate, partly because there was never a 
 period when publicity was so little sought and 
 when so much that was fine and generous was done 
 so quietly. But those of us who have taken any 
 active part in the service of the Red Cross know 
 that wherever the task was hardest and the danger 
 greatest there was always to be found a member 
 of the Voluntary Aid Detachments not only will- 
 ing but thoroughly prepared to carry out her al- 
 lotted duties. 
 
 3716S3 
 
vi FOEEWOED 
 
 These trained bands of women established be- 
 fore the war in every town, nay, practically in 
 every village, of Great Britain were one of our 
 greatest national assets and of practical use to 
 our Allies. 
 
 When it became necessary to staff the small 
 hospitals tucked away in the hills of Britain or to 
 provide orderlies to face the horrible, indescrib- 
 able conditions existing in a Serbian typhus hos- 
 pital, the preference was given in every instance 
 to the women of the Voluntary Aid Detachments. 
 We knew that whilst acquiring a good general 
 working knowledge each member had specialised 
 in some branch of the Eed Cross work and that 
 she had been required to use her best endeavours 
 to keep herself in perfect physical condition. Not 
 only were the women skilled and healthy, but they 
 had learned the value of obedience to orders. It 
 was that very discipline which prepared them to 
 face the monotony of home service, to confront 
 the dangers abroad, and even, when called on, to 
 sacrifice their lives. 
 
 Madge Neill Fraser, the golf champion, was one 
 of the first women of the Voluntary Aid Detach- 
 ments to lay down her life with the Scottish Wom- 
 en's Hospitals in Serbia. 
 
 In a tobacco factory at Nish — ^where one thou- 
 sand Serbian typhus patients were crammed into 
 rooms less than twelve feet high, with only slits 
 in the walls for ventilation, straw on the stone 
 
FOEEWOED vii 
 
 floor, on which the men flung themselves down in 
 their filthy uniforms, whilst on stone benches 
 around they sat in a state of torpor waiting, just 
 waiting, for one of their comrades to die that they 
 might take his place — two of the women went of 
 their own free will and died endeavouring to save 
 the life of a stricken comrade. Dr. Elizabeth Eoss. 
 "When the news of their deaths reached England 
 in fifteen days 500 members of the Voluntary Aid 
 Detachments volunteered to replace them. 
 
 It required not only courage but physical 
 strength when, during the Eoumanian retreat, the 
 women patched up a bridge under fire and brought 
 across it over one hundred ambulances laden with 
 helpless men. Not so spectacular, but equally 
 creditable, was the action of those women, trained 
 to economy, who, following in the rear of the 
 retreating Eoumanian troops, gathered up and 
 piled on to their transport wagons the food that 
 had been abandoned, so that later, coming on a 
 band of starving soldiers, they were prepared to 
 feed them. 
 
 No less brave, certainly as useful, are those 
 women who day after day cook, sew and scrub. 
 Theirs is the quiet heroism of carrying out a 
 tedious daily task, finding consolation in the reali- 
 sation that their labour forms part of a perfect 
 whole, a thoroughly well organised institution 
 under whose care human wrecks are rebuilt and 
 sent forth clothed, comforted and healed. 
 
viii FOREWORD 
 
 Not only have the Voluntary Aid Detachments 
 rendered splendid service to the Armies; they 
 have also taken into their tender care the civilians 
 and refugees. There must be thousands of Bel- 
 gian and Serbian women who know that they owe 
 their own and their children's lives to these capa- 
 ble and devoted women. 
 
 I have been asked whether I believe it possible 
 for the women of America to found a Society simi- 
 lar in its objects and organisation to the Volun- 
 tary Aid Detachments. I answer, without hesi- 
 tation, that, building on the basis of our experi- 
 ence, the American women will not only equal but 
 probably surpass the work we have accomplished. 
 
 On my mission of mercy across this great Con- 
 tinent, from North to South and East to West, I 
 have found that in most instances my success was 
 due to the eager and efficient co-operation of the 
 women in each city. I have been more than favor- 
 ably impressed by the splendid working systems 
 of the Civic Federations, the Women's Clubs, the 
 great colleges and girls' schools in this land. If 
 the women of America would turn their genius 
 for organization to the support of the National 
 League for Woman's Service, within six months 
 there would be existing in every city, town and 
 village a band of skilled women prepared to face 
 and deal with any local disaster or national crisis. 
 
 I feel certain that as members of a great demo- 
 cratic nation the American women realise that it 
 
FOEEWOED ix 
 
 is a duty to train to serve the community as a 
 whole. Whilst to those who willingly shoulder 
 new responsibilities there will come the perfect 
 happiness that alone is found in service and the 
 knowledge that 
 
 " The riches of a commonwealth 
 Are clear strong minds and hearts of health. 
 And more to her than gold or gain 
 The cunning hand and cultured brain." 
 
 Kathleen Bueke. 
 
 Santa Barbara, California, March 26, 1917. 
 
INTEODUCTION 
 
 WHEN the Voluntary Aid Organisation was 
 first set up as part of the Territorial 
 Army Scheme in the year 1909, a number of men 
 and women in various Counties joined the new 
 Organisation at once and began to prepare them- 
 selves for the work which it was intended to carry 
 out. They suffered the usual fate of pioneers, 
 and like the Volunteers in mid- Victorian times, 
 were subjected to more or less good-natured ridi- 
 cule. The War has changed all that. In the first 
 part of the year 1914 not many people knew what 
 the letters **V.A.D." stood for, — now these three 
 letters are universally recognised and honoured. 
 Wherever work has to be done for the sick and 
 wounded either at home or abroad in any one of 
 the numerous War Zones where our men are 
 fighting, there the V.A.D. Member will be found 
 helping the trained nurse in her work of mercy. 
 It is especially gratifying to know that the 
 trained nurses themselves, who at the beginning 
 of the War looked with some misgivings upon the 
 admission of partially trained women into the 
 Hospitals, are now the first to recognise that 
 these women have **made good'' and have loyally 
 and efficiently assisted them in their task. The 
 
 xi 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 V.A.D. Members, both men and women, have 
 every reason to be proud of their record, and I 
 am glad when any book such as this is written 
 which will help the public to a fuller knowledge 
 of their work. 
 
 Abthur Stanley. 
 Chairman, 
 
 Joint War Committee of the 
 ' British Red Cross Society and 
 
 The Order of St. John. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreword v 
 
 Introduction xiii 
 
 I. Paying a Debt 1 
 
 II. History of the V.A.D. Movement 8 
 
 in. The Formation of V.A. Detach- 
 ments 17 
 
 rV. The Joining of Two Great Cor- 
 porations 23 
 
 V- The Arrival op Wounded at 
 
 Southampton .... 33 
 
 VI. V.A.D. Work in and Around 
 
 Birmingham 45 
 
 Vn. V.A.D. Work in Manchester and 
 
 District 60 
 
 Vm. The Bombardment of a V.A.D. 
 
 Hospital 74 
 
 IX. V.A.D. Work in the South . 84 
 
 X. Some of the Work in London . 92 
 
 XL Air Eaid and Other Duties . . 106 
 
 XII. V.A.D. Work in Ireland ... 118 
 xiii 
 
XIV 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XIV. 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 XX. 
 
 XXL 
 
 V.A.D. Work in the Sinn Fein 
 
 EiOTs 127 
 
 V.A.D. Work in France . . . 145 
 
 Eed Cross and St. John Hospitals 
 
 IN France 151 
 
 Eest Stations in France . . 164 
 
 Detention Hospitals in France . 196 
 
 Motor V.A.D. Units in France . 202 
 
 Hostels in France .... 206 
 
 V.A.D. Work in French Hospitals 215 
 
 Canadian and Overseas V.A.D. 
 
 Work 227 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 V.A.D. Members in Hospital Work . Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGB 
 
 Group of V.A.D. Workers .... 2 
 
 New Type of Ambulance 10 
 
 Interior of Same Ambulance .... 18 
 
 Type of a Large Number of Ambulances . 28 
 
 Portable Motor Bath Car .... 40 
 
 Motor X-Eay Car 56 
 
 Disinfectors Mounted on a Steam Lorry . 70 
 
 View of the Interior 70 
 
 St. John Litter 86 
 
 St. John Litter Packed for Transport . . 86 
 Motor Launch Sent to Mesopotamia . . 102 
 Lady Superintendent-in-Chief 's Indoor Uni- 
 form 128 
 
 Outdoor Uniform of a Lady Superintendent- 
 
 in-Chief 142 
 
 Outdoor Uniform of a Commandant of 
 
 V.A.D 158 
 
 Lady District Officer's Uniform . . . 174 
 Nursing Sister's and V.A.D. Member's In- 
 door Dress 190 
 
 Men's Uniforms 216 
 
BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 Paying a Debt 
 
 THE Great War has revealed many national 
 truths never even suspected before it burst 
 upon the world, but amongst all its surprises 
 none has been greater than that provided by the 
 success of the Voluntary Aid Detachment Move- 
 ment. The originators of the scheme knew that 
 they were setting on foot a necessary bit of ma- 
 chinery that must be well oiled and kept in run- 
 ning repair during peace time, so that it might 
 work smoothly when war came ; but they did not 
 know that they were giving birth to an organisa- 
 tion that was to do more for the bringing to- 
 gether of all classes of society — a real and splen- 
 did Socialism that has no connection with the 
 men or women who belong to Socialistic Societies 
 — than any other movement has ever achieved. 
 
 The common sorrow of wives and mothers, who 
 have lost their dear ones, has done a great deal 
 towards this end; but the rich woman, in her 
 palatial home, grieves for her equally stricken 
 sister in a slum, rather than with her. On the 
 
2 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 other hand, the Voluntary Aid Detachment au- 
 thorities, in insisting on one uniform and the 
 same conditions of work for rich and poor, cul- 
 tured and uncultured, have set up a standard — 
 lofty because of its aim, but lowly in actual fact 
 — which all members must attain without favour. 
 
 ** Punch" put his finger on the pulse of the 
 situation when he illustrated the raw little Cock- 
 ney girl, speeding up a member of the aristocracy 
 with some such remark as this: **Nar then. Lady 
 Halexandra, juist you 'urry with washing hup 
 them plates and look sharp abaart it." 
 
 It was a picture true to life, and in trying to 
 put down on paper a record of what the British 
 V.A.D. organisation has done since the war com- 
 menced, the spirit of this incident will be shewn 
 again and again, under many guises. 
 
 In our great cities the effect of all classes work- 
 ing together has been excellent; but it is in the 
 County towns and the villages that the good re- 
 sults have been most marked. The Squire's wife 
 or daughter, having belonged to a V.A.D. per- 
 haps before war broke out, instantly offered her 
 services. Girls serving behind a counter equally 
 with factory girls and workers of every grade, 
 also being anxious to do something for their 
 country, joined a Detachment (if not already 
 members), whilst men of every class, who were 
 not joining the Army, threw in their lot with the 
 V.A.D. in their town. Thus it came about that 
 
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PAYING A DEBT 3 
 
 in the early months of the war men and women 
 of all kinds met together to clean down houses 
 that were to be turned into Hospitals, to act as 
 motor drivers, orderlies — anything and every- 
 thing — without the slightest consideration being 
 given to their rank in life. 
 
 A curious thing happened in a great Hotel 
 which was turned into a Hospital at a very few 
 hours' notice. A late manager and part pro- 
 prietor of the Hotel, who had recently retired and 
 was living in the town, offered to help, and was 
 put to sweeping down the great staircase after 
 the heavy carpets had been removed. He had 
 never wielded a broom in his life and was strug- 
 gling with it, not too successfully, when a senior 
 orderly taunted him with not getting on with his 
 job. The pseudo-manager wheeled round at the 
 sound of the voice and then, for the first time, the 
 two men saw each other's faces. The Senior 
 Orderly had been a porter in the Hotel for many 
 years ! 
 
 No other circumstances could have brought 
 about such a true understanding and apprecia- 
 tion of class for class as this common task has 
 done. Work carried out by educated, cultured 
 men and women in the slums of our great cities, 
 admirable as it is, cannot be the same, because 
 there the more fortunate people are doing acts 
 of kindness, if not of charity, for those worse off 
 than themselves. In the present voluntary work 
 
4 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 the Duchess and the factory girl, the over-mili- 
 tary-aged aristocrat and the under-military-aged 
 errand boy join hands to do something for the 
 men who are saving our Empire from destruction. 
 It is not only a common foe, a common cause, but 
 a common chord of love and tenderness that has 
 been touched, and the response has been eager, 
 generous, grateful. 
 
 There is no question of kindness or of charity. 
 It is the paying of a great debt, a mere matter 
 of common honesty, a privilege beyond price. 
 The highest privilege goes to the man who may 
 fight his country's battles, give his life for his 
 King, risk living a maimed man to the end of 
 his days ; next comes the privilege of being of use 
 to these men who are defending us and all. we 
 love. 
 
 During one of the great pushes, whilst I was 
 working in France amongst our wounded men as 
 they came down from the firing line to the Base, 
 they often said to me, **How good you Sisters 
 are to us," and I, with a catch in my throat, al- 
 ways made one reply. **Good — not a bit of it. 
 Where should we Englishwomen be to-day if it 
 were not for such as youT' Work as we may, 
 sacrifice our comforts, our pleasures, even our 
 health, we non-fighters can never come within 
 sight of paying our debt to the men who have 
 borne the heat and the burden of the day. 
 
 What is a **V.A.D.r' 
 
PAYING A DEBT 5 
 
 There is, only too often, a misconception about 
 V.A.D. members. Many people seem to think 
 that a V.A.D. member must be a woman. In fu- 
 ture chapters I hope to show very clearly the 
 wonderful work that has been done by men mem- 
 bers, but at the very outset I want my readers to 
 understand that in speaking of V.A.D. members 
 I am referring as much to men as to women, and 
 in fact the numbers of men's V.A. Detachments 
 run very close to the numbers of women's 
 V.A. Detachments. People persist in talking of 
 ** V.A.D. 's'' as though that was the official name 
 for women Eed Cross workers. It is entirely 
 wrong, first because a V.A.D. is a Detachment and 
 not a person, and secondly a V.A.D. member may 
 be, equally, either a man or a woman. Many 
 fully trained nurses are members of V.A. Detach- 
 ments. 
 
 The Joint V.A.D. Committee, which has abso- 
 lute control of every detail of the work, at home 
 and abroad, is composed of equal numbers of 
 members of the British Red Cross Society, the 
 Ambulance Department of the Order of St. John 
 of Jerusalem, and the Territorial Force Associa- 
 tion. 
 
 The labours of V.A.D. members have few limits 
 nowadays. Men and women, belonging to V.A. 
 Detachments, are to be met, not only in every 
 corner of the great British Empire, but also in 
 many foreign lands, and they will be found to be 
 
6 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 doing every kind of national work, from the hum- 
 blest of scrubbing and cleaning to the highest 
 skilled work in nursing and in administration. It 
 is a vast task which I have undertaken, in mak- 
 ing even an endeavour to show something of what 
 the movement has accomplished and is now ac- 
 tually doing, but I am quite aware that I cannot 
 possibly cover every branch of V.A.D. activity 
 and I trust my readers will be lenient, whilst I 
 shall be content if I can give a general impres- 
 sion of what V.A.r). members are doing at this 
 crisis in the affairs of the world. 
 
 All that I write must be taken simply as being 
 ** typical,'' for to give an account of each and 
 every V.A.D. effort would mean occupying a 
 miniature British Museum Library. 
 
 The work is so colossal that it is appallingly 
 dij05cult to pick and choose as to which shall be 
 mentioned and which left out, but, after travel- 
 ling many thousands of miles in Great Britain, 
 in order to see V.A.D. Units at work, and spend- 
 ing nearly a year in France as a V.A.D. member 
 myself, it seems to me that the way that would 
 be most fair would be to make a general scheme 
 and try to give some impression of what I have 
 been privileged to see. Having been qualified in 
 First Aid for over fifteen years, a V.A.D. mem- 
 ber ever since the movement was initiated, and 
 a war worker from the day war broke out, I have 
 
PAYING A DEBT 7 
 
 had peculiar chances of knowing the inner side 
 of the work. 
 
 It was only after my return from France and 
 whilst I was still an invalid that I thought again 
 of taking up my long-idle pen and of attempting 
 to set down some of the actual facts of V.A.D. 
 work and its ramifications. Had I known the 
 gigantic dimensions of the task I was undertak- 
 ing, my heart must have failed me, for I had no 
 idea of how far the threads of the Voluntary Aid 
 Movement had stretched throughout our Empire. 
 I can only plead for leniency from my readers 
 and to beg them to try and **read between the 
 lines'' of all the great work, the marvellous 
 achievements and the unselfish devotion which 
 have been displayed by the organisers and work- 
 ers, of which I can but give some glimpse in these 
 pages. Every individual V.A.D. member who 
 reads this record may well thrill with pride at the 
 fact that he or she has been allowed to partici- 
 pate in this great work of patriotism. 
 
CHAPTEE n 
 History of the V.A.D. Movement 
 
 THE story of the Voluntary Aid Detachment 
 movement is a very romantic one, although 
 the majority of people only see its wonderful util- 
 ity and versatility, and have some faint under- 
 standing of what it has done for the nation since 
 war broke out. The ordinary citizen knows that his 
 daughter has worked, as she never worked in her 
 life before, in this or that Hospital or at a Rest 
 Station perhaps, and that she has faced hard- 
 ships and even dangers abroad with indomitable 
 pluck; but he does not realise the extent of the 
 work; nor does he know that this same thing, 
 which he sees in his own town, is going on in 
 Egypt, in Malta, in Canada, in India, in South 
 Africa, and in Australia, to say nothing of the 
 hundreds of women who are doing fine work be- 
 hind the firing line in France. 
 
 Although there are thousands of members of 
 V.A. Detachments throughout the United King- 
 dom, and indeed throughout the British Empire, 
 there are comparatively few of the general pub- 
 lic who really understand how the movement was 
 first started or what it has accomplished since 
 
 a 
 
THE V.A.D. MOVEMENT 9 
 
 its inception. The work of First Aid and Home 
 Nursing was for many years in the hands of the 
 St. John Ambulance Association, originally (in 
 1877-78) started to form a civilian reserve to 
 the Army Medical Department in time of war, 
 this organisation having arranged for classes to 
 be held all over the country ; in consequence many 
 thousands of men and women knew the rudiments 
 of these arts. Then came the St. John Ambu- 
 lance Brigade, which was an outcome of the As- 
 sociation, the members of which undertook, vol- 
 untarily, public duty on public occasions. But 
 all this later work was for civilians and not espe- 
 cially for war. 
 
 During the South African war, the St. John 
 Ambulance Brigade supplied some 2,000 men as 
 orderlies, 70 of whom lost their lives : but at that 
 time there was no thought of utilising for war 
 work the women who belonged to the Brigade 
 or to the Association. In 1905 the British Red 
 Cross Society was founded, and it received its 
 royal charter in 1908. Of course the fundamental 
 object of this society was to supply aid for home 
 defence during war time, and it did not encroach 
 on the civilian work which had been done for 
 many years by the St. John Ambulance Brigade. 
 Then there arose a feeling that Great Britain 
 should emulate other countries in forming some 
 sort of V.A.D. organisation, and with the con- 
 sent of the War Office schemes were worked out 
 
10 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 in 1909 and 1910 which, with but comparatively 
 few alterations, are adhered to to-day. 
 
 Few people realise that the V.A. Detachments 
 are a supplement to the Territorial Medical 
 Service. At the time when this scheme was 
 started a great many Voluntary Aid Societies 
 were already in existence; but they had no con- 
 nection with one another, and thus, in acting in- 
 dependently, frequently overlapped. It was a 
 wise and sensible idea, therefore, that Voluntary 
 Aid should be co-ordinated. It was thought well 
 that the county system, which had been followed 
 by the Territorial Force, should be adopted ; and 
 it has proved to be an excellent one, as each 
 county has its own director who has supreme 
 control of all the Detachments in his district, 
 whilst each Detachment is complete in itself, and 
 can undertake distinct pieces of work as separate 
 units. 
 
 The medical organisation of the Territorial 
 Force was sufficiently complete to provide medi- 
 cal establishments and units which must accom- 
 pany troops. It also provided general hospitals, 
 but it lacked such units as clearing hospitals, sta- 
 tionary hospitals, ambulance trains, and other 
 formations. The regular army, of course, had 
 all these units ; but it was easy to see that, should 
 occasion arise for the Territorial Force to be 
 enormously increased, there would come the ne- 
 cessity for a great many extra medical units ; and 
 

 3> 
 
THE V.A.D. MOVEMENT 11 
 
 although the pioneers of the V.A.D. scheme could 
 scarcely have anticipated such an overwhelming 
 need as has arisen during these war years, they 
 certainly showed extraordinary prescience in pro- 
 viding an organisation which could be expanded 
 to a limitless extent. 
 
 In that early scheme it was settled that 
 amongst the labours which the Detachments must 
 be able to undertake were such as providing food 
 and dressings for improvised ambulance trains, 
 making rest stations where these trains could 
 halt, running private hospitals and convalescent 
 homes. In short, the scheme was devised with 
 the object of giving to those members of the 
 civilian population who, from motives of patriot- 
 ism and sympathy for the sick and wounded, 
 wished to help opportunities of offering their 
 services for the performance of such duties. It 
 was realised that the members must be trained 
 particularly in the art of improvisation, because 
 their work would be pre-eminently that of coping 
 with emergencies. The members must be capa- 
 ble of filling all sorts of odd niches which the 
 regular medical services could not afford to do. 
 
 Should the strain of a great war come upon 
 our country, trained nurses would have their 
 hands full, and their skill must not be wasted; 
 but these members, who would not be untrained, 
 but trained in a different way, must be willing 
 to do all the smaller tasks, build, improvise, be 
 
12 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 capable of making **the best of a bad job,'* and, 
 above all, accept discipline unquestionably; in 
 short they must set forth to do the lowliest task 
 from the highest motive. This was the lofty 
 ideal which lay behind the V.A.D. organisation, 
 and I need not say how well it has been carried 
 out. Highly educated women have learnt to scrub 
 floors, to labour with their hands, to undertake 
 disagreeable duties, with no thought of fame or 
 glory, but simply for the sake of sharing in the 
 huge fight which has been thrust upon the British 
 Empire. 
 
 It was laid down that members must learn how 
 to prepare country carts and other vehicles for 
 the removal of stretcher cases, must be capable 
 of the improvising of stretchers, and the conver- 
 sion of houses, public buildings, and railway sta- 
 tions into temporary Hospitals. 
 
 For the sake of convenience the Detachments 
 were called Voluntary Aid Detachments, there 
 being two classes, one of men and the other of 
 women; and it was decided that various bodies, 
 approved by the War Office, should raise Detach- 
 ments, each of which must be officially numbered 
 by the War Office. 
 
 Before applicants could be full members of any 
 Detachment, they had to pass the examinations 
 of recognised bodies approved by the War Office, 
 the chief of these being the St. John Ambulance 
 Association and the British Red Cross Society, 
 
THE V.A.D. MOVEMENT 13 
 
 the University of London, King's College for 
 Women, and the Church Lads' Brigade. 
 
 At first it was arranged that only the certifi- 
 cates of the St. John Ambulance Association 
 should be accepted; but as tim,e went on and 
 other recognised bodies held examinations which 
 were up to the same standard, it was felt that 
 it would facilitate things if they were also ac- 
 cepted. In many instances, this has been a real 
 convenience to people wishing to join a Detach- 
 ment; but the large proportion of certificates 
 given throughout the country still belongs to the 
 Ambulance Department of the Order of St. John 
 or the British Red Cross Society. 
 
 The V.A.D. idea was enthusiastically taken up 
 by many prominent men who knew the needs of 
 Bed Cross work in war time. 
 
 The scheme was got through very quickly and 
 Detachments were formed. The British Red 
 Cross Society Detachments at once registered 
 themselves as V.A. Detachments, being given a 
 W.O. number, and the majority of the divisions 
 of the St. John Ambulance Brigade and Associa- 
 tion also registered themselves, thus becoming an 
 official part of the Red Cross organisation of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 It was a clever thought on the part of someone 
 in authority to keep the odd numbers for male 
 Detachments and the even numbers for female 
 
14 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Detachments. This fai3t led to amusing results 
 recently when a bewildered lady went to see a 
 British Red Cross official and was asked the num- 
 ber of her Detachment. On giving it she was 
 courteously told that it could not possibly be that, 
 whereon she dashed at another number and yet 
 another, each time the smiling official assuring 
 her that she must be wrong. **But how do you 
 know!'' gasped the poor lady, who was very new 
 to the work. It was, of course, quite simple, since 
 in every case she had mentioned odd numbers ! 
 
 It is true that an enormous number of Detach- 
 ments have been formed since the war began, but 
 they have been built on the solid rock of knowl- 
 edge and experience which were the foundation 
 stones of the Detachments formed in 1910 and 
 the years following. At first the St. John Am- 
 bulance Brigade and the British Red Cross So- 
 ciety held the ground almost exclusively; but in 
 some places, where the Territorial Force Asso- 
 ciation was a very alert body. Territorial V.A. 
 Detachments already existed. 
 
 Looking back on those years of peace, it is 
 curious to remember the various stages of effi- 
 ciency of the various units. Some Commandants 
 were exceedingly up-to-date and in earnest over 
 their work, their members taking a yearly ex- 
 amination in First Aid and also eagerly attend- 
 ing lectures and passing examinations in such 
 relative subjects as field sanitation, hygiene, 
 
THE V.A.D. MOVEMENT 15 
 
 laundry, and invalid cooking. These Detach- 
 ments would make tremendous efforts to go into 
 camp for a week or a fortnight during the sum- 
 mer, when they lived the real camp life, cooking 
 in field kitchens, building their own field incine- 
 rators, and improvising hospital and transport 
 equipment out of the most unpromising material. 
 
 Other Detachments were content to meet occa- 
 sionally for a medical lecture, and to scrape 
 through the yearly inspection which was insisted 
 upon by the War Office officials. This same dis- 
 crepancy of standard existed throughout the 
 United Kingdom and perhaps was the weak spot 
 in the working out of the scheme. In the first 
 years of the organisation, the political horizon 
 was completely clear of war clouds, and a great 
 deal of good-natured chaff was levelled at the 
 members of Detachments who took their work 
 seriously. It was very much easier for the De- 
 tachments belonging to the St. John Ambulance 
 Brigade to go forward with the work in hand, 
 because, side by side with it, they were constantly 
 called out for actual work for civilian purposes. 
 Great credit must therefore be given to the De- 
 tachments of the B.R.C.S. and other organisa- 
 tions where a high standard of efficiency was de- 
 manded by the Commandants, and attained. 
 
 I very well remember paying a week-end visit 
 to a camp of a B.R.C.S. Detachment in the July 
 preceding the outbreak of war. Even then, 
 
16 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 though the preliminary tragedy had happened in 
 Austria, no one seriously contemplated that war 
 would touch our own nation. A friend, looking 
 at the strenuous work going on in the camp, said, 
 **Why do they do it? They will never be needed 
 for the real thing.'' Within a couple of months, 
 that very Detachment was hard at work, and its 
 years of patient endeavour bore fruit which was 
 of incalculable benefit to the country. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Formation of V.A. Detachments 
 
 IT could have been no easy matter to settle on 
 the exact formation of a Detachment; but 
 again, it is remarkable that the scheme has 
 needed practically no alteration, and that in the 
 printed papers first issued by the War Office the 
 orders are almost identical with those which are 
 in force to-day. The composition of men's De- 
 tachments were: — 
 
 One Commandant 
 One medical officer 
 One Quartermaster 
 One pharmacist 
 Four section leaders 
 Forty-eight men. 
 
 The women's Detachments were considerably 
 smaller, and had only one Commandant (man or 
 woman), one Quartermaster (man or woman), 
 one Lady Superintendent (preferably a trained 
 nurse), and twenty women, of whom four should 
 be qualified as cooks. 
 
 V.A.D. 's form part of the technical reserve. No 
 Detachment could be registered at the War Office 
 
 17 
 
18 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 unless it had enrolled at least 70 per cent of the 
 above complement. Detachments were invited to 
 make a list of the equipment which they could 
 promise to give in the event of necessity, and 
 certainly a majority, if not all, had a certain 
 amount of linen, beds, and hospital stores in re- 
 serve. In the beginning it was supposed that the 
 Detachments would only be used for home de- 
 fence, in exactly the same way as the Territorials 
 were not supposed to be sent abroad; but we all 
 know how these ideas have been flung to the 
 winds, and how eagerly the men of the Territorial 
 Force and the members of the Detachments have 
 sought for the honour of going abroad, the one 
 to fight and the other to succour the sick and 
 wounded. 
 
 In the event of mobilisation, each member of 
 a Detachment, when called up for service, was to 
 be provided with an identity certificate, and was 
 to wear, fixed to the left arm, an armlet or bras- 
 sard with a red cross on a white ground, deliv- 
 ered and stamped by a competent military au- 
 thority. This, of course, was in conformity with 
 the Geneva Convention, under which the Detach- 
 ments work. No one is immune from attack from 
 the enemy who does not wear the protecting sign 
 of the international Red Cross. 
 
 It is curious how much ignorance exists on this 
 point, and even to-day people do not understand 
 that this simple red cross does not belong to any 
 
Interior of the new type St. John ambulance, a side view of which 
 is shown in another illustration. 
 
THE V.A. DETACHMENTS 19 
 
 one society, but is the right of every man and 
 woman officially working for the wounded, pro- 
 vided their country subscribed its name to the 
 great Geneva Convention in 1906. Therefore, di- 
 rectly a unit was mobilised by the "War Office, its 
 members had to be protected by being given the 
 official sign of their work, and it was no idle re- 
 mark that was made to a V.A.D. member when 
 she was setting forth for France, ^* Without your 
 brassard you will not be safe from arrest for a 
 single moment." 
 
 Unhappily the enemy has not played the game 
 with regard to the laws of the Geneva Conven- 
 tion, and it has even become a saying that the 
 flying of the red cross is a positive attraction for 
 bombs or for shell, instead of being a protection 
 as was intended; but we can be proud of the 
 fact that we have strictly kept to all the laws of 
 the agreement made in Geneva. We know from 
 first-hand knowledge that German wounded have 
 been treated so well by our Red Cross people that 
 our own wounded have been tempted to be jealous 
 of them, in a laughing kind of way. 
 
 There have been some cruel cases of Germans 
 turning upon the British man or woman w^ho was 
 dressing their wounds and attending to their 
 needs; but we realise that the rank and file of 
 the German army has been fed upon lies about 
 us for many a long year, and that it is not the 
 fault of the individual so much as of the system, 
 
20 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 which has been carried out with wicked per- 
 sistency in Germany. It is only fair to say, on 
 the other hand, that there are instances when the 
 German wounded have been really grateful: in 
 one case I am speaking from personal experience, 
 and in the other from first-hand knowledge. 
 
 In this connection, I may say that Austrians, 
 when taken prisoners, have shown themselves to 
 be very different from the Germans ; and although 
 I have had no personal dealings with them, I know 
 from many friends who have worked on that part 
 of the front that the Austrians made most excel- 
 lent orderlies and were extremely courteous to 
 the British people. A R.A.M.C. man lately back 
 from the East said he had seen a Turk dress the 
 wounds of an Englishman and then drag him 
 back to the parapet of the British trenches, where 
 he left him to be found by our men! 
 
 It was at first thought that no uniform would 
 be necessary for the members of Detachments, 
 but that they would simply wear a distinctive 
 brassard. This must not be confused with the 
 brassard which is given after mobilisation. Dur- 
 ing peace time, an armlet was worn, or rather a 
 design to be put upon an armlet, on which ap- 
 peared the registered number of the Detachment. 
 This was worn on the left arm, and is still being 
 worn by many members who are doing excellent 
 work but have not been officially mobilised. The 
 St. John Ambulance Brigade members, of course. 
 
THE V.A. DETACHMENTS 21 
 
 already had their uniforms, and many of the 
 B.R.C.S. Detachments were in uniform long be- 
 fore the war broke out. A few Detachments 
 under the St. John Ambulance Association and 
 the Territorial Association were also uniformed; 
 but the majority of these had not thought it nec- 
 essary to go to this expense. Since the war com- 
 menced, all mobilised units have worn full uni- 
 form of one sort or another. It has been a wise 
 proceeding on the part of those who are at the 
 head of the organisation to allow the Detach- 
 ments to retain the distinctive uniforms of their 
 own societies. In all cases members pay for their 
 own uniforms and their incidental expenses, so 
 that it would be ridiculous to expect them to pur- 
 chase a particular V.A.D. uniform ; but it is prac- 
 tically, with very few exceptions, confined now 
 to the black and white or grey uniform of St. 
 John or the blue uniform of the B.R.C.S. Quite 
 recently there has been a change of cap, a small 
 handkerchief cap having been universally adopted 
 for V.A.D. members of all societies. 
 
 To say that minor difficulties have not arisen 
 between the various societies would be ridiculous ; 
 but it is a very delightful fact that the members 
 have worked together in much harmony through- 
 out these strenuous years. Perhaps abroad, more 
 than at home, the distinctiveness of societies has 
 been lost sight of, and members have found the 
 common cause of the wounded sufficient to round 
 
22 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 off the little corners of individual preference ; to- 
 gether they have thrown themselves into this 
 labour of love — a labour which they truly con- 
 sider to be one of the greatest honours which 
 could fall to the lot of a British subject. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 The Joining of Two Great Corpoeations 
 
 JUST as the two great rivers, the Rhone and 
 the Arve, run side by side for many miles, 
 without mingling, each keeping its distinctive 
 colour and character, so for many years the two 
 great Red Cross Corporations of Great Britain 
 ran side by side without intimate relationship. 
 
 The British Red Cross Society, which was ac- 
 tually Incorporated by Royal Charter in 1908, 
 was the outcome of the much older National So- 
 ciety for Aid to Sick and Wounded in "War, and 
 was formed with one great object of rendering 
 assistance to the country in the time of war. 
 
 The other. The Ambulance Department of the 
 Order of St. John of Jerusalem (incorporated 
 again in 1888 on the ancient foundations laid by 
 the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem 
 who went forth to succour Christians in the 
 Eleventh Century), worked all through the years 
 of peace whilst giving extensive help during the 
 South African War. The civilian work of the St. 
 John Ambulance Brigade is comparatively little 
 known, greatly because its members are enjoined 
 to labour humbly and in silence, like their 
 Knights of old, but thousands of men and women 
 
24 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 have worked (entirely voluntarily) in its ranks 
 for the rendering of First Aid to the injured and 
 the sick on all kinds of public occasions and have 
 thus, unconsciously, been trained for the sad 
 work which now has to be done by all Red Cross 
 members. 
 
 During the years of peace many of those in 
 high authority in these Societies were closely in 
 touch with one another, but the two organisations 
 ran separately and individually. In 1910 the 
 Voluntary Aid Detachment scheme was started 
 and Detachments were registered from all over 
 the country by both Societies and by the Terri- 
 torial Force Association, but still there were no 
 signs of commingling. 
 
 When the great cloud burst and war was de- 
 clared, thousands of V.A.D. members, men and 
 women, sprang to attention, and rendered in- 
 stantaneous and valuable services in divers direc- 
 tions. The work devolving on the two Societies 
 was prodigious and it can easily be realised that 
 double labour was entailed because it was being 
 done dually instead of singly. 
 
 Slowly, at first, but surely, the two great rivers 
 of mercy and tenderness converged, until in Oc- 
 tober, 1914, they were officially joined in one huge 
 stream of loving endeavour. Here is another out- 
 come of war and no one can doubt that the join- 
 ing together of these two powerful forces must 
 make for strength, for charity and for supreme 
 
TWO GREAT CORPORATIONS 25 
 
 usefulness. Joined without either losing indi- 
 viduality or identity, the Order of St. John and 
 the British Red Cross have worked together for 
 over two years with the greatest success. 
 
 Thus, the calamity of war has created a bond 
 of sympathy, not only between individuals, but 
 between two powerful institutions. This is no 
 time for petty quarrels, and whilst the country 
 welcomes a national Government, the Military 
 authorities and all who are interested in Red 
 Cross work must be glad to see the union of two 
 great Societies, which work with the object of giv- 
 ing the very best help, the most skilled, the most 
 efficient assistance, to every individual man who 
 has been wounded or has become sick in the 
 service of his country. 
 
 The joining of the British Red Cross Society 
 and the St. John Ambulance made whole, in the 
 most beautiful sense, a wonderful chain of mercy, 
 the links of which are composed of lofty and 
 lowly tasks alike, given in humbleness of spirit 
 and true gratitude by those who are denied the 
 greatest honour of joining the King's fighting 
 forces. 
 
 Enough has been said of the birth of this won- 
 derful voluntary movement, but before plunging 
 into my task I would like to give some idea of 
 the plan upon which I hope to work. First I want 
 to give a picture, as I saw it, of the arrival in 
 
26 BRITAIN »S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 England of our wounded men in Hospital ships 
 and of their rapid transfer to Hospital trains. 
 We will travel in one of these trains and will step 
 off (with thankfulness in our hearts that one has 
 not to be carried on a stretcher like so many of 
 our men) at several great centres and take 
 a look at what is going on, say at Birmingham 
 and at Manchester, since these are two of our 
 largest cities. Then we will take a run down 
 South and perhaps make a call on London on 
 our way back, and must certainly board one of 
 the North-going trains and see all the marvellous 
 work that is going on on the South side of the 
 Tweed. Lancashire must be peeped at and we 
 will brave the perils of the Irish crossing and see 
 for ourselves what V.A.D. workers did during the 
 Sinn Fein riots and are doing for our wounded. 
 
 Then from across the sea we must get news of 
 the great work. That in France must hold first 
 place amongst foreign fields and it will not be 
 easy to get away from its fascination to give fair 
 due to our men and women who are making 
 V.A.D. history in Egypt, India, Malta and a dozen 
 other parts of the Empire, whilst other valiant 
 souls are giving urgently needed help to Serbians, 
 Russians, Italians and all the other allied coun- 
 tries. 
 
 None of the reports can be exhaustive, but 
 merely typical, and it must be remembered that 
 what is actually written about one place is true 
 
TWO GREAT CORPORATIONS 27 
 
 of a hundred others, for the spirit of emulation 
 has been so strong, the devotion to duty so amaz- 
 ing, that it would be absolutely untrue to say that 
 members of any one Society had worked better 
 than others, or that one Unit or any group of 
 Units had surpassed others. In a few instances 
 possibly, the standard of work is specially high, 
 but in this book I do not intend to deal with ex- 
 ceptions but with the average of the work, speak- 
 ing individually of any one Unit only as being 
 typical of a hundred Units, and giving names and 
 places of the few only because they give point 
 and meaning to the whole. A general report, ab- 
 solutely vague, would lose all personality, but it 
 is for that reason only that any names are men- 
 tioned and not because these Units are in any 
 way better than their neighbours. 
 
 The common cause has gripped the hearts of 
 V.A.D. workers, whether they wear the blue uni- 
 form of the British Red Cross Society or the grey , 
 of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. It is fine 
 to see that the spirit of entire impartiality, which 
 has always pervaded the Joint Committee, has 
 descended to the individual members of the Units, 
 who realise that in their own hands — roughened 
 with lowly toil — they hold the honour of the whole 
 personnel of the voluntary Red Cross organisa- 
 tion of Great Britain. 
 
 Perhaps here I may quote the actual words of 
 General Sir Arthur Sloggett, Director-General of 
 
28 BRITAIN ^S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Medical Services. He says, **I have the highest 
 admiration for them, for the V.A.D. members 
 have performed their duty, and I have repeat- 
 edly said that they are one of the great features 
 of the Medical operations of the war and that we 
 could not have got on without them.'' 
 
 Work at Headquarters. 
 
 No more noble or self-sacrificing work is under- 
 taken by any group of Voluntary Aid workers 
 than that which entails daily attendance at Head- 
 quarters for the carrying out of dull, routine, 
 clerical work. 
 
 Before the joining of the St. John Ambulance 
 and the British Red Cross Society, the Head- 
 quarters of the former, the ancient and historic 
 St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, was an extremely 
 busy place, whilst the same thing could be said 
 of the B.R.C.S. Headquarters. Very soon after 
 the outbreak of war the Duke of Devonshire 
 most generously offered the use of Devonshire 
 House, his magnificent residence in Piccadilly, 
 for the use of the Society, and later the fine 
 premises of the Automobile Club, 83 Pall Mall, 
 were also offered for the same purpose. Now 
 that all British Red Cross work is under the con- 
 trol of the Joint Committee it has been arranged 
 that the various departments should have their 
 permanent abodes at Pall Mall and Devonshire 
 House. At the former there are the chiefs of all 
 
TWO GREAT CORPORATIONS 29 
 
 the great departments which control the sending 
 out of doctors, nurses, stores and the thousand 
 and one items which are dealt with in such won- 
 derful detail that complete efficiency is the re- 
 sult, whilst at Devonshire House everything con- 
 nected with the selection and appointment of 
 women V.A.D. members is arranged for. 
 
 A Peep at Devonshire House, 
 
 The moment one enters the entrance hall, one 
 is met by the hall orderly — a girl in uniform — 
 who enquires your business and obtains audience 
 for you, if possible, with the particular person 
 you wish to see. At the back of the hall the 
 Matron interviews every candidate for work in 
 a Hospital and writes a report upon the appli- 
 cant which is of great value to the selection 
 Board. 
 
 Upstairs, there is a series of rooms with con- 
 necting doors. It is curious to see them filled 
 with busy, methodical women in place of the gay 
 crowds which one has seen there on enjoyment 
 bent before the war. How many times Royalties 
 have graced these very rooms with their presence 
 at the great Ducal balls and gatherings ; now in 
 the place of the lilt of dance music there comes 
 the hum of the typewriter, and instead of pretty 
 speeches being made to fair maidens, girls, 
 anxious to do their country's work, are looked at 
 squarely, uncompromisingly by women who have 
 
30 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 learned to sum up character and to sift the wheat 
 from the chaff. 
 
 First we enter the Filing Room where every- 
 thing is filed which comes in and has any refer- 
 ence to any girl or woman who applies for work 
 under the Joint Committee. Then comes the 
 Indexing Room where workers must have fully 
 mastered the intricacies of filing, for here is kept 
 a complete record of each applicant under vari- 
 ous headings. All those who have passed the se- 
 lection Board are pigeon-holed here and there is 
 a fine reserve of workers who can be sent out at 
 a moment's notice. By a clever system it can be 
 seen exactly how many members are working in 
 every hospital or in any capacity whatsoever, and 
 if anyone gives notice she is leaving on a certain 
 day a tab is dropped from the file to indicate that 
 her place is to be filled on that day. The system 
 is simplicity itself and works admirably. 
 
 Members are working in Belgium, Egypt, 
 Malta, Salonica, Russia, Serbia, Roumania and 
 Italy, and each one has her place in this Index 
 in Devonshire House. 
 
 Then we come to what is known as the Central 
 Index, but it is in fact the V.A.D. life-story of 
 every member who has ever worked under the 
 Red Cross. Here all the records are centralised, 
 as it were, put neatly in compact form but quite 
 irrefutable, so that no arguments can arise as to 
 what services have been rendered. It is a big 
 
TWO GREAT CORPORATIONS 31 
 
 work, for there are thousands and thousands of 
 name's to be recorded, and everything must be 
 kept up-to-date or the Record would be useless. 
 Every girl who enters an Auxiliary Hospital at 
 home or abroad has her record here, whilst in 
 another room the same thing is done for those 
 members who are at work in Miltary Hospitals. 
 
 Uniform. 
 
 The question of uniform is not an easy one to 
 deal with, but there is a special department at 
 Devonshire House where a little group of work- 
 ers do nothing else but answer queries and settle 
 small details. Perhaps it would be interesting to 
 give a rough outline of the exact ranks and their 
 correct V.A.D. uniforms. 
 
 First there comes the Commandant-in- Chief, 
 (Mrs. Furse). 
 
 It was decided that St. John and British Red 
 Cross members should keep to their original dis- 
 tinctive colours, the former having always ad- 
 hered to the colours of the Order of St. John of 
 Jerusalem (black and white or grey), and the lat- 
 ter to blue, white and red. 
 
 There are various staff appointments which 
 come immediately in rank after Mrs. Furse, but 
 I do not think it is necessary to mention them 
 all in detail with the exception of Lady Perrott, 
 Lady-Superintendent-in-Chief of the St. John 
 Ambulance Brigade, and Lady Oliver, Mrs. Cane, 
 
32 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Mrs. Dakyn and Miss Crowdy. Then there are 
 Commandants and Quartermasters to each De- 
 tachment and the members. 
 
 Downstairs there is the Stationery Room, in a 
 bywater of the great house, but nevertheless a 
 very important place, where every department 
 goes for stationery and printed goods of all kinds. 
 
 The Postoffice, too, perhaps, would seem to be 
 a dull piece of work, but the members there have 
 a busy time with entering up the hundreds of let- 
 ters which are received and sent out, the wires 
 and all the odds and ends which come under the 
 term *'post." 
 
 Devonshire House is a miniature of the greater 
 offices at Pall Mall, but at both headquarters it 
 is noticeable how methodically everything is car- 
 ried out and on what a business footing every- 
 thing is done. Probably nine out of ten of these 
 voluntary workers are amateurs in so far that 
 they have learned to do this work since the war 
 began, but there is nothing amateurish about 
 their methods for they have been drilled into 
 efficiency by those who were themselves efficient. 
 The work swings along at a fine pace, increasing 
 day by day, but the workers cheerily shoulder 
 their burdens with the same determination to 
 **win through" which we see in our men, who go 
 back again and again to the trenches with a smile 
 upon their faces and a song upon their lips. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Areival of Wounded at Southampton 
 
 NOTHING more beautiful, nor yet more sad, 
 can be seen than a Hospital ship, bringing 
 to the homeland her load of broken humanity. 
 My memory holds many ineffaceable war pic- 
 tures, but of them all none is clearer than that 
 of a great Hospital ship leaving Boulogne har- 
 bour one winter 's evening. I was returning from 
 leave, and the Channel boat had to lay aside to 
 allow the ship of mercy to pass out from the 
 French harbour. There was the background of 
 the town, with myriads of dim lights gleaming 
 on its many terraces, whilst from the blackness 
 of the surrounding sea there shone out the huge 
 red crosses, illumined by electric light, from the 
 sides of the white ship, belted with a green band. 
 From the dozens of portholes there streamed 
 light, and from the decks. She was majestic, 
 beautiful, elegant in her fine proportions, but she 
 was a palace of pain at best, though the pain was 
 mitigated by every possible care and comfort and 
 above all by the knowledge that the ship was Eng- 
 land-bound ! 
 Day by day these ships come to the berth in 
 
 33 
 
34 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Southampton Docks and discharge their load. A 
 very large number of the orderlies on them are 
 members, either of St. John or British Red Cross 
 V.A. Detachments, but they are disguised by their 
 R.A.M.C. uniforms. The Matron of one of the 
 biggest Hospital ships said that she had found 
 these men wonderful in their work, well-disci- 
 plined, steady, willing and cheery. It is not a 
 light nor a delightful task that falls to the share 
 of the Ship-Orderly. 
 
 **Last night we had a dreadfully rough pas- 
 sage," said the matron, **and most of us were 
 sick, even the orderlies and the doctors. But 
 none of them gave in. Nearly all the patients too 
 were sick and you can just imagine the amount 
 of work it made for the orderlies." 
 
 Yet in the morning they were all cheery as they 
 lifted the stretchers and carried them along the 
 narrow alleyways. The great saloon, which in 
 by-gone days had been the scene of hundreds of 
 festive meals, now accommodates row upon row 
 of beds, whilst the steerage, cleaned and whitened 
 in true ward-fashion, is a mass of beds, ranged 
 in symmetrical lines. There are lifts from deck 
 to deck and every contrivance has been thought 
 of so that the patients may be moved comfortably 
 and quickly. The ship's orderlies get the men 
 ready for removal, the doctors and Sisters, of 
 course, having done the dressings, and then there 
 come aboard stretcher-bearer parties who take 
 
WOUNDED AT SOUTHAMPTON 35 
 
 the patients off the ship and put them in the warm 
 sheds on the berth or in the Hospital train. 
 
 Here again we meet many V.A.D. workers 
 though they wear the Army uniform and actually 
 belong to the E.A.M.C. But enquire into their 
 history and you will be surprised to find that a 
 large percentage of them originally were mem- 
 bers of a Eed Cross Detachment. It is a joy to 
 see how well they lift the men, changing them 
 from bed to stretcher with almost imperceptible 
 movements. The gangway from ship to berth is 
 covered in so that the patients are never for a 
 moment in the open, and an R.A.M.C. officer is at 
 hand to direct each stretcher party, either to a 
 certain ward in the waiting Hospital train or to 
 the sheds, warmed by electric stoves, where they 
 are deposited for a short time. As far as pos- 
 sible all patients are sent to Hospitals near to 
 their homes ; this entails a lot of work but gives 
 great joy to the men. 
 
 From the very beginning of the war a wonder- 
 ful labour of love and generosity has been car- 
 ried out very quietly and unostentatiously by 
 two girls. They actually belong, one to a British 
 Red Cross and the other to a St. John Detach- 
 ment, but they started a special bit of work of 
 their own and are steadfastly keeping to it. 
 
 In those terrible weeks when the Belgian towns 
 fell, one after the other, and Belgian wounded and 
 refugees poured into England, Southampton was 
 
36 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 the main landing-place, and helpers were needed 
 to feed the poor, hungry people, who had been 
 driven out of their country. Volunteers there 
 were in plenty and for some time a canteen was 
 run in the Docks. It was then that the Misses 
 Tebbutt began to distribute chocolate and cigar- 
 ettes to the Belgian soldiers. Whilst doing this 
 they heard that there had arrived a Hospital 
 ship laden with British wounded. They asked 
 and gained permission from the dockyard mili- 
 tary authorities to be allowed to give these small 
 comforts to the British soldiers. 
 
 Ever since that day these two girls have met 
 each Hospital ship (with a very few exceptions) 
 and have given a kindly greeting to our men. 
 They do not wear uniform of any kind, and now 
 they are the only women allowed on the berth, 
 as the authorities had to keep very strictly to 
 certain rules in order that the moving of the 
 wounded should not be hindered in any way. 
 The Misses Tebbutt have such excellent tact, as 
 well as good organisation, that they never get * * in 
 the way," giving their cheery greetings and their 
 gifts after the men have been put in the sheds 
 or in the train. They have had boxes made which 
 carry several kinds of cigarettes and of chocolate, 
 and they also have slung on to them a clever 
 pouch with many pockets containing postcards, 
 pencils, matches and newspapers. Not an officer 
 or man is missed, but it often means quick work 
 
WOUNDED AT SOUTHAMPTON 37 
 
 when two ships are in at the same time and each 
 girl has to do a whole shipload of men. The en- 
 tire cost of these gifts has been borne by the 
 Misses Tebbutt and their friends, so that no pub- 
 lic funds have been drawn upon for this splendid 
 little welcome which is given to our men the mo- 
 ment they touch the soil of the Homeland. 
 
 A good hot drink is given by the authorities to 
 all the patients before the train moves off, and 
 of course on the journey itself they have excel- 
 lent hot meals. 
 
 Detention Hospital in the Docks. 
 
 But sometimes it happens that a patient will 
 have to be kept in the Docks for several hours 
 and in order that these should be thoroughly well 
 looked after, there exists a small Detention Hos- 
 pital in the Docks, close to the berths of the Hos- 
 pital ships. 
 
 This little Hospital has the honourable distinc- 
 tion of having been one of the very first to open 
 its doors to the wounded, for it was ready, with 
 six beds, in the very early days of August, 1914. 
 It was staffed by the Southampton Detachment 
 of the British Red Cross Society, and from that 
 day to this the Commandant and two members, 
 together with a very capable R.A.M.C. sergeant 
 and a few orderlies, have lived and worked there. 
 The building is a wooden structure with several 
 rooms in it and in peace time it was used for very 
 
38 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 unwarlike purposes, but it has been admirably 
 adapted and really makes a fine little Hospital. 
 
 One steps from the Dock into the large ward 
 where are the beds, nearly always full, and 
 at one end there is a well-equipped ** dressing" 
 table and dispensary. The doctor or the sergeant 
 dresses all wounds, and the V.A. members keep 
 the place spotlessly clean, do all the clerical work 
 and the cooking. They never know from one mo- 
 ment to another how many patients they may 
 have in for a meal, and have to be prepared for 
 a rush at any time. Very often they have many 
 more than six sent to them for a few hours' rest, 
 and they put them on emergency beds or in com- 
 fortable chairs round a fire. 
 
 If any of the orderlies, working in the Docks, 
 fall sick, they are sent here to be nursed, and as 
 one of them said to me, **0h, it's all right there. 
 I had a jolly fine week when I had 'flu." 
 
 **0h, yes, the noise is incessant and especially 
 at night," said one of the members, smilingly, 
 **for all the Army stores are moved by night, but 
 we are used to it after having lived in it for two 
 years!" 
 
 A very big task which is undertaken by these 
 ladies is the keeping of a Red Cross Depot, from 
 which every Hospital ship and train replenishes 
 its stores of *^ comforts" whenever it puts in at 
 Southampton. 
 
 This entails an enormous amount of booking 
 
WOUNDED AT SOUTHAMPTON 39 
 
 in and out, but probably one reason why gifts 
 come in so freely is that every parcel is acknowl- 
 edged by a hand-written note of thanks. The 
 Store is beautifully kept in very orderly fashion 
 and one of the Hospital Ship's Matrons told me 
 that she was ** never refused anything she asked 
 for." 
 
 This is a fine little bit of V.A.D. work which is 
 scarcely known to anyone save to the apprecia- 
 tive Medical Military Dockyard authorities, who 
 are constantly in and out of the Detention Hos- 
 pital and know what good work it is doing. 
 
 It is easier to pass through the eye of a needle 
 than to get through the Dock Gates at Southamp- 
 ton; not only does one have to shew one's pre- 
 cious pass to get in, but also to get out again! 
 But I was specially privileged, and I will en- 
 deavour to take you with me now in thought, if 
 not in person. 
 
 Having seen the Hospital we will go back to 
 the berth and board the Hospital train. 
 
 Hospital Train, 
 
 Here would have been a wonderful subject for 
 Frith 's brush — the war aspect of a railway sta- 
 tion. Imagine a huge platform, dimly lit ; on the 
 one side there lies the great white Hospital ship, 
 and on the other there rests the Hospital train, 
 both bearing conspicuous Red Crosses which 
 should protect them from all enemy attacks. 
 
40 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Between, there are dozens of swiftly moving 
 stretcher parties, but there is no hurry, no bustle. 
 The Surgeon-General and his staff keep sharp 
 eyes on every detail, and an orderly did not seem 
 in the least surprised when the General walked 
 into the little shelter to inspect the making of the 
 hot drinks that were being served. Nothing 
 is too small, too insignificant for officers of high 
 rank to attend to, in order that our wounded men 
 shall have every possible comfort. The men, 
 themselves, are cheery beyond measure because, 
 at last, they are in ** Blighty.'' The stretcher- 
 bearers work very hard and for long hours, and 
 it is good to hear that they are relieved on Sun- 
 days by V.A.D. men who are at work in the town 
 all the week. 
 
 **It is awfully good of them to give up their 
 Sunday," said a regular orderly to me, '*for I 
 don't know what we should do without the rest. 
 Of course when there is a rush on we cannot all 
 get away, but anyhow these Sunday volunteers 
 give all of us a few hours off in turn." 
 
 In England Hospital trains have only two tiers 
 of beds, whereas in France they have three. Al- 
 together those over here are smaller, carrying 
 only one Medical officer and two Sisters, instead 
 of three Medical officers and three Sisters. So 
 far, I believe no women V.A.D. nurses are em- 
 ployed on Hospital trains in England, but a great 
 number are now carried on Hospital ships. 
 
WOUNDED AT SOUTHAMPTON 41 
 
 The cruel loss of The Britannia showed the 
 fine discipline of the entire staff, including a large 
 number of men and women VA.D. members. 
 
 The Hospital trains in England have usually 
 been adapted from ordinary rolling-stock, but 
 they have special connecting corridors between 
 each carriage so that there is no jar on starting 
 or stopping. On the train there is an operating 
 theatre, where emergency operations can be per- 
 formed if necessary, and where all the dressings 
 of ** walking" cases are done. 
 
 The cots in the train are extremely comfortable 
 and well sprung. In many cases milk wagons have 
 been utilised and serve excellently to accommo- 
 date ten stretchers, which are put on trestles and 
 are made up with mattresses. If movement is 
 likely to injure a man his stretcher can be put 
 straight on to one of these trestles. The wagons 
 are painted white and look very bright and com- 
 fortable, and as all carriages communicate with 
 one another, the staff can get through to see all 
 the patients throughout the journey. Hot meals 
 are served to the men, all the food being cooked 
 on the train in the cleverly contrived kitchen 
 wagon, and of course all necessary dressings are 
 done. 
 
 Before we actually commence our journey 
 northwards I want to give you a glimpse of a Hos- 
 pital, not far from Southampton, which is espe- 
 cially unique. 
 
42 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Clearing Hospital in England. 
 
 In order that men with comparatively small 
 wounds (* 'walking cases'' as they are known) 
 should not take up valuable space in Ambulance 
 trains, a very large number of them are sent to 
 the Clearing Hospital near to Southampton where 
 they are kept for a few days and then sent in 
 special carriages by ordinary trains to Hospitals 
 near to their homes. 
 
 Lt.-Colonel Twiss, E.A.M.C., has for many 
 years been keenly interested in St. John Am- 
 bulance work, so that when he was asked to 
 organise this Hospital he got as his staff St. John 
 Ambulance Brigade Orderlies. These men, to a 
 certain extent, are members of V.A. Detachments, 
 but they were all voluntary workers, so that if we 
 take the spirit rather than the letter of the law, 
 their work may well be recorded here, after they 
 had become E.A.M.C. 
 
 The Council schools were commandeered, but 
 they would not accommodate the thousand-odd beds 
 Colonel Twiss was to have under his care, so that 
 Armstrong huts were set up in the adjoining 
 Park, and with the use of various church halls 
 the Hospital is very complete. The constant com- 
 ing and going of large convoys makes the work 
 exceptionally heavy. It is no uncommon thing 
 for some hundreds of patients to be in and out 
 again in three days. This means a big test of 
 
WOUNDED AT SOUTHAMPTON 43 
 
 organisation and of the orderlies' work, but the 
 officers have nothing but praise for their staff. 
 As need for skilled orderlies abroad increases, a 
 great many St. John men are taken from all the 
 home hospitals, and Colonel Twiss has had to fill 
 their places with recruits, but many of these are 
 V.A.D. men and are doing admirable work. No 
 Sisters are employed in this Hospital. 
 
 Southampton Hospitals, 
 
 In and around Southampton there are several 
 excellently managed V.A.D. Hospitals, but as this 
 same remark could be made about practically 
 every part of the United Kingdom, I do not pro- 
 pose to mention them in particular; but a bit of 
 V.A.D. work which should not be missed is 
 that which was done by St. John members in the 
 very early weeks of August, 1914, and continued 
 for over a year. 
 
 It was discovered by an enthusiastic Ambulance 
 worker that the thousands of troops who were 
 being brought to Southampton and stationed on 
 the Common in tents for one night before their 
 departure to France were very badly wanting a 
 Canteen where they could obtain a hot drink and 
 some food, free. 
 
 A large tent was obtained with considerable 
 difficulty and equipped as a Canteen. This was 
 kept open day and night by shifts of V.A.D. 
 workers, men and women, and they rendered 
 
44 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 signal service to the weary troops who were about 
 to set forth to the Front. The officers were al- 
 most as badly in need of help as the men, and 
 after a very few days a smaller tent was arranged 
 as an Officers' Mess-room. 
 
 This is only one of the sidelights, as it were, 
 on V.A.D. work. It was not their legitimate work 
 as it was not for wounded men, and in a sense 
 it was done unofficially, and of course no St. John 
 funds were used for it ; but there is no doubt that 
 it filled in a gap at a moment when it was quite 
 impossible for the Army to cope with all the 
 smaller details of making arrangements for the 
 comfort of the men. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 V.A.D. WoEK IN AND Abound Biemingham 
 
 SO far I have had but little occasion to speak 
 of women in V.A.D. work, for, naturally, it 
 falls to the share of the men members to manage 
 the transport of our wounded men. 
 
 Since, as privileged travellers, we stepped upon 
 the Ambulance train at Southampton Docks, we 
 have been running swiftly and smoothly north- 
 wards, and now, as the train draws into the great 
 station at Snow Hill, Birmingham, we see a 
 unique and very attractive sight. 
 
 Birmingham Rest Station, 
 
 The fame of the Birmingham Rest Station has 
 spread far and wide. Even in France I heard it 
 spoken of in tender accents, and though there are 
 others in England, it is so particularly well man- 
 aged, with such strict discipline, that I hope every- 
 one will agree that I do well in describing it in 
 order to show what Rest Station work means. 
 
 The patients on all Ambulance trains are well 
 fed, but an extra meal seldom comes amiss to 
 Tommy, especially when unusual fare is served 
 to them under somewhat unusual circumstances. 
 
 Looking from the carriage window, the patients 
 
 45 
 
46 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 in the train see, on the platform, two files of nurs- 
 ing members standing in front of big lorries upon 
 which are set tea-urns, mugs, sandwiches, cakes 
 and fruit. There is a shrill whistle and order- 
 lies appear at once in each ward of the train, bear- 
 ing trays filled with mugs of tea, whilst behind 
 them come nurses with food and fruit. A little 
 later, cigarettes, pipes, tobacco and postcards are 
 brought round. 
 
 '*It is extraordinary, the difference that is 
 noticeable in the men after we have been to Bir- 
 mingham,'' said an Army Sister to me. ** There 
 is quite a change in them, for the kindly thought 
 and the bright words of greeting cheer them in- 
 finitely, and make them realise what it means to 
 be 'home' again." 
 
 Every train has been met since the first one 
 came at very short notice in the early days of 
 the war. The members of a Birmingham V.A.D. 
 rushed down to the station and had food ready 
 for that train, and without a lapse the work has 
 gone on ever since. A room on the station has 
 been given up, very courteously, by the railway 
 authorities, and a huge amount of work is got 
 through there by V.A. members under their 
 Corps Commandant, Mrs. Porter. The cost falls 
 entirely upon Birmingham, and so well do the 
 townspeople appreciate this fine work that there 
 is never any difficulty in gathering in funds for 
 the Eest Station. 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN BIEMINGHAM 47 
 
 Directly the train is signalled the platform is 
 cleared of all outsiders, and the doors of the im- 
 provised kitchen are thrown open to allow of the 
 exit of two files of nurses, spick-and-span in their 
 grey cotton frocks, white aprons, and black bon- 
 nets. One file turns to the right and the other to 
 the left, and march to where stand the two trol- 
 leys laden with food. Nothing is forgotten. 
 There are even postcards and pencils so that the 
 men can write messages to their friends, and the 
 cards are collected and stamped by the nursing 
 members. Slowly the train draws into the sta- 
 tion, bearing on its sides the great red crosses 
 which should claim exemption from molestation 
 all over the world. 
 
 The time for which each train is allowed to 
 halt in the station flies by all too quickly, but the 
 men have managed to make an astonishingly good 
 meal, and at the word of command cups are col- 
 lected and the members and orderlies again take 
 their places by the now empty trolleys, and with 
 many a last word the train steams away with 
 its load of broken humanity; broken only in a 
 physical sense for the men's spirits are higher 
 than ever, their courage more indomitable, their 
 cheeriness so inspiring that the ordinary sufferer 
 is put to shame. 
 
 It all sounds very simple, this feeding of 
 wounded men on trains, but it needs fine organi- 
 sation, a great deal of hard work, and a consider- 
 
48 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 able amount of money. Some days the trains 
 come in thick and fast, the biggest day being that 
 on which 700 wounded men passed through Snow 
 Hill station. But never yet has an Ambulance 
 train come into Birmingham without these two 
 lines of St. John V.A.D. members being there to 
 greet the men. 
 
 The Hospital train is going on to Manchester 
 and the North, but we will step off at Birming- 
 ham with the comfortable knowledge that a lit- 
 tle later on we will board another of the trains 
 and pay surprise visits to several of the great 
 Northern cities. 
 
 Birmingham is a great centre for V.A.D. work, 
 and we will take it as typical of St. John work, 
 whilst Manchester will be typical of British Red 
 Cross work. As a matter of fact, in both the 
 cities workers of the two societies are to be 
 found, but it is curious that the majority of the 
 one or the other generally predominates in every 
 centre. After all, it is merely a '* distinction 
 without a difference," and as a great Red Cross 
 authority says humourously when he is interview- 
 ing V.A.D. candidates, ** Do you want to wear a 
 blue frock or a grey one?" It is a fine thing that 
 the differences of past years should have con- 
 verged so that they have practically arrived at 
 vanishing point, and can be summed up in the 
 utterly unimportant question of the colour of the 
 dress one wears! 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN BIRMINGHAM 49 
 
 V.A. workers have no time for petty quarrels. 
 They are doing the nation's work; and they raise 
 their heads, fixing their eyes upon an aim which 
 is lofty enough to be Christlike, and must not be 
 sullied by any sordid considerations. 
 
 During that first week in August, 1914, a huge 
 number of men who had qualified in First Aid 
 and Nursing were called away from Birmingham 
 to serve with H.M. Forces; but courses of lec- 
 tures were set going then and have gone on ever 
 since, so that recruits have been brought in to fill 
 the places of those who have gone away. 
 
 Nursing Detachments were already very strong 
 in Birmingham, and a great many of the mem- 
 bers having had experience in the Homoeopathic 
 Hospital, they were quite qualified to act as pro- 
 bationers under trained nurses in Auxiliary Hos- 
 pitals. 
 
 Several buildings had been promised for use 
 as V.A.D. Hospitals **in case of invasion,'' but 
 as there was no invasion the contracts all fell 
 through, and new efforts had to be made for the 
 obtaining of houses which could be turned into 
 Hospitals. But before any one of these was ac- 
 tually started, the nursing members were made 
 use of for emergency services of all kinds. Bir- 
 mingham, if not invaded by the enemy, was cer- 
 tainly invaded by Belgian refugees, and a great 
 deal of voluntary work for them was carried out 
 by the V.A.D. members. 
 
50 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 The first V.A.D. Hospital to be started in Bir- 
 mingham was staffed by a St. John Detachment, 
 the house being Hill Crest, Richmond Hill. 
 Thirty beds were put in the house, and later on 
 thirteen open-air shelters were put up to increase 
 the number to fifty. Many wounded Belgians 
 were received here in the autumn of 1914. The 
 equipment and maintenance of this Hospital, as 
 indeed of all the Hospitals in the Birmingham dis- 
 trict, have been entirely given by friends in the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Later on, this Hospital was moved to Harborne 
 Hall, a very beautiful house which is particularly 
 well adapted to the purposes of a Hospital. An 
 outstanding feature of this Hospital is that a 
 laundry is provided in which the whole of the 
 washing is done for the entire establishment. 
 Many V.A.D. members work here daily, and by 
 their labours effect a very large saving in ex- 
 pense and much additional comfort to the 
 patients. 
 
 During the great July push the matron of this 
 Hospital was rung up and asked if she could sud- 
 denly accommodate twenty-five men who were 
 coming on a Hospital train. Every bed in the 
 house was full, but she was determined not to 
 refuse to take in these men. She and her staff 
 quickly arranged spare mattresses on the two 
 large billiard tables and on various sofas in the 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN BIRMINGHAM 51 
 
 day-room, and on to these they put their con- 
 valescent patients, so that within an incredibly 
 short time they were ready to receive the wounded 
 men who had come direct from the Front. This 
 was a piece of quick work which showed resource 
 and adaptability, and is a typical case of what 
 has been done over and over again in V.A.D. 
 Hospitals. 
 
 Following quickly on the heels of this first Hos- 
 pital there were opened five others, all of them 
 being excellently equipped and managed. Per- 
 haps a special word may be given to the High- 
 bury Hospital as it has a particular interest, 
 since it was for many years the residence of the 
 late Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, and was put 
 at the disposal of the War Office by the Right 
 Hon. Austen Chamberlain. The equipment of the 
 house and the provision of funds for its mainte- 
 nance were most generously undertaken by the 
 employes of a huge munition factory in Bir- 
 mingham. 
 
 It is famous for its Neurological Department 
 with its up-to-date electrical appliances and staff 
 of fully qualified nurses. It has accommodation 
 for one hundred and ninety beds, some thirty of 
 these being in a very beautiful open-air pavilion 
 which has been built in the grounds. Here 
 again the laundry work has been carried out by 
 V.A.D. members, the sum of £4 being saved 
 weekly. 
 
52 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Handicrafts for Patients. 
 
 In several of tlie Birmingham Hospitals, as 
 indeed in the Auxiliary Hospitals all over the 
 country, a special effort has been made to teach 
 the men handicrafts, not only with the view of 
 giving them employment and amusement, but pos- 
 sibly of helping them to earn money later on by 
 their acquired skill. 
 
 There was quite a rage in Highbury Hospitals 
 for the making of plaster casts, the men copying 
 the Army badges with great faithfulness. Then 
 there were sketching classes, shorthand and type- 
 writing classes, knitting, crocheting and wool- 
 work classes, wool mat-making, cross-stitch belt 
 making, and basket-making classes, and a good 
 many of the men were tremendously interested in 
 attending French classes. 
 
 At Ashfield Hospital, Gt. Malvern, which comes 
 under the Birmingham administration, they have 
 made a feature of teaching carpentry to the con- 
 valescent patients. They have set up an excellent 
 bench in an outhouse in a loft, and a carpenter 
 V.A.D. member has generously undertaken to 
 give the men lessons. They are taught to make 
 the most fascinating wooden toys in the fashion 
 of those which used to come to us in thousands 
 from Germany. It is to be hoped that many of 
 the men who are incapable of returning to their 
 own trades will find a means of livelihood in 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN BIRMINGHAM 53 
 
 carrying on the various handicrafts which they 
 have begun to learn in our Auxiliary Hospitals. 
 At Lordswood Hospital many of the men work 
 in the kitchen garden as soon as they are con- 
 valescent, and it is not only a healthy employ- 
 ment, but gives them a valuable insight into out- 
 door work. 
 
 A New Departure in V.A.D. Work. 
 
 It fell to the lot of the St. John V.A.D. mem- 
 bers in Birmingham to be amongst the first, if 
 not actually the very first, people to make a new 
 departure in their nursing labours. For a long 
 time the District Nursing Societies of many great 
 cities have been in distress by reason of the 
 shortage of trained nurses. A very large num- 
 ber of district nurses are at work abroad or hold 
 onerous positions in Military Hospitals at home. 
 This has meant that the poor in all parts of the 
 Kingdom have had to go ** short" in the matter 
 of district nursing. It is a thing of national im- 
 portance that women and babies should be well 
 looked after at this crisis, for we must think for- 
 ward, and remember that the infants of to-day 
 mean our fighting forces of the future. 
 
 The Superintendent of the District Nursing 
 Society in Birmingham decided to apply to the 
 St. John authorities for help, with the result that 
 some eighteen to twenty V.A.D. members regu- 
 larly work as district nurses amongst the poor 
 
54 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 of Birmingham. Each one goes on a month's 
 probation and works with the trained Sister. 
 Then if she shows proficiency she is allowed to 
 go to cases by herself and to do a regular daily 
 round; but she is never allowed to go to a new 
 case, these always being undertaken by a trained 
 Sister. The result has been most successful, and 
 it has been arranged that the District Nursing 
 Society should grant certificates for three and six 
 months' good continuous work to V.A.D. mem- 
 bers. 
 
 May we quote the words of the Vice-President 
 of the Nursing Society who said: ^*For forty-two 
 years this Society has maintained the principle 
 that only nurses with the highest professional 
 training are qualified to undertake the district 
 nursing among the poor. The exigencies of war 
 have broken down the continuity of this princi- 
 ple, and your Committee has gratefully accepted 
 the assistance of the St. John Ambulance Bri- 
 gade who have done sterling work in the absence 
 of their professional sisters." 
 
 It is quite likely that before these words are 
 in print the example will have been copied in 
 many great cities, thus giving the V.A.D. mem- 
 bers a new chance of proving their usefulness in 
 coming to the aid of the nation, and doing war 
 work which is very humble and very lowly in 
 itself, but is of the highest importance to the 
 Empire. 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN BIKMINGHAM 55 
 
 Quick Worh. 
 
 To be efficient, V.A.D. members must be quick 
 and ready to grapple with any emergency that 
 comes along. It is interesting to hear a few of 
 the queer cases in which members have been 
 called upon to give their help. 
 
 For instance, there was a shortage of helpers 
 at **Our Day" collection in Birmingham, and on 
 the day previous to the collection eighty girls 
 were got together and told the street stations 
 which they were to take up on the following 
 day. 
 
 Highbury Hospital was to have been opened on 
 a certain Monday, but the July push came, and 
 on the previous Saturday they were suddenly 
 rung up and asked to take in forty men. This 
 they did, although at the moment the telephone 
 rang there were not forty beds in position, 
 even! 
 
 With regard to the Hospital trains which come 
 through Birmingham, the sudden calls are so 
 frequent that they are not looked upon as peculiar 
 but as being in the natural course of affairs. The 
 V.A.D. member who acts as secretary for that 
 particular work thinks nothing of going to bed 
 with the telephone lying on the pillow so that 
 there will be no chance of her not hearing the 
 bell. 
 
 During the rush of Belgian refugees the Matron 
 
56 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 of the Dudley Road Infirmary, where they were 
 being accommodated, suddenly rang up and asked 
 if she could have eight V.A.D. members within 
 one hour. They were supplied, and since then 
 there have been various calls of this kind from 
 the Matron, who knows that she can be certain, 
 not only of getting the members, but that they 
 will implicitly obey her orders and will work with- 
 out question on any job to which she cares to put 
 them. She has paid them the high tribute of say- 
 ing that they are both obedient and reliable. 
 
 Motor Transport V,A,D, 
 
 For a very long while after the war broke out 
 men and women who were motor drivers gave 
 their services, and in some eases loaned their 
 cars, for the purpose of conveying wounded men 
 from the Hospital trains to the Hospitals. Later 
 on it was thought well that there should be Motor 
 Transport Voluntary Aid Detachments, and they 
 are now at work in many centres all over the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 I had the great privilege of going out on a night 
 convoy at Birmingham. The car I went on was 
 driven by a girl, and it was quite wonderful to 
 see how she made her way through the pitch-dark 
 streets and took her place in the yard of the im- 
 provised station where the Hospital trains came 
 to a halt. 
 
 The scene was a bizarre one, and took me back 
 
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V.A.D. WOEK IN BIRMINGHAM 57 
 
 to France, because the continuous rain had made 
 the roads very muddy, (France and mud will al- 
 ways be connected in my mind,) and the platform 
 which had been put up at this siding was an 
 extremely rough one. Dozens of ambulances 
 and motor cars were ranged up in the yard, 
 whilst on the platform there awaited several 
 squads of V.A.D. men with stretchers and 
 blankets ready for the transfer of the wounded 
 men. 
 
 The moment the Hospital train arrived the 
 M.O. of the train jumped out and spoke to the 
 Superintendent in charge of the V.A. stretcher- 
 bearers. He was informed that there were a hun- 
 dred and eighty cases on the train, a hundred of 
 them being **cot cases,'' which meant that they 
 must be removed by a stretcher. At a word of 
 command the V.A.D. men sprang to attention and 
 forthwith set to work. They carried their 
 stretchers into the train, they moved the patients 
 with the utmost gentleness, they carried them 
 down the slope and put them into the ambulances, 
 and at the end of fifty-three minutes the whole 
 of those hundred and eighty cases had been sent 
 off to Hospital. 
 
 The motor cars make several journeys during 
 each convoy, going to the various Hospitals to 
 which the patients are designated. Everything 
 works smoothly ; there is no sort of confusion, and 
 I, as a privileged person on the front seat of one 
 
58 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 of the ambulances (driven this time by a man 
 V.A.D. member), could not help marvelling at 
 the organisation which made things work so 
 well. 
 
 Practically every one of the V.A.D. men and 
 women who run these motor convoys are at work 
 in the day, the men for the most part being in 
 business in the city. 
 
 **But where does your sleep come inT' said I 
 to one of them. **How much did you get to- 
 night r' 
 
 Personally I had had a few hours in bed as I 
 had not been called out until 3 a.m._, but the man 
 I spoke to replied cheerily : 
 
 **0h, I got the telephone message so late that 
 it was not worth while going to bed, so I sat down 
 in a comfortable chair over the fire, and my wife 
 gave me and several other members of the con- 
 voy a good meal at 2 a.m. Then we had to start 
 for the station. I shall get back in time to have 
 a bath and eight o'clock breakfast, and then I 
 shall be off for business." 
 
 *^But you cannot do that sort of thing often," 
 I remonstrated. 
 
 ^*0h, yes," he answered; *' three or four nights 
 a week. It is wonderful how we have learned to 
 do without sleep since the war began, and I really 
 doubt if we are any the worse for it." 
 
 There was nothing heroic about his tone, and 
 he evidently felt that he was doing the most ordi- 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN BIRMINGHAM 59 
 
 nary work possible. This is quite a good exam- 
 ple of what is being done quietly and without any 
 ostentation by the members of the Voluntary Aid 
 Movement throughout the Elngdom. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 V.A.D. Work in Manchester and District 
 
 IT is not much of a run in a Hospital train from 
 Birmingham to Manchester, and again we will 
 step off at the great station and make a flying 
 visit to the wonderful V.A.D. Hospitals which lie 
 all round the city. 
 
 Lancashire is always enthusiastic in whatever 
 work it takes up, and has shown itself to be 
 splendidly loyal not only in giving thousands of 
 men as combatants to the Forces, but in giving 
 itself unreservedly to V.A.D. work. 
 
 Never shall I forget going to a Hospital in one 
 of the manufacturing towns of Lancashire where 
 the entire work was undertaken by mill girls. It 
 was a small Hospital, and the skilled nursing 
 could be done by the one trained Sister who was 
 in charge. Under her she had a very large staff 
 of girls and women who mostly had to earn their 
 daily bread by working in factories from early 
 morning until evening. 
 
 These women live hard lives at all times, but 
 they ungrudgingly give hours from their nights 
 in order to get up at five in the morning and go 
 to the Hospital to scrub and to clean until they 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN MANCHESTER 61 
 
 are due at the factory. Again at the other end 
 of the day, after they have done long hours at 
 monotonous and often arduous work, they go into 
 the Hospital on their way home and give another 
 couple of hours to the serving of the evening 
 meal, the making of beds, and the general tidy- 
 ing up of the wards. The work during the day 
 is divided amongst the women who have homes 
 and children to tend and can only spare an hour 
 or two away from them. 
 
 All these women do not give of their surplus; 
 they give something which costs them a great 
 deal. They give it willingly, smilingly, and as 
 though theirs is the privilege, which indeed it is. 
 I wish I could take a few rich, leisured women, 
 who still have not answered their country's call, 
 and show them this beautiful little Hospital, ad- 
 mirably run, clean and tidy as a new pin, which 
 is entirely the outcome of the loving labour of 
 women who have to work very hard indeed, in 
 order to keep themselves in the bare necessities 
 of life. 
 
 East Lancashire, 
 
 In East Lancashire alone there are sixty-one 
 Hospitals under the British Eed Cross Society 
 or the Order of St. John, the total number of beds 
 being 4,227. A very large majority of these 
 Hospitals are worked by British Red Cross V.A.D. 
 members ; the East Lancashire branch of the So- 
 
62 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 ciety having been formed as long ago as 1910, with 
 the primary object of organising and training the 
 civilian population during times of peace so as 
 to enable them to assist the Military authorities 
 in time of war. 
 
 There was a total membership of 3,000 men 
 and 1,000 women registered at the War Office 
 in V.A. Detachments, and on the outbreak of 
 war all these Detachments were ready for work. 
 Forty Comforts Sections were instituted with 
 a leader in charge of each, who in turn organ- 
 ised sewing parties in his or her particular 
 district. 
 
 The first Hospital up here to receive War 
 Office sanction was Worsley Hall, but the first to 
 open and actually receive patients was The Wood- 
 lands, Wigan, (opened on October 6th,) which 
 was placed at the disposal of the Branch by the 
 Earl and Countess of Crawford, who generously 
 provide all cost of the maintenance of the Hos- 
 pital, which receives no Government grant. This 
 Hospital with a hundred and thirty beds has been 
 maintained by the Branch without any cost to the 
 Government as the gift of the East Lancashire 
 Branch of the British Bed Cross Society to the 
 nation. 
 
 Here again fine transport work has been done. 
 Owners of motor cars were approached and a 
 splendid fleet of ambulances and cars was soon 
 available. 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN MANCHESTER 63 
 
 An Amusing Story. 
 
 A very funny story was told to me by a great 
 Eed Cross worker in Manchester. He said that 
 people wondered why things did not always go 
 like clockwork; and he thought that the answer 
 given on the telephone at the commencement of 
 the war by one of the Section Leaders to a car 
 owner, who asked for two days ' notice to be given 
 when the car was required, really put the case in 
 a nutshell. The Section Leader, with a fine sense 
 of humour, replied to this request, *^If you will 
 please arrange with the Kaiser to give us two 
 days' notice of his soldiers' intention to attack 
 ours, I shall be very pleased to give you the two 
 days' notice you require." 
 
 But it is the exception and not the rule to find 
 people unreasonable once they have put their 
 hand to V.A.D. work. There is something very 
 infectious about it which makes men and women 
 quickly realise that they must be prompt, that 
 they must put their private feelings on one side, 
 and above all that they must not be quarrelsome. 
 
 Ambulance Work in Mumition Factories, 
 
 A certain number of V.A.D. members in Man- 
 chester are regularly on duty at munition fac- 
 tories. This is only typical of what is going on 
 all over the country. 
 
 I had the unusual privilege of going through 
 
64 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 one of the great munition factories and seeing 
 for myself exactly how the Ambulance Depart- 
 ment was managed. They had set aside a small 
 building for the work, and everybody in the fac- 
 tory knew where it was, and that Ambulance men 
 and women were on duty there night and day. 
 Thus they get small cases to attend to through- 
 out the twenty-four hours, because in practically 
 all munition works the furnaces are never allowed 
 to go out, and there are different shifts of work- 
 ers, so that the making of munitions never ceases 
 for one moment, day or night. 
 
 In the Ambulance rooms there are beds and all 
 the equipment necessary to deal with accidents. 
 Of course they must always be prepared for a 
 possible explosion, although happily these very 
 rarely occur. Then there are men and women 
 who are working regularly with explosives, whilst 
 others are dealing with boiling vitriol and molten 
 metal. All these are distinctly dangerous jobs, 
 and when familiarity has bred contempt acci- 
 dents may occur. 
 
 V.A.D. members who are very well qualified 
 and have had a lot of experience work in shifts in 
 these Ambulance rooms. There is a stretcher 
 party of men who are sent for in the case of 
 accident, and who quickly convey the injured per- 
 son to the accident room after First Aid has been 
 rendered on the spot. A stretcher and necessary 
 dressings are kept at hand in all the big ** shops," 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN MANCHESTER 65 
 
 and there are always people amongst the workers 
 who are qualified in First Aid and can give assist- 
 ance instantly an accident occurs. 
 
 In one of the munition factories where two 
 V.A.D. nurses are always in attendance, the night 
 and day work being managed in three shifts, one 
 thousand small accidents were attended to dur- 
 ing the first seven weeks after the Ambulance 
 room was opened. 
 
 Joint Hospitals. 
 
 Several of the Hospitals in the Manchester dis- 
 trict are staffed by St. John and British Eed 
 Cross Society members, and it is delightful to 
 know that there is no friction between them. All 
 sorts of novel ideas have been thought of for the 
 raising of funds, because each of these Hospitals 
 prides itself on the fact that it is self-supporting. 
 
 Novel Entertainment, 
 
 The Moss Bridge Red Cross and St. John Hos- 
 pital raised £89 to pay the remaining debt off the 
 new wing by very novel methods. A garden- 
 party was held in the grounds, the most attrac- 
 tive feature of it being a trench ** somewhere in 
 France," made and manned by wounded soldiers 
 from the Hospital. On the right of the trench 
 was a dugout, and hundreds of visitors traversed 
 the anything but easy road which led to this 
 realistic scene. There were two sections of 
 
66 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 trenches, loop-holed and protected by barbed 
 wire. Visitors were shown the working of a 
 periscope from the trenches, and the gas- 
 protector helmets were clearly explained by a 
 corporal. 
 
 Within a month another garden-party was held, 
 and on this occasion, in addition to again giving 
 a most vivid representation of trenches, there 
 was an interesting innovation. This was a camp- 
 life scene, and the soldiers sold tea made in dixies 
 over regular camp fires. 
 
 The two garden-parties realised the sum of 
 £370, out of which an X-ray apparatus has been 
 purchased for the Hospital. This speaks for the 
 ingenuity of V.A.D. members. 
 
 Ambulance Drill Halls as Hospitals. 
 
 In many cases in Lancashire the excellent drill 
 halls owned by St. John or British Eed Cross 
 Detachments have been converted into Hospitals. 
 Perhaps one of the most typically successful is 
 that at Eochdale. Very soon after the outbreak 
 of war it was converted into a Hospital with 
 thirty beds, and has a wonderful little operating 
 theatre and all the necessary offices. 
 
 In Lancashire there is the largest V.A.D. Hos- 
 pital in the United Kingdom, and it is run by St. 
 John Detachments. It is situated in the Grange, 
 Southport, and has 500 beds. In December, 
 1915, the Director-General of Medical Services 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN MANCHESTER 67 
 
 visited the Hospital and said that it must 
 become a Primary one instead of an Auxiliary. 
 When it was found that its accommodation must 
 be increased by having open-air huts set up, the 
 work was effected in seven weeks, the ground 
 which had been a kitchen garden being quickly 
 converted into the site of a very up-to-date Hos- 
 pital. 
 
 Here we see another branch of V.A.D. work, 
 which again is typical of what is going on in 
 every district. V.A.D. Pharmacists in this Hos- 
 pital have control of an enormous store of 
 dressings and drugs. Three quarters of a 
 ton of cotton wool, and 10,000 yards of gauze, 
 bought in the cheapest competitive market, is an 
 incident in their work. The dispensaries are 
 busy at midnight instead of in the day, for the 
 chemists come after their businesses are closed, 
 and toil into the night at the Hospitals, prepar- 
 ing the lotions for the next day's work in the 
 wards, making mixtures, and attending the many 
 orders which have come in from nurses and doc- 
 tors during the day. 
 
 The kitchen V.A.D. members here have no 
 sinecure. For instance, the peeling and slicing 
 of 186 pounds of potatoes, the cleaning of 200 
 knives, forks and spoons, the scouring of sinks 
 and boilers, is a magnificent piece of volun- 
 tary work of which Southport may be justly 
 proud. 
 
6S BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 Blanket Day. 
 
 This was a bright idea, a reception being held 
 in Hesketh Park, admission being by blanket, 
 which raised 1,000 of these necessary articles. 
 
 V,A.D, Sewing Room, 
 
 The Lady Quartermasters have organised this 
 department, an enormous amount of repairing 
 and stitching having been done there; 4,479 
 yards of material have been cut out in the Hos- 
 pital itself and made up by voluntary workers. 
 
 Convoys, 
 
 It is not anything unusual for the Hospital to 
 get word of the arrival of a hundred or more 
 patients straight from the train within a few 
 hours, and they are taken into the Hospital with- 
 out any delay. 
 
 Fire, 
 
 A guard of the Southport Voluntary Training 
 Corps is on duty at night in case of fire. 
 
 Another Instance of Quick Work, 
 
 The Commandant of the Southport Hospital 
 had one short day's notice that he must provide 
 accommodation for seventy-five men. At that 
 moment he had only twenty-five beds empty. 
 They took a house opposite and equipped it, and 
 the same evening received the extra patients. 
 
 We cannot pass over the V.A.D. work in East 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN MANCHESTER 69 
 
 Lancashire without touching on some of the beau- 
 tiful houses which have been converted into Hos- 
 pitals. Two of the Hospitals, Worsley Hall and 
 The Woodlands, Wigan, receive no Government 
 grant. 
 
 I purposely do not mention any names as it 
 would be invidious to do so, for it is quite impos- 
 sible to say that any one man or woman has 
 worked better than any other, or that any of the 
 great people who have lent their mansions and 
 have given most generous support have been 
 more kindly than the humbler folk who have lent 
 their houses and have given every penny they 
 could spare to the work of succouring the 
 wounded. 
 
 The whole object of this book would be defeated 
 if it were thought to be written about any par- 
 ticular Hospital or department of V.A.D. work. 
 As I have said before, I am trying to give a wide 
 outlook of the work as a whole, and only pick 
 out instances here and there to make my point 
 more emphatic, and to show what is being done 
 by the thousands of men and women who have 
 thrown themselves into the V.A.D. movement. 
 
 A Typical V.A.D. Hospital. 
 
 Call to mind a quiet country town, with its old- 
 world buildings and its quaint little High Street 
 nestling beneath the shadow of the wonderful 
 Cumberland hills. 
 
70 BEITAIN^S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 I had motored up from Lancashire through the 
 noisy, dirty, bustling manufacturing towns, where 
 the streets are crowded with women wearing 
 shawls over their heads, and with children who 
 made a great clatter in their iron-ringed clogs; 
 the car slid through these populous towns out 
 into the wide country beyond, and gradually we 
 approached the mist-clad hills which shelter the 
 beautiful lakes of Cumberland. 
 
 The Friends' Meeting House had generously 
 been loaned for the duration of the war to a 
 V.A. Detachment, and it had been made into an 
 excellent Hospital. Turning sharply out of the 
 High Street under a covered archway, the car 
 suddenly came to a standstill, and we found our- 
 selves being greeted by the Commandant, who 
 forthwith took us all over the little Hospital. 
 Every bed was filled with a wounded man, but 
 cheeriness prevailed in all the wards, and the men 
 were not loiath to say how glad they were to be 
 there. 
 
 It struck me then that the effect of such a Hos- 
 pital as this was a deeper one than that which 
 appeared on the surface. It had been set up in 
 order to heal broken men, but in the carrying out 
 of this merciful work people of every grade had 
 been brought together and had worked in sym- 
 pathy one with another. 
 
 The well-born woman, who perhaps had never 
 set her hand to rough toil before, met her lowlier 
 
Disinfectors mounted on a steam lorry. Sent to France by the 
 Order of St. John for use of a British Regiment. 
 
 A view of the interior. The lorry supplies steam for the 
 disinfectors. 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN MANCHESTER 71 
 
 sister on level ground; the trades-people of the 
 little town were proud to send in gifts; the 
 farmers in outlying farms gave eggs and butter; 
 workmen of many trades had given their valuable 
 time in order to make the Hospital as perfect as 
 possible. 
 
 Imagine the moral if not ethical effects upon 
 these people of every class, drawn together by one 
 common cause, one national sorrow. Surely the 
 result of the establishment of hundreds of V.A.D. 
 Hospitals throughout our land must have some 
 lasting influence on the people of Great Britain. 
 
 It is an aspect of V.A.D. work which should not 
 be overlooked; and whilst one does not want to 
 be unpractical, nor can one have any delusions 
 that small disagreements have not constantly oc- 
 curred in all kinds of nursing institutions, the 
 work in the main has been carried on with a 
 generosity of spirit and a ^'following after the 
 gleam," as Tennyson would have put it, which 
 cannot fail to have its good effect on the better 
 national understanding of class for class. 
 
 V.A.D. Victim of German Treachery. 
 
 One of the very earliest of the many V.A.D. 
 members who have given their lives for their 
 country was a woman of humble circumstances 
 who was working in a Lancashire V.A.D. Hos- 
 pital. I was being shown through the Hospi- 
 tal by the Commandant a few days after she 
 
72 BKITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 had met her tragic death, and he told me all 
 about it. 
 
 She had worked in the Hospital so arduously 
 that her health broke down and the doctor said 
 that she must have a rest. She was not in a 
 position to take a holiday, but having the chance 
 of going as stewardess on a boat, seized the 
 opportunity gladly. It was a comparatively small 
 boat, and she was one of very few women on her. 
 A German submarine chased them, ordered them 
 to stop, and gave the Captain five minutes to 
 put all his people into small boats. Our V.A.D. 
 member was climbing down the side into the boat 
 just about three minutes after the order had been 
 given, when one of the Germans, it is alleged, 
 deliberately shot her and she fell dead into 
 the sea. 
 
 Since that day, alas, the list of V.A.D. men and 
 women who have fallen has become an appallingly 
 long one. If it were possible I should like to give 
 the name and the story of each one individually 
 here, but that is out of the question. Whilst I 
 shall touch on the details of some of those mem- 
 bers who have given their lives in the cause, I 
 hope it will be understood that they are typical 
 cases only, and that I am perfectly well aware 
 that whilst I speak of the few members of whom 
 I know personally, there are dozens of others 
 quite as magnificent who must perforce remain 
 unmentioned. 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN MANCHESTER 73 
 
 There have been many instances of girls going 
 out to Hospitals in foreign lands and dying of 
 disease. There was one young girl, a V.A.D. 
 member, who had been in Egypt only one week 
 when she contracted typhoid fever and died. 
 There have been nurses in France who have be- 
 come fatally ill; there have been the men and 
 women on Hospital ships which have been tor- 
 pedoed; and there is a huge number of members 
 who have either seriously injured themselves in 
 the course of their work, or have contracted such 
 illnesses that they will never be absolutely fit 
 again. 
 
 It is all taken as part and parcel of the work. 
 There is no thought of grumbling; in fact it is 
 almost the other way about ; for the V.A.D. mem- 
 ber recognises that it is a tremendous privilege 
 to be allowed to share in some slight measure the 
 dangers and the risks which our fighting men 
 take as an everyday matter. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 The Bombaedment of a V.A.D. Hospital 
 
 HAPPILY it has only once occurred, so far, 
 that a Hospital in England has been under 
 German fire; but it is interesting to remember 
 the stirring story of that event and to know that 
 it was a V.A.D. Auxiliary Hospital which under- 
 went this trying experience. 
 
 Nobody will ever forget the effect made on the 
 minds of everyone in Great Britain when the news 
 came out that three of our undefended East Coast 
 towns had been bombarded by German ships. 
 Scarborough, Whitby and "West Hartlepool were 
 the first English towns to know what it meant to 
 have German shrapnel and high explosive shells 
 falling in their midst. 
 
 It happened early in the morning of December 
 16th, 1914, and the story was simply but poign- 
 antly told to me by the Commandant of the St. 
 John Hospital which actually had a piece of shell 
 hurled through it. 
 
 The Hospital had been established in the 
 Masonic hall in West Hartlepool, the hall being 
 situated quite a mile and a half inland. The main 
 hall had been turned into the chief ward, and at 
 
 74 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF HOSPITAL 75 
 
 the time of the bombardment there were only 
 patients in this ward, the beds upstairs being 
 empty. The Hospital was in charge of a doctor 
 who was also an old St. John Ambulance Brigade 
 worker, and his wife, who was a fully trained 
 nurse, and acted as Commandant. They slept 
 away from the Hospital, leaving a fully trained 
 Sister in charge at night. 
 
 The bombardment began a few minutes before 
 eight o'clock in the morning, and as it happened, 
 the Sister in charge had just run across the road 
 to her bed-room to get something she required, 
 having left a senior V.A.D. member in charge. 
 
 The first whizz of a shell coming over the Hos- 
 pital startled the V.A.D. nurse, but she made no 
 comment and quietly went and looked out of the 
 front door and saw for herself what was happen- 
 ing. The noise of the shells was tremendous, for 
 the Germans seemed to have poured them into the 
 town at a quick rate. The St. John member went 
 back to the ward and ordered all the men, who 
 were luckily more or less convalescent, to get up. 
 There was one empty bed in the ward. Before 
 the men had time to get out of bed a portion of 
 shrapnel came hurtling through one of the win- 
 dows and fell in the middle of that one empty bed ! 
 
 Still there was no panic. The men scrambled 
 into their clothes and were collected into the hall 
 of the building, as that was the centre, and the 
 V.A.D. member judged it to be the safest place. 
 
76 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 She guessed that the gas would be turned off and 
 she knew that they would be requiring large 
 quantities of boiling water before long, so she 
 quietly set the orderlies to making big fires in 
 every room, and putting kettles on to boil. Of 
 course by this time the Sister in charge had run 
 back and did valuable service in preparing for the 
 stream of wounded which began to arrive at the 
 doors. 
 
 Meanwhile, the doctor and his wife had shown 
 themselves to be truly heroic and splendidly patri- 
 otic by setting forth inamediately to go to the 
 Hospital. They left their little children in the 
 house in the charge of an aunt, and went through 
 the shell-strewn streets, taking their lives in their 
 hands. 
 
 **It must have been hard for you to leave the 
 children," I said to the mother. 
 
 **Yes, it was, because one never knew whether 
 a shell would not strike the house at any moment ; 
 but of course it was our simple duty to come to 
 the Hospital. No one could have done anything 
 else." 
 
 It is just these ** simple duties" which mean 
 everything to a country at war. It never occurred 
 to either the doctor or his wife that they were 
 doing anything brave or splendid. They were in 
 charge of the Hospital, and directly it was men- 
 aced their place was in it, no matter what their 
 private feelings might be. 
 
BOMBAEDMENT OP HOSPITAL 77 
 
 All that morning wounded men, women, and 
 children were being brought into the Hospital, 
 some of them dying, and many of them maimed 
 for life. One woman, whose finger I saw being 
 dressed whilst I was there, told me that she had 
 been sitting in her kitchen with her baby on her 
 lap when a shell tore through the roof and buried 
 itself away in the ground beneath her. As it 
 passed, a piece of shrapnel took her little finger 
 off, but the baby was untouched. 
 
 The wreckage caused by the bombardment in 
 West Hartlepool was indescribable, and the sto- 
 ries of ruined homes and maimed little children 
 are too horrible for repetition. The authorities of 
 the town let the gas off directly the bombard- 
 ment began, and it was a mercy that they had 
 done so, since a bomb fell quite close to the gas 
 works. 
 
 The Germans would have other nations believe 
 that these three towns were fortified, just as they 
 try to justify themselves when they sink unarmed 
 and neutral ships, and when they perpetrate all 
 sorts of atrocities on women and children in the 
 countries which they have overrun; but there 
 will come a day of reckoning when the whole 
 world will know the truth, and will know that 
 these three coast towns were no more defended 
 than are our Hospital ships used for combative 
 purposes. 
 
78 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 'A Look Round the North, 
 
 Now that we have come up so far North, (and 
 my readers have had a far better journey than 
 I had, for I happened to travel at a moment when 
 the whole of the railway traffic was upset,) we 
 may as well have a look round at the wonderful 
 work which Voluntary Aid Detachments have 
 accomplished in Northumberland and Durham. 
 
 Here, as in all the other districts of England, 
 a County Director has been appointed, who acts 
 equally for the British Red Cross and the St. 
 John Ambulance. This arrangement has worked 
 admirably, and it is remarkable how unbiassed 
 these County Directors have shown themselves to 
 be, although in every case they had originally be- 
 longed to one or other of the organisations. 
 
 A very large number of V.A.D. men had gone 
 from this part of the world into the various medi- 
 cal branches of the Army and Navy; but at the 
 end of December, 1915, there were still a great 
 many male V.A.D. members who were miners, 
 munition workers, or engaged in other ** starred" 
 employments. 
 
 The very jfirst work that fell to the share of 
 the Voluntary Aid Detachments in Newcastle was 
 to establish a Rest Station at the Central Rail- 
 way Station, to attend to soldiers passing through 
 Newcastle, or to those in the town who became ill. 
 Gradually Hospitals were established throughout 
 
BOMBAEDMENT OF HOSPITAL 79 
 
 the district, some of them being especially de- 
 tailed for the work of attending to the sick 
 amongst the troops stationed in the neighbour- 
 hood. Other Hospitals relieved the congestion at 
 the great Military Hospital, and there is one 
 Detention Hospital which is largely staffed by 
 members of a female V.A.D., and although not 
 classed as a V.A.D. Hospital, has been carried on 
 by this Detachment ever since in conjunction with 
 successive Field Ambulance Units. 
 
 At the Rest Station, Newcastle. 
 
 Members of the Nursing Divisions of the St. 
 John Ambulance Brigade provided this Eest Sta- 
 tion in one of the waiting rooms, a continuous 
 service of members being on duty night and day. 
 These members also meet Hospital trains pass- 
 ing through Newcastle and serve tea, coffee, 
 cigarettes and sandwiches to the men. 
 
 There are sixteen V.A.D. Hospitals in Nor- 
 thumberland alone, and many of these are in his- 
 toric houses which have been loaned by their 
 owners for this purpose. Haggerston Castle, 
 Beal, is a very fine place for a Hospital, whilst 
 another very beautiful house, Holeyn Hall, Wy- 
 lam-on-Tyne, accommodates fifty beds. 
 
 It is invidious to say anything about special 
 Hospitals when the general standard is such a 
 high one. As a matter of fact, the very first Hos- 
 pital to be opened in this district was the one at 
 
80 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 West Hartlepool, and the Military Commandant 
 of the town told me personally that he did not 
 know what they would have done without it in 
 those first early months of the war when no 
 military medical arrangements had been made. 
 Shortly afterwards Whinney House was estab- 
 lished at Gateshead, and is the largest Voluntary 
 Aid Hospital of the North, and one of the largest 
 in the whole of England. 
 
 TransporL 
 
 The entire work of the transport of patients 
 from Hospital trains to Hospital has been carried 
 out by members of the St. John Ambulance 
 Brigade, the whole work being put under a Dis- 
 trict Transport Officer. 
 
 Hospitals in Durham. 
 
 In the county of Durham nine Hospitals were 
 opened up to the end of 1914, three of these being 
 for local troops. In a year's time the Hospitals 
 had increased to twenty-four, and since then a 
 good many others have been added. 
 
 One of the most historic of these Hospitals is 
 that which has been established in Brancepeth 
 Castle. It has 106 beds in it. The great rooms, 
 still decorated with fine old armour, make magnifi- 
 cent wards. 
 
 Windlestone Hall, Ferryhill, is another of the 
 very fine Durham Hospitals. 
 
BOMBAEDMENT OF HOSPITAL 81 
 
 During the several air raids which the northern 
 towns have suffered, much good work has been 
 rendered by V.A.D. members. One Detachment 
 has been specially assigned to this duty in con- 
 nection with the Coast Defence Scheme. They 
 are always on the alert, and ready to cope with 
 any emergency that may arise. 
 
 Depot for Duty-Free Goods for Hospitals. 
 
 By consent of the Custom House authorities 
 in London, the County Director was allowed to 
 open a depot for duty-free goods for all the Mili- 
 tary Hospitals in the North of England. A great 
 deal of admirable work has been done at this 
 depot, huge gifts of tea, tobacco and cigarettes 
 having passed out of bond through the depot to 
 the Hospitals. 
 
 A Commandant versus a Trained Sister. 
 
 In the report of the work of the British Red 
 Cross Society and the St. John Ambulance Bri- 
 gade in the northern part of England there is a 
 note about the difficulty which has been experi- 
 enced in some places of assigning the exact duties 
 of the Commandant and the trained Sister. It is 
 so wisely put that I think I cannot do better than 
 quote it, and as the report says, if this division of 
 work were entirely understood, no difficulty 
 would arise in connection with the respective du- 
 ties of the Commandant and the trained Sister. 
 
82 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 The Commandant **is responsible to the County 
 Director for the administration, discipline and 
 maintenance of the Hospital, and for the provi- 
 sion of the necessary V.A.D. staff. The trained 
 nurse acting in the capacity of Lady Superintend- 
 ent, Matron, or Sister-in-charge, is responsible 
 for the wards and the nursing duties connected 
 with the Hospital, and to arrange all the work of 
 the Probationers who are under her. She is 
 responsible to the Medical Officer of the Hospital 
 for her patients." 
 
 The Staffing of a Military Hospital. 
 
 It is interesting to note that the first notable 
 example of the complete staffing of a Military 
 Hospital occurred at the Northumberland War 
 Hospital, Gosforth, when a contingent from No. 6 
 district, consisting of one sergeant-major, ten 
 sergeants, eleven corporals, and a hundred and 
 twenty-nine privates, was sent to staff this 
 Hospital. 
 
 Losses hy Death. 
 
 This district has suffered terribly by losing 
 members through death. Their men have been 
 killed in the Dardanelles, in France and in Alex- 
 andria ; whilst others have died in Hospital in the 
 East and in Malta. They have' lost a good many 
 members of the women's V.A.D. also by death. 
 
BOMBARDMENT OF HOSPITAL 83 
 
 War Honours, 
 
 But on the other hand the district has been 
 cheered by several of its members having received 
 special war honours. One man has won the Cross 
 of the Russian Order of St. George; another the 
 French Croix de Guerre for services in the 
 Vosges with a motor ambulance ; a Nursing Sister 
 has had presented to her the Gold Medal of the 
 Montenegrin Red Cross by the Queen of Mon- 
 tenegro, and the Gold Medal of the Order of 
 Danilo by the King of Montenegro; whilst two 
 men have earned the D.C.M. and the D.S.M. re- 
 spectively. 
 
 Probably by the time these words are in print 
 these honours will have been added to ; but it is 
 good to know that the men and women members 
 of the V.A.D.'s from all over the kingdom — nay, 
 from all over the Empire — are earning not only 
 war medals which they can wear upon their 
 breasts, but something that is higher and deeper 
 and greater — the love and the respect of those 
 amongst whom they labour. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 V.A.D. Work in the South 
 
 FOR travellers such as ourselves, who do not 
 have to wait for trains, and certainly can 
 surpass aeroplanes in the matter of rapidity, it 
 is nothing for us to fly from the North to the 
 South in order to get a peep at V.A.D. work 
 there. 
 
 For a moment we will pass over the ** little vil- 
 lage of London," as our Canadian cousins are 
 fond of calling it, and fly on to the beautiful land 
 of Devon, which we will take as a typical example 
 of what is going on all along the southern coast 
 of England. 
 
 It was in the year 1909, when the Voluntary 
 Aid movement was in its infancy, that the people 
 of Devon took it up enthusiastically, and raised 
 many Detachments in the towns round about. 
 There were many difficulties and differences, and 
 much ignorance and even hostility had to be over- 
 come, we are told, before the V.A. organisation 
 acquired vitality and prominence ; but the County 
 grappled with these difficulties, and worked out 
 a scheme of V.A. organisation on its own lines, 
 
 84 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN THE SOUTH 85 
 
 the guiding principle being the necessity for form- 
 ing the Detachments into a definitely organised 
 force. County headquarters were established, 
 and from there absolute control was kept over all 
 the units. 
 
 The Commandants of the various Detachments 
 were not satisfied with the bare bones, as it were, 
 of First Aid and Home Nursing being learned by 
 their members. They insisted that they should 
 get real Hospital training, and advanced courses 
 of instruction were given, with frequent field 
 days and competitions, the diligent preparation 
 and equipment of buildings for use as Hospitals, 
 and the seizing of all possible opportunities for 
 taking practical training in Hospitals. There is 
 no doubt that this early training has left a very 
 definite mark upon the war work which has been 
 accomplished by these V.A. Detachments. This 
 is a very important point to be remembered by all 
 who are interested in the history of the Voluntary 
 Aid movement. 
 
 It must be confessed that the standard of the 
 Detachments all over the Kingdom was not an 
 equal one. People were too apt to think that war 
 was a chimera which would never materialize, and 
 that members belonging to V.A. Detachments 
 were simply amusing themselves by playing at 
 something which never would be brought into 
 practical use. 
 
 It is true that the War Office very wisely in- 
 
86 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 sisted on holding an annual inspection of every 
 registered Detachment, and for the moment this 
 brought the members up to a state of efficiency; 
 but the truth remains that real, keen enthusiasm 
 for the work seems to have run in ** veins," as it 
 were, throughout the country, and there is no 
 doubt but that the county of Devon may be prop- 
 erly proud of having been one of the richest 
 *' veins" which existed in England before the war 
 broke out. 
 
 The preparations before the war were so well 
 thought out that few changes of any kind had to 
 be made. Some months before the outbreak of 
 war a test mobilization was held on a large scale 
 in order to see exactly what would happen in the 
 unlikely event of England being invaded. The 
 plans which were utilised that day have required 
 little or no modification for the war work which 
 has been carried on, though happily it has not 
 been in the nature of dealing with the invasion 
 of our island. Enough women had qualified as 
 V.A.D. nurses before the war to staff the present 
 twenty-one Hospitals which exist in Devon (at 
 the time of writing) exclusive of the work in 
 Plymouth. 
 
 Two Objects. 
 
 They realised in Devon a point which was over- 
 looked by a good many Voluntary Aid Detach- 
 ments. They knew that the object of V.A.D. work 
 
St. John litter, which will take either the St. John or the 
 army stretchers. 
 
 Undercarriage packed for transport. 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN THE SOUTH 87 
 
 was twofold: first the tending of wounded and 
 sick men from the Front, and secondly, the tend- 
 ing of garrison troops in the neighbourhood. 
 
 Men Direct from Hospital Ships. 
 
 The report from Devon tells us that the Hos- 
 pitals of Exeter, Newton Abbot and Torquay take 
 eases direct from the Hospital ships at South- 
 ampton, and are in this respect almost unique 
 among the V.A.D. Hospitals in England. 
 
 Catering for Hospitals. 
 
 They work the catering for Hospitals in this 
 district on a general system with admirable 
 results. An office has been set apart for the spe- 
 cial work of catering for all the extra Hospitals 
 and for providing food for the Rest Stations. It 
 has answered admirably both from the economi- 
 cal point of view and from having good food sup- 
 plied to each Hospital without any trouble to the 
 individual Commandants. 
 
 Quick Work, 
 
 Devon has not been behind in supplying some 
 instance of exceptionally quick work. 
 
 At one of the Hospitals a telegram was received 
 at nine o'clock on a Sunday morning that forty- 
 five patients would be sent from Southampton in 
 the course of the day. No patients had been 
 previously received, nor had the staff been sum- 
 
88 BRITAIN »S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 moned. By 4.30 p.m., forty-nine patients had been 
 put to bed and treatment begun ! 
 
 Another Hospital was mobilised at forty-eight 
 hours' notice to deal with a prevailing epidemic 
 of influenza. 
 
 A building which had been used as a store, and 
 was quite unsuitable as a Hospital as it was then, 
 was converted in forty-eight hours. 
 
 West of England Eye Infirmary. 
 
 Notice of mobilisation of this Hospital was re- 
 ceived at mid-day on Sunday, October 4th, 1914. 
 The Hospital was equipped and ready for receiv- 
 ing patients by mid-day on Monday, October 5th. 
 
 At Exeter on a Sunday in October, 1914, a tele- 
 phone message was received, saying that the Hos- 
 pital must be opened immediately for the recep- 
 tion of sick from the local garrison. On the 
 following Monday a Hospital with sixty beds, 
 fully equipped, was ready, and patients were re- 
 ceived during the day. This building had been 
 previously earmarked and all the necessary 
 equipment was ready, but at the actual time of 
 the telephone message arriving it was still a 
 Children's Home under the Local Government 
 Board. The local officers were extremely prompt 
 in their removal of the children, and in less than 
 twelve hours the building was handed over to the 
 y.A.D. staff. 
 
 In the following February there was a severe 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN THE SOUTH 89 
 
 outbreak of bronchial pneumonia in some bar- 
 racks, and a very serious state of affairs was cre- 
 ated because of the lack of Hospital accommoda- 
 tion. A building in the Barrack Square, which 
 had been originally a Quartermaster's store and 
 had not been used at all for about twenty-five 
 years, was offered to the V.A. organisation for 
 the purpose of a Hospital. In less than forty- 
 eight hours it was fully equipped and staffed, and 
 patients were being admitted. This was a case 
 when no sort of previous warning had been given 
 that such a thing could possibly be requested. 
 The building was exceedingly dirty, and it had 
 to be cleaned by the V.A. staff before any sort 
 of equipment could be put into it. 
 
 To add to the worries of the V.A. authorities, 
 it was during the work of getting this Hospital 
 ready that a convoy of a hundred cases had ar- 
 rived direct from overseas, and had to be trans- 
 ported to Hospitals in Exeter. Troubles never 
 come alone, and it was really enough to cause 
 some sort of excitement when they heard, in addi- 
 tion, that some cases of measles had developed in 
 one of the Hospitals and must be isolated. The 
 Administrator says with charming modesty, **I 
 think perhaps, therefore, that these particular two 
 days were as full of incident for V.A. workers 
 in Exeter as any we have ever had." 
 
 Here again, the joining of the two great Socie- 
 ties has worked smoothly and well. The Head- 
 
90 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 quarters is staffed by V.A. members trained from 
 both Societies. It seems that this staff carries 
 out a work which is usually done by the Central 
 Military Hospital of a district and not by the Vol- 
 untary Aid organisation at all, and it is charming 
 indeed to hear from one of the chief authorities in 
 Devon that ** there never was at any time friction 
 between the two organisations.'' 
 
 Transport. 
 
 At Torquay the whole of the transport for the 
 Red Cross Hospitals is done by St. John men, 
 whilst in Exeter the transport is done by British 
 Red Cross and St. John men combined. Several 
 St. John members are serving in British Red 
 Cross Hospitals. The Administrator of the 
 Headquarters Staff, a military office appointed by 
 the Military authorities, is rightly proud of being 
 able to say, * * so that you see we are quite impar- 
 tial, as personally I think all Voluntary Aid or- 
 ganisations should be." 
 
 Two Hours' Notice, 
 
 The St. John Hospital at Newton Abbot re- 
 ceived a sudden message that forty cases were 
 coming direct to them from overseas, and would 
 be with them in two hours' time. The Hospital 
 was not open to patients, but the staff turned to, 
 and within two hours forty beds were ready for 
 the. men. 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN THE SOUTH 91 
 
 This is the kind of thing that has been happen- 
 ing in V.A.D. Hospitals in every part of the coun- 
 try, and in every case the V.A.D. staff has risen 
 to the occasion and accomplished what apparent- 
 ly looked like the impossible. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Some op the Wobk in London 
 
 TO attempt to give any sort of adequate de- 
 scription of the V.A.D. work that has gone on 
 in London ever since the war began would be 
 ridiculous, for it would need a volume to itself. 
 Therefore I must beg for leniency, and hope that 
 my readers will take each incident which I men- 
 tion and multiply it by a hundred at least, and 
 then they may arrive at some sort of correct 
 result. 
 
 On that terrible August Bank Holiday before 
 war was actually declared, many members of the 
 St. John Ambulance Brigade were out on duty on 
 the open spaces around London, and some of them 
 occupied their spare time between attending to 
 accidents by writing postcards to men belonging 
 to Detachments telling them where the Military 
 and Naval authorities wished them to report them- 
 selves on the following day. 
 
 It was wonderful how promptly the men turned 
 out, leaving their work and their homes in order 
 to go to the help of their country. The women 
 members were not behindhand. Dozens of them 
 were employed during that first week of the war 
 
 92 
 
SOME OF THE WOKK IN LONDON 93 
 
 in making tourniquets for the equipment of Mili- 
 tary or Naval Medical Units. 
 
 The historic St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, 
 breathing history from its beautiful old rooms, 
 became a beehive of earnest workers, which was 
 only equalled for activity by the Headquarters 
 of the British Red Cross Society. 
 
 Belgian Refugees. 
 
 One of the first London Detachments to get to 
 work was one belonging to the British Red Cross 
 Society. It had offered to it a very large ware- 
 house close to Victoria Station. It was a huge 
 job to clean it down, but the members of the De- 
 tachment made short work of it, and in an in- 
 credible space of time the many floors of the great 
 building were turned into dormitories filled with 
 beds. 
 
 Hundreds of hungry, weary, half -clothed Bel- 
 gian refugees were taken into this house day by 
 day and given food and rest. 
 
 It was a good piece of work that was done on 
 the spur of an emergency, but very soon the De- 
 tachment turned its mind and its capacity to work 
 more in the nature of that for which it had been 
 formed. People not skilled in nursing could deal 
 with the ** Belgian'' problem, and they came 
 forward nobly, gradually releasing members of 
 Detachments who could be of real use in Hospital 
 work. 
 
94 BRITAIN « CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Hospital for Officers. 
 
 One of the first V.A.D. Hospitals for officers 
 was opened in the beautiful house in Cadogan 
 Gardens, which was most kindly lent by Viscount- 
 ess Mountgarret. A St. John Detachment ran 
 the Hospital, with a certain number of fully 
 trained Sisters to take charge of the nursing. 
 
 Since then so many of the most beautiful 
 houses in London have been given up as Hos- 
 pitals that it is impossible to mention them by 
 name. Such historic houses as Londonderry 
 House, Dorchester House, and quite recently 
 Grosvenor House, have been given over for the 
 use of our wounded men ; and wherever they are 
 you may be certain that you will meet members 
 of a V.A. Detachment. 
 
 An Army Matron of an Officers' Hospital not 
 a stone's throw from Park Lane told me that she 
 had been amazed at the capability shown by her 
 V.A.D. nurses. She said, **I am a strict disci- 
 plinarian, and I believe in pouncing on them if 
 they do not do their work well, but I must say 
 they are extraordinarily good, as a rule. Some 
 of the senior ones, who had had a certain amount 
 of training before the war and have since worked 
 regularly in Hospital, are quite equal to any 
 regular Hospital staff nurse. I watch each one 
 closely before I allow her to have any responsi- 
 bility; but I have found many of them capable. 
 
SOME OF THE WOEK IN LONDON 95 
 
 extraordinarily conscientious, and all-round good 
 workers.'' 
 
 The White City as a Hospital. 
 
 Who amongst those of us who remember the 
 White City as nothing but a place of entertain- 
 ment and amusement could ever have imagined 
 that a portion of it would become a Hospital! 
 In turn the great buildings of the erstwhile exhi- 
 bition have served for many purposes since the 
 war began; but one of the earliest was the shel- 
 tering of sick recruits. 
 
 Many civilians seem to overlook the fact that 
 in creating a huge Army as we have done during 
 this war, the Military authorities have not only 
 to think of the wounded and sick from the Front, 
 but must establish Hospitals for the reception of 
 men who become ill whilst on home duty. 
 
 It was for the recruits billeted in the White 
 City that the Hospital there was needed, and for 
 many months it did magnificent work. It fell to 
 the happy lot of a British Red Cross Detach- 
 ment to start the work. Let the Commandant of 
 the Detachment tell the story of that work : 
 
 On October 18th, 1914, we were told that in three 
 days ' time we should be required to open a sixteen 
 bed Hospital in the Eoyal Pavilion, as some thou- 
 sands of troops were to be accommodated in the 
 White City at once. 
 
96 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 We spent from that date to the morning of the 
 21st in collecting from the inhabitants of the 
 neighbourhood who had already promised us help, 
 should the necessity arise, the equipment for the 
 Hospital. Everything was plainly marked and 
 entered in books by our Quartermaster as either 
 a gift or a loan, and what was lacking was sup- 
 plemented out of the funds of the Society. 
 
 At two o'clock on the 21st, we were given pos- 
 session of the Pavilion in a quite incomplete form. 
 Work was still going on at the drains, the light- 
 ing, the heating, and the gas-stoves in the kitchen. 
 Our staff of twenty got to work at once, and by 
 four o'clock we had everything in readiness, and 
 as the troops were already coming in, accidents 
 might happen at any moment. 
 
 By six o 'clock, one ward of eight beds was fully 
 equipped in every way; and by ten o'clock next 
 morning both wards, the day-room with all its 
 stores, and the kitchen were in full working order, 
 and patients had already begun to arrive. 
 
 At the end of the first fortnight it was realised 
 that the accommodation was quite inadequate, and 
 another pavilion was handed over to us in which 
 we placed sixteen beds. This was opened at once, 
 and we found it was necessary to shut a portion 
 of it off to make a small isolation ward. Naturally, 
 the moment a case was known to be infectious it 
 was removed. 
 
 At the end of the first month we handed over 
 
SOME OF THE WORK IN LONDON 97 
 
 the Hospital complete to a St. John Detachment, 
 who ran it for a month and then handed it back 
 to us. 
 
 In the following January it was again found 
 imperative to enlarge, so a corner of the Officers' 
 Mess was given over to us to make yet another 
 ward of nine beds. 
 
 At the beginning of February an epidemic of 
 measles made it necessary for us to equip a large 
 empty pavilion in the neighbourhood, but it was 
 run by a trained nurse and two orderlies, we only 
 being responsible for supervision, laundry and 
 food. 
 
 We also had a very large Out-Patient depart- 
 ment, where during the six months we treated 
 some thousands of patients, exclusive of all inocu- 
 lations which took place there. We supplied our 
 own dispensary. 
 
 Our staff consisted of myself, as Commandant 
 in c>arge, 
 
 1 Lady Superintendent, 
 
 1 Matron, 
 
 1 Quartermaster, 
 
 5 cooks, 
 
 1 dispenser, 
 
 1 trained nurse for night duty, 
 
 2 V.A.D. nurses "^or night duty, 
 
 9 V.A.D. nurses for general nursing duty, 
 
 1 clerk. 
 
 The work was exceedingly heavy, as there was 
 
98 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 such a constant changing of patients. Much of 
 our equipment was improvised; all our stores, 
 pack stores, cupboards, etc., consisting of sugar 
 boxes built up, lined with glazed calico, and cur- 
 tained off. We did all our own upholstery work, 
 and put up our own shelves, etc. Our cooks were 
 constantly complimented upon their cooking. 
 
 When the time came for the Hospital to be 
 closed we had very little notice, and we cleared 
 everything up in three days, returning all stores 
 to the Divisional store, packed for the most part 
 in the sugar cases which had served as cup- 
 boards. 
 
 Since the troops left the White City it has been 
 used for many other Government purposes, and 
 there is a permanent Ambulance Station there 
 where an old St. John Sergeant is in charge, to- 
 gether with a trained nurse and a junior nurse. 
 
 The modest, bare report of the work thus given 
 by the Commandant must be embroidered, as it 
 were, by the reader. We can fill in for ourselves 
 with but little effort some rough idea of the work 
 that this undertaking meant to that little band of 
 V.A.D. members. 
 
 The White City lies, as everyone knows, on the 
 outskirts of London. It is not an easy place to 
 get at, and the Detachment which had the work in 
 hand came from one of the fashionable suburbs 
 some miles away. Many of these members must 
 
SOME OF THE WOEK IN LONDON 99 
 
 have had quite a long journey to get to their work 
 in the morning and back again at night. 
 
 It happened that it was during the winter, and 
 bitter weather prevailed a great part of the time. 
 Exhibition buildings are not the warmest of 
 places, (except those which were fitted up as 
 wards,) and there was of necessity a good deal of 
 running between one building and another. Yet 
 these devoted women took no credit to themselves, 
 but just went straight ahead with the work in 
 hand and accomplished it so well that they had 
 high commendation for it from the Military au- 
 thorities. 
 
 Worlc at the 3d London General Hospital. 
 
 In the early autumn of 1915, this same Detach- 
 ment was detailed for work at the 3d London 
 General Hospital, one of the biggest Military Hos- 
 pitals in the Metropolis. It is situated on a large, 
 open common and is magnificently equipped. 
 
 More men had been wanted for the fighting 
 forces or for Ambulance work on the field, and a 
 great many orderlies in the Military Hospitals 
 had been withdrawn for these purposes. Women 
 in all grades of life had volunteered to undertake 
 men's work, and women members of V.A. De- 
 tachments were determined to try to fill the va- 
 cancies caused by men orderlies being taken away. 
 It was an experiment, but one that has proved 
 most successful, not only in London but in France. 
 
100 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 Eleven of the Detachment which had worked in 
 the White City, including the Commandant, and 
 three members from other Detachments went to 
 the 3d London General Hospital for a month, and 
 they did so well that at the end of that time many 
 other Hospitals adopted the same idea. 
 
 The Commandant says, **We worked in the 
 Admission and Discharge office, the Stewards' 
 Store, the linen store, the telephone-call office, the 
 post-office, the main hall pay office, and we did the 
 typewriting and secretarial work of the Hospital. 
 At the end of the first month there were thirty- 
 four members at work there in the places of men 
 who had gone abroad on service. 
 
 **From there last March seven of us were de- 
 tailed for France, and we are now working in the 
 wards, the kitchens and the offices of a Hospital 
 there, whilst I have charge of the Sisters ' Mess. ' ' 
 
 The Commandant adds that she cannot say 
 enough for the loyalty and devotion that her mem- 
 bers have shown since the beginning of the war. 
 It is nice to hear a superior officer say that, but 
 one has not much doubt of what the members 
 would say about her. It is the old saying over 
 again — **a good officer makes good men." 
 
 It always interested me immensely to watch the 
 methods of officers with their men on the troop 
 trains as they went up to the Front. I came to 
 the conclusion that the officer who could not get 
 obedience from his men, or complained of their 
 
SOME OF THE WOEKlk LONDON 101 
 
 behaviour, was not the right man for his 
 work. 
 
 It is exactly the same thing in V.A.D. work. 
 Almost invariably it lies in the hands of the Com- 
 mandant of each Unit to make or to mar the work 
 of the members. He or she can impart enthusi- 
 asm, loyalty, devotion to duty, to an extraordinary 
 degree by first setting a high example, and sec- 
 ondly by attaching the members to himself or 
 herself by the cords of personal affection and 
 respect. 
 
 Commandants who do not insist on discipline 
 and on being properly treated will never make 
 their members as efficient in their work as they 
 should be. The member who respects himself or 
 herself will take a pride in saying **Sir'' to the 
 Medical Officer and to all superiors whilst on duty. 
 They will rise when a superior enters the room, 
 and they will learn to keep their tempers whatso- 
 ever the provocation may be. V.A.D. members 
 are, in fact, a kind of extra arm to the Army, and 
 should be glad to accept military discipline as a 
 part of their training. 
 
 The speech of a very raw V.A.D., who said, **I 
 do not see that there is any need for some people 
 to be seniors and some people to be juniors, be- 
 cause we are all grown-up women," showed her- 
 self not only lacking in common-sense but also un- 
 fitted for the work. Seniority and rank there must 
 be in every big organisation, and it is generally a 
 
102 BEITAIN^'g 6lViLIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 case of the ' * survival of the fittest. ' ' The man or 
 the woman who has taken the greatest trouble to 
 learn the work almost invariably climbs the ladder 
 to the higher places, and therefore has a right to 
 be obeyed by those who have taken less trouble to 
 equip themselves. 
 
 There are still a few people who consider 
 it is infra dig to bow to discipline, but as a 
 matter of fact it is just the other way about, for 
 no person can rule who cannot obey, and in 
 honouring their superiors they are honouring 
 themselves. 
 
 The vast majority of V.A. Detachments have 
 excellent discipline, and I would not like them as 
 a whole to think that I am venturing to criticise 
 them; but this seems to be an opportunity for 
 saying just a word to any of those who may not 
 have thought out the thing carefully, and who 
 imagine that because V.A.D. members are volun- 
 tary and give valuable time and services without 
 any thought of reward, they should not be asked 
 to submit themselves to strict control. 
 
 There is a fascination about seeing a well- 
 disciplined V.A. Detachment where they have 
 learned to march well, to stand at attention when 
 spoken to by a superior, to reply briskly and brief- 
 ly, and to pay respect to the smallest detail that 
 has been ordered by an officer ; above all it is good 
 to see them draw themselves up sharply to atten- 
 tion when the National Anthem is played, and to 
 
SOME OF THE WORK IN LONDON 103 
 
 stand with head erect and steady eyes until the 
 last note has died away. 
 
 These things seem to come naturally to men, so 
 that the male Detachments are almost invariably 
 excellent in all these ways ; but just here and there 
 one comes across a women's Detachment which 
 has not yet learned the inestimable value of strict 
 discipline. 
 
 After having travelled thousands of miles in 
 order to see V.A.D. work, there are certain pic- 
 tures left in my mind, and none are more vivid or 
 more pleasant than those which recall the smart 
 appearance of dozens of Detachments throughout 
 the country where the members take a pride, not 
 only in themselves and their conduct, but in their 
 Detachment, which is to them a corporate body, in 
 which the standard must be the highest. 
 
 Discipline is no chimera or fantasy. Its effects 
 permeate the whole work of the Detachment, and 
 many a hasty word that has risen to the lips of a 
 V.A.D. member, and has been checked simply be- 
 cause she has been taught not to give way to her 
 feelings, has prevented an uncomfortable scene in 
 a Hospital ward. The good old Army rule of 
 obey first and complain afterwards should become 
 one of the mottoes of all V.A.D. members. 
 
 Artists as Orderlies, 
 
 The Colonel of a Military Hospital in London 
 did not know where to turn to get orderlies, but 
 
104 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 one day lie had a bright idea, and that very even- 
 ing obtained an introduction to a certain artists' 
 club in Chelsea. 
 
 He spoke to the members, telling them of the 
 needs of the Hospital, and showed them how much 
 they owed to the wounded men. Several of the 
 members were over military age, or for other rea- 
 sons had not felt able to enlist; but before the 
 Colonel left the cliib that evening he had quite a 
 long list of artists who had promisefl to enter the 
 ranks the next day as R.A.M.C. orderlies. They 
 kept their word and have done magnificent service, 
 the majority of them being very well known in 
 the world of art. 
 
 Of course they knew nothing about Hospital 
 work, and it was highly amusing to hear one of 
 them describe his experiences during the first 
 weeks of work. He shaved off his beard of course, 
 and was quite unrecognisable to his friends in his 
 Tommy's uniform. 
 
 Many of these men had never done a labourious 
 day's work in their lives, and one of them had to 
 be actually taught how to scrub by a ward Sister ; 
 but against their ignorance of Hospital routine 
 one can put their education and their anxiety to 
 learn, and within a very few weeks they had fallen 
 into the work as to the manner born. 
 
 They do the ward work, the kitchen work, the 
 garden work ; they go out on the convoys, and they 
 take long journeys in charge of patients who have 
 
SOME OF THE WORK IN LONDON 105 
 
 to be escorted to Hospitals far away, and they 
 have shown themselves to be men in the highest 
 sense of the word. But the exceedingly clever lit- 
 tle Hospital Magazine, which is issued monthly, 
 proves that they have not forgotten how to wield 
 pen and brush, for between its pages one finds 
 some little gems of art, executed by Private This 
 or Corporal That in his spare time. 
 
 The war has turned the world topsy-turvy. 
 Who would have expected to find an A.R.A. or a 
 R.B.A. setting up beds in a hut ward or under- 
 taking the thousand and one odd jobs which fall 
 to the lot of a Hospital orderly? 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 Am Eaid and Other Duties 
 
 ALTHOUGH happily the damage done by 
 ^ Zeppelin bombs has been slight in compari- 
 son with the effort made by the Germans, very 
 full arrangements have had to be made to cope 
 with any possible emergency. Great credit is due 
 to the V.A.D. members, men and women, who 
 undertake to be always ready to attend to acci- 
 dents during an air raid. It is not an exhilarat- 
 ing affair to be called out at eleven o'clock at 
 night perhaps, to have to walk a mile or two to a 
 central position, and to sit in a spot which is often 
 not too warm, until the small hours of the morn- 
 ing, when the walk home has to be made through 
 the pitch-dark streets. 
 
 On more than one occasion an exceedingly well- 
 known woman of position, who has undertaken 
 this duty as a V.A.D. member, has stopped at a 
 coffee stall, and has been thankful to buy a hot 
 drink to cheer her on her homeward way. I think 
 the keeper of the coffee stall would have been a 
 little surprised if he had known the identity of 
 his customer, but it is only a typical case of doz- 
 ens of others, for many highly cultured men and 
 
 106 
 
AIR EAID AND OTHER DUTIES 107 
 
 women, holding important positions during the 
 day, have offered themselves for this particular 
 night duty, because they can do that without in- 
 terfering with their regular daily work, which in 
 many cases is of supreme importance to the nation. 
 
 The arrangements made, under the police, by 
 each great city for calling up help in the event 
 of air raids are extraordinarily complete. Usu- 
 ally, the authorities know a few hours before a 
 Zeppelin is likely to attack a city, and a carefully 
 worded warning is sent forth to all the Ambulance 
 people who must go on duty. They know exactly 
 -where they are to go, and most of them have 
 ** Zeppelin bags," as they call them, packed ready 
 with every kind of dressing, and with gas masks, 
 which they can pick up and take wi<;h them at a 
 moment's notice. 
 
 I was delighted to see such a bag was hung on 
 a special peg in the hall of a house of a V.A.D. 
 member in one of the great Midland cities; she 
 explained laughingly, **I always put my clothes 
 ready so that I can get into them very quickly, 
 and then as I fly out at the front door I pick up 
 my Zeppelin bag, and am ready for anything that 
 may happen." 
 
 Some Sad Cases. 
 
 If the Huns can find any satisfaction in know- 
 ing that they are killing old men and women, and 
 little children, let them read the following story : 
 
108 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 In a certain suburb outside London, which has 
 rows and rows of little houses occupied almost 
 entirely by the poorer working classes, there lived 
 an old couple who had worked all the days of their 
 lives, and were eking out their narrow means as 
 best they could, for they were both feeble and long 
 past work. 
 
 A bomb fell on the house and set it on fire, and 
 these two inoffensive old people were burned to 
 death before they could be rescued. The place 
 burned like a match-box, and although the Ambu- 
 lance men and the firemen made some gallant 
 attempts to get up the ladders to the window 
 of the bedroom, they were beaten back by the 
 flames. 
 
 One of the V.A.D. men who was on the scene 
 described it bluntly, and without the least thought 
 that he had played the part of a hero. After he 
 had tried to get up the ladder to the old couple, 
 he turned his attention to a mother and daughter 
 who had been seriously hurt about the face and 
 head. 
 
 A little later on, a man rushed into the Police 
 Station and announced that he was the caretaker 
 of a certain Mission Hall, and that a bomb had 
 come through the roof but had not exploded. He 
 begged that somebody should go over and take it 
 away, and of course it fell to the lot of an Am- 
 bulance man to do this. He was perfectly calm 
 about it, and even joked over it. He went in. 
 
AIR RAID AND OTHER DUTIES 109 
 
 picked the bomb up, and carried it away in his 
 hand to a place of safety. 
 
 A pathetic incident happened in connection with 
 one of the air raids. A man who had been devoted 
 to St. John Ambulance work for a great many 
 years, and had undertaken air raid duty many 
 times, was taken seriously ill, and actually died 
 at the moment when the police arrived at his 
 house to tell him to go on duty. It was quite 
 appropriate that it should happen, in a sense, be- 
 cause he was a man who had always put duty 
 first; and certainly nothing but very serious ill- 
 ness would have prevented him from going out to 
 the succour of his fellow-beings. 
 
 He was a workingman, who had given up every 
 one of his Bank Holidays for nearly twenty years 
 past to go on to one of the great open spaces in 
 London to attend to the accidents which always 
 occur on these holidays. He was a big, large- 
 hearted, cheery man, from whom one never heard 
 a grumble or a disagreeable word however hot the 
 day or arduous the work. 
 
 It has been my privilege to work with him on a 
 great many occasions, and it always touched me 
 deeply to see him attending to the children, for he 
 had the smile and the winning ways that instantly 
 comfort the little ones when they come to grief. 
 
 "When I heard about his sudden death, and how 
 the police had wanted his aid at that very moment, 
 it seemed to me absolutely typical of the man, and 
 
110 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 he in his turn is typical of hundreds of members 
 of V.A. Detachments. 
 
 The man who tries to mount the ladder set 
 against a burning house, or rides down the high- 
 road with shrapnel falling about him, is surely as 
 much a hero as he who gives succour to the 
 wounded on the battle-field. 
 
 How the Members Are Called to Duty, 
 
 Perhaps it would be interesting to show exactly 
 how the members are called up for **air raid 
 duty.'* We will take, for instance, an outlying 
 district of London, where there is a permanent 
 Ambulance Station open day and night for any 
 accident which may occur on the busy thorough- 
 fares near-by. 
 
 To the men on duty there at night the news of 
 an air raid comes from the Fire Brigade Head- 
 quarters. The Ambulance man on duty immedi- 
 ately rings up six or seven cyclists who live near, 
 and within a few minutes they arrive and take 
 away little packets of cards which are ready pre- 
 pared for them. On the cards is written the name 
 of the station to which the Ambulance man is to 
 
 go. 
 
 The cyclist runs round, knocks at the door of 
 each Ambulance man, and pushes the card into 
 the letter-box, so that when the man comes down 
 he takes the card and sees exactly where he is to 
 be stationed. This method saves the time of the 
 
AIR RAID AND OTHER DUTIES 111 
 
 cyclist, who does not have to wait to deliver a 
 message. 
 
 The public library in this district has been 
 turned into an emergency Hospital with twenty- 
 six beds, and altogether there are a hundred beds 
 available in the neighbourhood; whilst there are 
 nine regular stations in the district where men 
 and nurses are on duty. 
 
 In the event of a fire, two Ambulance officers 
 always go with the motor engine, carrying First 
 Aid equipment with them; and following quickly 
 upon their heels there goes an emergency gang of 
 men, carrying picks and shovels to effect rescues 
 if necessary. 
 
 The duty of Ambulance men and women on the 
 East Coast of England has been arduous in the 
 extreme, for they have never been able to relax 
 for one moment from the chance of having to 
 attend to victims of air raids or bombardment. 
 
 At all the towns on the East Coast there is an 
 understanding between the authorities and the 
 members of the Detachments as to the post they 
 are to occupy directly they are called up. They 
 turn out with their equipment and form dressing 
 stations, and provide temporary Hospitals for the 
 civilian population. 
 
 In addition to this work, they meet all trains 
 and convoys of wounded, and help to unload them 
 and transport them to the various Hospitals to 
 which they are allotted. 
 
112 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 V,A,D. Roll of Honour. 
 
 As the years of war increase, so our Roll of 
 Honour lengthens. It is quite impossible to give 
 a complete list of the V.A.D. men and women who 
 have given their lives in the course of performing 
 their duty ; but I should like to touch upon a few 
 cases, in order to show the general public some- 
 thing of the sacrifices that are being made, not 
 once or twice, but constantly, in the ranks of 
 V.A.D. workers. 
 
 It will be remembered that very early in the 
 war a Hospital ship went down, and a number 
 of R.A.M.C. men were lost. Practically the whole 
 of those men were Red Cross Volunteers. 
 
 Then we lost men during the sinking of H.M.S. 
 Cressy ; whilst there have been only too many Red 
 Cross members and V.A.D. men and women who 
 have contracted dysentery or typhoid abroad, and 
 have died. 
 
 One St. John man, who was employed in one of 
 H. M. Dockyards, was instructed to join a ship, 
 which foundered four days after his mobilisation. 
 Of him, his superior officer writes, **I always 
 found him a most efficient and painstaking officer, 
 and I know his death was heard of with great 
 regret in this neighbourhood." 
 
 In August, 1916, it will be remembered that a 
 troop ship was torpedoed on her way from Alex- 
 andria to the Dardanelles. When she foundered 
 
AIR RAID AND OTHER DUTIES 113 
 
 1,000 lives were lost and 600 saved. One Unit of 
 the R.A.M.C., which was going out as a Casualty- 
 Clearing Station and was almost entirely made up 
 of men from one part of England, was very hard 
 hit. It lost two officers and fifty-five men out of a 
 strength of eight officers and seventy-seven men. 
 The officer in charge in England writes thus: 
 * * This fine Unit, which was thoroughly well organ- 
 ized and equipped, was principally composed of 
 trained members from the St. John Ambulance 
 Brigade in . . . Amongst those lost were a ser- 
 geant and five privates from the . . . Division, 
 all well-known Ambulance men and highly thought 
 of in civil life, so much so that a memorial serv- 
 ice was held in the town on receipt of the sad 
 
 Quick Work, 
 
 One might easily fill a book with stories of quick 
 work accomplished by members of V.A. Detach- 
 ments ; but I will give a few instances just to show 
 the kind of thing that is happening every day 
 amongst the members. 
 
 Suddenly six men were wanted as stretcher- 
 bearers for France. The authorities telephoned 
 through to one of the Red Cross centres in London, 
 and the officer there, knowing that a drill was 
 taking place in Regent's Park, sent a messenger 
 off in a taxi with the very simple object of taking 
 six men away from the drill and sending them 
 
114 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 across to France. This was done, and in the space 
 of one hour from the moment that the telephone 
 call was received the men presented themselves 
 for duty, and crossed the Channel that same eve- 
 ning. A V.A.D. member must, indeed, be ready- 
 to go anywhere and do anything at a moment's 
 notice. 
 
 Another time a telephone call came to a Red 
 Cross office from a Hospital, saying that one of 
 the patients had become seriously delirious and 
 must have a special attendant. The staff of the 
 Hospital was already overworked, and they 
 wanted a man sent down immediately. Within 
 half an hour from the time the telephone call came 
 in a Red Cross member was by the bed of the 
 delirious man. 
 
 In the very early days of the war a party of 
 Red Cross orderlies was sent to one of the big 
 French towns. It was during the terrible retreat 
 from Mons, and fearing that possibly the Germans 
 would get into the town, the French people had 
 blown up the bridges all round. It was necessary 
 for the orderlies to get into the town, and so they 
 improvised a bridge of planks and crawled across 
 the river with imminent peril to their lives. 
 
 Members of Red Cross Units have worked in 
 Hospitals in Italy, in Petrograd, in Salonica, 
 Malta, Cairo, Servia, Luxor, Alexandria, Monte- 
 negro, Palermo, Corfu, and in many other foreign 
 countries. 
 
AIR RAID AND OTHER DUTIES 115 
 
 When there was a sudden and serious outbreak 
 of typhoid amongst the French patients in a cer- 
 tain French town, there came an urgent appeal 
 for ten V.A.D. Englishwomen to nurse them. In 
 a couple of days that little band of nurses was 
 hard at work amongst the typhoid patients in a 
 town situated in the heart of France. 
 
 Some of the noblest work, because of its lowly 
 character, is done by V.A.D. men and women, who 
 are at strenuous work all day, but give up a part 
 of their nights to go into Hospitals for the pur- 
 pose of cleaning utensils which have to be kept 
 bright. The overworked staff of a Hospital very 
 often finds that it is the **last straw" to have to 
 keep all the pots and pans and the brass fittings 
 as bright as they should be kept in a well-managed 
 Hospital. 
 
 It occurred to some V.A. members, who could 
 not possibly give time in the day, that this par- 
 ticular kind of work could be quite easily done at 
 night, far away in the kitchens whilst the patients 
 were asleep; and in hundreds of cases men and 
 women have given up a portion of their night's 
 rest in order to go and do this lowly task. 
 
 On the same high level there comes the work 
 of two girls who earn their own living in a West 
 End shop. They have to be at the counter at 
 8.45, and since they live in a northern suburb of 
 London, they have to spend a good bit of time in 
 the daily journey. They discovered that a West 
 
116 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 End Hospital was greatly in need of help in the 
 early morning hours, and they offered to go and 
 cook the breakfasts for the patients and the staff. 
 They rose at five o'clock every morning and 
 went direct to the Hospital, where they showed 
 themselves to be excellent cooks and steady work- 
 ers. By eight o'clock they had been able to tidy 
 up after the meal was finished, and they then went 
 on to their work. This wonderful bit of **duty" 
 is still going on, and is only an example of what 
 many women are doing in different districts. 
 
 Pillows for the Wounded. 
 
 There came a requisition suddenly to the St. 
 John warehouse that a large number of pillows 
 should be sent down to Charing Cross Station to 
 go off by a certain train. Suitable pillows had 
 to be sorted out and packed, but well within the 
 hour a messenger arrived at Charing Cross with 
 the pillows and put them on the train. 
 
 Turning a Convent School into a Hospital. 
 
 A fine piece of rapid work was carried through 
 by a Sussex British Red Cross Detachment. Part 
 of a girls' Convent School had been offered as a 
 Hospital, and on a certain Saturday evening in 
 the early months of the war a call came from the 
 Military authorities for accommodation for some 
 thirty or forty wounded. 
 
 The Commandant of the Detachment called to- 
 
AIR RAID AND OTHER DUTIES 117 
 
 gether her members, and they all set to work. The 
 children who were at school in the Convent were 
 put into one-half of the building, which was di- 
 vided off by boards; but in their half were the 
 kitchen and many of the necessary offices. 
 
 Thus it came about that the V.A. members had 
 to induce gasfitters and plumbers to set to work 
 at once to convert a class-room into a kitchen, and 
 a conservatory into a scullery. One room on the 
 ground floor was turned into an admirable little 
 operating theatre fitted with up-to-date equipment, 
 all of which was lent. Beds, of course, had to be 
 set up in all the rooms, and cupboards were hastily 
 improvised until lockers could be obtained. 
 
 The Commandant had been warned that the 
 patients (Belgians) would probably arrive in a 
 sorely dirty condition, and she was determined to 
 run no risk of having her newly cleaned Hospital 
 soiled. A tent therefore was borrowed and set 
 up in the grounds quite close to the front door, 
 and this was warmed and made comfortable. Here 
 the volunteer orderlies undressed the wounded 
 men, washed them as far as possible, then wrap- 
 ping them in warm blankets carried them into the 
 Hospital and put them to bed. 
 
 Since that day there has seldom been an empty 
 bed in the Hospital, for the Inspecting General 
 declares it to be on a level with the best of all 
 those in his district. 
 
CHAPTER Xn 
 V.A.D. WoEK IN Ibeland 
 
 IRELAND has not been behindhand in the mat- 
 ter of V.A.D. work, for long before the war 
 broke out there were several St. John and B.R.C.S. 
 Detachments scattered throughout the island. 
 Under the energetic leadership of Dr. J. Lumsden, 
 Director-in-Chief of the B.R.C.S. and St. John Am- 
 bulance in Ireland, a very large amount of good 
 work has been done, both by men and women mem- 
 bers of V.A. Detachments. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Dublin there have been 
 six Auxiliary Military Hospitals established 
 largely by voluntary efforts. Dublin Castle, the 
 first to be equipped, is a very fine place, and of 
 course Dublin University makes a magnificent 
 Hospital. Then there are the Princess Patricia 
 Hospital at Bray; Monktown Hospital; Temple 
 Hill Hospital, Black Rock; and Glenmaroon, 
 Chapel Izod. 
 
 Dublin Castle Hospital has been entirely run by 
 the City of Dublin Branch of the British Red Cross 
 Society; but the other five have been staffed 
 
 na 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN IRELAND 119 
 
 jointly by St. John and B.R.C.S. members; and 
 it is delightful to know that this intermingling of 
 the two societies has been entirely successful. 
 
 The more the members work together the bet- 
 ter must be the result, for now that we have a 
 Joint Committee of representative men from the 
 two Societies, every effort should be made to bring 
 the members together in their work. Ireland 
 seems to have done this particularly well, and as 
 a matter of fact the Territorial Force Association 
 members work in with the other two Societies 
 without any kind of friction. 
 
 It was arranged that all the Units when mo- 
 bilised should come under the control of the Joint 
 V.A.D. Committee for Ireland. It was not in- 
 tended in any way to interfere with the old ma- 
 chinery of either of the Societies, but that when 
 mobilisation took place the Joint V.A.D. Com- 
 mittee should be in supreme command. 
 
 Once again let me say that I am giving promi- 
 nence to the work in and around Dublin simply 
 as being the centre and heart of Ireland, as it were, 
 and therefore suggestive of what is going on in 
 many parts of the island. 
 
 It is hoped that before long a ** limbless'' Hos- 
 pital will be established at Bray. It will be run 
 on the same lines as the one at Roehampton, Lon- 
 don, where such marvellous things have been done 
 in supplying artificial limbs to men who have lost 
 their arms and legs. 
 
120 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Male V,A. Detachments in Ireland. 
 
 There are quite a number of these, and the mem- 
 bers have distinguished themselves by their very- 
 excellent service, especially during the Sinn Fein 
 Riots, about which I shall have a good deal to say 
 later on. 
 
 Directly war was declared, about five hundred 
 St. John members (male) were mobilised for Mili- 
 tary Home Hospitals and Sick Berth Reserves. 
 Upwards of three hundred Nursing Sisters volun- 
 teered for service in Military Hospitals at home 
 and abroad, and a large number of women volun- 
 teered for special service as clerks, cooks, and 
 dispensers. 
 
 Sick Soldiers on Furlough. 
 
 The Nursing Sisters of V.A. Detachments in 
 Ireland have been doing some excellent work in 
 visiting sick soldiers on furlough. Very often a 
 man obtains permission to go to his home whilst 
 he is still more or less ill, and it has meant a great 
 deal to these men to be able to have the attention 
 of a nurse. 
 
 Docks and Railway Termini Work. 
 
 Great assistance has been rendered to the Re- 
 ception Committee at the Docks and railway ter- 
 mini by V.A.D. members. 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN IRELAND 121 
 
 Massage. 
 
 Massage, electrical, and radiant heat treatment 
 have been given to a very large number of men 
 by Miss Poole and her many skilled and willing 
 helpers. 
 
 Worh Parties. 
 
 Throughout Ireland there have been instituted 
 working parties where Hospital comforts are 
 made. The Irish War Hospital Supply Depots 
 have done particularly good work throughout 
 the country. They were inaugurated by the 
 Marchioness of Waterford, who has given a great 
 amount of time to the work with admirable results. 
 She has 1,200 members on her books, and an 
 average attendance of 120 a day. This alone 
 shows the enormous amount of work which is 
 turned out. For instance, 148 bales were dis- 
 patched between December and April of last year. 
 
 Hospital Ships in the Liffey. 
 
 To the many Hospital ships which came into 
 the Liffey, much assistance has been given 
 by the 200 trained stretcher-bearers who offered 
 their services. They assisted the Military and the 
 Irish Automobile Club members in convoying the 
 wounded from the Hospital ships to the various 
 city Hospitals. These stretcher parties were made 
 up of St. John and B.R.C.S. members, and have 
 
122 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 merited the praise which has been showered upon 
 them because of their prompt and careful move- 
 ment of injured men. 
 
 Joint Clothing Depot. 
 
 Over one hundred thousand have been dis- 
 patched to the Front by the Joint Clothing Depot, 
 which has been run by the County Dublin Branch 
 B.R.C.S. and St. John. A very large party of 
 ladies have ungrudgingly given their time day 
 after day to this work. 
 
 Spagnum Moss Industry, 
 
 In cannection with this a new departure has 
 been made — antisepticising the Spagnum Moss 
 after it has been put into bags. The bags are 
 soaked in corrosive sublimate, which is then 
 squeezed out by passing the bag through a man- 
 gle. The Spagnum Moss is then hung up to dry 
 for two days. 
 
 Voluntary Stamp Saving Service, 
 
 A band of young ladies undertook to deliver let- 
 ters and circulars in and about Dublin for all war 
 Societies and so save stamps. 
 
 Irish V,A.D, Motorist on German Soil, 
 
 Some members of the Irish V.A. Detachments 
 (male) volunteered to go out with Motor Ambu- 
 lances to assist the French Army, and they have 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN lEELAND 123 
 
 done a marvellously good work. So far the Allies 
 cannot claim to be running over much German 
 ground, but here is an Irish V.A.D. member who 
 has been driving his Motor Ambulance backwards 
 and forwards over German soil for many months. 
 
 Writing home from the neighbourhood of Al- 
 sace, he explained that he had just been moved 
 from one part of France to another. **The Gen- 
 eral shook hands with us all round before we 
 started, and a band played us off. We remained 
 
 at E about ten days, and then came on to 
 
 our present Headquarters, which are four miles 
 from the Alsacian frontier, and twenty miles be- 
 hind the firing line. 
 
 * * The work here is quite different from what we 
 
 have been accustomed to at C We have 
 
 been frightfully busy, and for ten days none of 
 us had our clothes off, and the only sleep we had 
 was in our clothes and in a barn. The work is 
 made very difficult owing to the mountainous na- 
 ture of the country, and the fact that the roads 
 are nearly always covered with deep snow and ice. 
 
 ^* We had three main spheres of operation; evac- 
 uating the wounded from the firing line to a Clear- 
 ing Station, work between the Clearing Station 
 and four Hospitals in the valley behind the 
 trenches, and evacuating from these Hospitals 
 over the pass across the Frontier. The worst part 
 of our work is between the firing line and the 
 Clearing Station. 
 
124 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 **The wounded are carried on mules to the 
 Dressing Station on the top of a plateau, and from 
 there we take them down the mountain to the 
 valley. The road is so steep in places that if a 
 car has to stop it cannot start again without help, 
 and it is so narrow that cars can only pass in 
 certain parts. 
 
 **The whole road is often under fire; but about 
 three hundred yards of it are absolutely wrecked 
 by shell fire, and three days ago the two sheds on 
 the top were blown to bits. The valley is also 
 bombarded nearly every day, and last week we 
 had four bombardments and an air raid in one 
 day. Several of our cars have been hit, but so 
 far none of us has been hurt. 
 
 *^We have to do a great deal of work at night as 
 well as all day. We all wear steel shrapnel hel- 
 mets here, and carry respirators, so you can im- 
 agine something of what our conditions are. You 
 will be glad to hear that the car is going well, and 
 has been on German soil for three weeks." 
 
 With regard to what men members are doing, 
 it is specially interesting to know that those who 
 cannot undertake orderly or such work are help- 
 ing at the Irish War Hospital Supply Depot. 
 
 In February, 1916, the Men's Section was 
 formed for the manufacture of splints of all pat- 
 terns, bed rests, bed tables, crutches, etc. A big 
 building at the rear of 40 Merrion Square was 
 fitted up as a huge workshop, and very soon many 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN IRELAND 125 
 
 expert amateur carpenters joined the ranks of 
 workers, whilst others less experienced were con- 
 tent to act as ** labourers." 
 
 Consignments were sent to Mesopotamia, Sa- 
 lonica, and to the Expeditionary Force in France, 
 and in response to urgent appeals all sorts of 
 Hospital comforts and necessities were dispatched 
 to the Verdun front, and to other Hospitals work- 
 ing under the Croix Rouge. Gifts of timber and 
 other necessary materials have been received from 
 kind donors. 
 
 In April of 1916, a Metal Splint Department 
 was started with great success. Splints are made 
 after consultation with leading surgeons of H.M. 
 Forces, some thirty voluntary workers giving 
 their services every afternoon or evening. 
 
 Nearly half the material employed is waste 
 metal, the clippings or remnants from sheet metal 
 which are thrown out from large manufacturing 
 shops being utilised. Much material hitherto al- 
 most worthless has been pressed into use. 
 
 The damaged wings, mud-guards, and panels 
 of motor cars, when cut up by powerful shears 
 and beaten into shape by willing hands, come to 
 form cup-like supports for fractured limbs. The 
 worn-out cauldron, bath, or galvanised tank is still 
 capable of being converted into valuable surgical 
 apparatus. 
 
 Combinations of work are called for, inviting 
 the united abilities of many trades, and there is no 
 
126 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 man who is skilled in any direction who cannot 
 find useful scope for it in this magnificent work. 
 
 Metal splints are flexible and therefore permit 
 the surgeon to bend them so that they will exactly 
 fit the injured limb. The metal is also very light, 
 which gives it an additional value over wood, and 
 it is easily cleaned and disinfected. 
 
 Here is another branch of V.A.D. work which 
 is almost exclusively performed by men, and it 
 would be well if more Hospital Supply Depots 
 started a Men's Section of this kind. 
 
 In the Central Depot (Dublin) there are about 
 thirteen hundred enrolled workers. Then there 
 are a hundred affiliated sub-depots throughout 
 Ireland. All the work is done with the greatest 
 economy, the expenses being carefully watched. 
 
 In several instances luncheon and tea rooms for 
 the worker have become channels for profit, these 
 rooms being managed so well that they make a 
 surplus which can go towards paying for the light- 
 ing and heating of the premises. Each worker, 
 though a volunteer, not only pays for meals sup- 
 plied, but also pays for the privilege of being a 
 worker. 
 
 In the Surgical Dressing Depot the scraps and 
 clippings of materials are made into pads, swabs, 
 cushions, etc., and in the Men's Section no odd 
 piece of metal is allowed to be thrown away. 
 
 Ireland indeed may well be congratulated uppn 
 her voluntary war work. 
 
CHAPTER Xm 
 V.A.D. Work in the Sinn Fein Riots 
 
 THE Sinn Fein Riots gave a sad but unique 
 opportunity to Ambulance and Red Cross 
 workers in Ireland of showing how they could 
 cope with an emergency. The mischief, it is true, 
 had been brewing for a long while, but few people 
 realised that it could ever come to anything seri- 
 ous, and practically all the work that was done 
 for the wounded was arranged on the spur of the 
 moment. 
 
 Of all the magnificent pieces of work carried 
 out by V.A. members during this devastating war, 
 there has been nothing to surpass that which was 
 accomplished in Dublin during those awful days 
 when the rioters let loose their violence upon the 
 city and its inhabitants. 
 
 From St. Patrick's Day, Friday, March 17th, 
 1916, up to Easter Monday, April 24th, the fire 
 smouldered, with flashes of flame here and there, 
 which gave an indication of what might be ex- 
 pected when the general outbreak occurred. On 
 Easter Monday at noon the storm burst in Dublin, 
 and for the following six days the city and suburbs 
 were the scene of grave loss of life and destruction 
 of property. 
 
 127 
 
128 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Dr. Lumsden issued a detailed report of the 
 work done by Ambulance and Red Cross workers 
 during the rebellion. The members, he said, lost 
 no opportunity of rendering First Aid to soldiers, 
 civilians and rebels alike. The general efficiency 
 of the various Detachments was fiercely tested and 
 not found wanting. Members performed duty in 
 all the zones where fighting took place, and it is 
 sad to say that some of them were killed and in- 
 jured in the course of their work. 
 
 The wounded were collected by men and nurses, 
 who went on foot and in Ambulance wagons, ren- 
 dering First Aid and taking patients to Hospital 
 under circumstances of great danger and diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 The first move towards the organization of First 
 Aid work in the rebellion was made by the late 
 Corps Superintendent Holden Stodart, who on 
 Easter Monday telephoned to the Military offer- 
 ing help. Two days later this heroic officer was 
 killed, and his death made an impression through- 
 out the Red Cross workers in Ireland which will 
 not fade. 
 
 Mr. Stodart, who was only thirty-three, was 
 one of the strongest supporters of the St. John 
 Ambulance Brigade in Dublin, and since the out- 
 break of the war had rendered valuable service as 
 a Superintendent of the Brigade. To the work he 
 devoted himself with the whole-hearted enthusi- 
 asm that characterised everything he did. 
 
Lady Superintendent-in-Chief's 
 indoor uniform. 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN SINN FEIN EIOTS 129 
 When the rebellion broke out in Dublin he was 
 the senior St. John Ambulance officer then in the 
 city, and the Military authorities were only too 
 thankful to accept the help which he offered. His 
 was an arduous task, for he organised bodies of 
 Ambulance workers to take duty at the various 
 Hospitals. Despite obstacles that might have 
 seemed insurmountable to another man, he gath- 
 ered his forces and placed them where their serv- 
 ices were most needed. Once the organisation 
 was complete, he settled down to carry on his own 
 work under his superior officer, who had by then 
 arrived on the spot. 
 
 The St. John Ambulance Brigade since the re- 
 bellion has awarded medals and certificates to a 
 number of the officers who distinguished them- 
 selves in the work of the riots, but at present the 
 Chapter-General of the Order of St. John of Jeru- 
 salem has no power to award posthumous honours. 
 In the report which was issued of the work, it is 
 well said that those who knew Mr. Stodart best 
 are content to think that 
 
 " Better than martial woe, or the burden of civic sorrow. 
 Better than praise to-day, or the statue we build to-morrow. 
 Better than honour and glory, from history's iron pen. 
 Is the thought of duty done, and the love of fellow men." 
 
 The War Office has decided to place the officers 
 and men of the Red Cross and St. John Ambulance 
 Brigade working during the riots in the same po- 
 sition with regard to pensions and compassionate 
 
130 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 allowances as the equivalent ranks in the Army, 
 and in pursuance of this liberal policy the widow 
 and child of Mr. H. Stodart have been granted the 
 pension and allowance of a Lieutenant killed in 
 action. 
 
 It was whilst Mr. Stodart was proceeding with 
 a stretcher party to the relief of a wounded sol- 
 dier that he was shot, and instantaneously died. 
 His heroic death and noble example will ever be 
 remembered amongst those who serve under the 
 white eight-pointed star of the Ancient Knights of 
 St. John. 
 
 Pembroke Bed Cross V,A,D, 
 
 It chanced that on the Monday of the outbreak 
 a member of a B.R.C.S. V.A. Detachment passed 
 the Royal City of Dublin Hospital when the first 
 of the wounded G.R. Volunteers arrived. He sent 
 a message to assemble his Detachment, and they 
 immediately took up duty in the various Hospitals. 
 Some of them took in wounded men on stretchers 
 under circumstances of great danger. 
 
 Mr. Dickson of this Detachment was specially 
 mentioned for his good work in connection with 
 the running of the Rathmines Ambulance. On 
 Wednesday the 24th it ran from Portobello Mili- 
 tary Hospital to Beggars' Bush Barracks, being 
 in danger of being shot at all the journey. Dur- 
 ing that night he made five journeys with the Am- 
 bulance, and in the following two days he made 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN SINN FEIN RIOTS 131 
 
 several journeys and assisted in evacuating some 
 of the cases, and also in taking drugs and neces- 
 sities to the small Hospital at Beggars' Bush. 
 
 Difficulties of the Work. 
 
 Imagine the conditions under which the work 
 was carried out. The tram and train service had 
 ceased; postal and telegraph facilities no longer 
 existed. The telephone service was completely- 
 controlled by the Military, and all the usual ways 
 and means of communication were cut off; yet 
 obstacles were surmounted by the V.A.D. mem- 
 bers. 
 
 One of them was repulsed by the insurgents at 
 two places, but succeeded in getting through at 
 the third ; another was twice fired at whilst driv- 
 ing a Motor Ambulance, and a third walked twelve 
 miles out of his direct route in order to get through 
 to his destination. 
 
 Richmond Hospital was the centre of the area 
 where fierce fighting took place. As the danger 
 increased, the beds were placed on the floor to 
 avoid bullets fired from the housetops. In the 
 middle of the week food ran short at the Hospital, 
 and Miss Hezlett, the Lady Superintendent, co- 
 operated in the organization of an expedition to 
 obtain more. On a white sheet the words ** Rich- 
 mond Hospital Supplies" were marked with black 
 type, and Dr. Pollock and two students, bearing 
 this banner, took out a borrowed horse and cart. 
 
132 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEKS 
 
 In spite of having to go through some hot firing 
 they returned safely with supplies. 
 
 At the Rotunda Hospital food almost gave out, 
 and extreme economy had to be practised. Even- 
 tually, when a gallant friend sent down food on 
 a van, the driver was fired at, but luckily got 
 through unhurt. 
 
 Gas was cut off on Tuesday morning, and the 
 electricity on Wednesday. Working in semi-dark- 
 ness added enormously to the difficulty of the sit- 
 uation. The nursing staff, however, maintained 
 a wonderful degree of calmness under the stress 
 of work, whilst there was an accompaniment of 
 roaring cannon and spitting bullets. 
 
 Ambulance Patrol, 
 
 On Easter Tuesday it was decided to start an 
 Ambulance Patrol with its Headquarters in Har- 
 court Street Eailway Station. Day by day the 
 cars ran the gauntlet of bullet-swept streets, being 
 frequently struck by shots. Dangers, always pres- 
 ent by day, increased a hundredfold by night. The 
 darkened streets had to be negotiated without 
 the aid of lights. The voluntary drivers were 
 wonderful in the way they kept up a high speed 
 and yet managed to take their load of wounded 
 men through in safety. 
 
 Glass was everywhere. Tram wires, coiled in 
 big loops, lay about, and in one place a huge 
 length of telephone wire coiled itself round the 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN SINN FEIN EIOTS 133 
 
 wheels of a car. In the daytime the drivers had 
 to memorise the danger spots where houses and 
 walls were down, so that they should not run 
 amuck at night. Many a time the drivers were 
 asked to go and fetch wounded men across a dan- 
 gerous area, and in every case they just ** cranked 
 up'' their cars and went without a word. 
 
 When the ordinary cars could get no further 
 there was an armoured motor car which carried 
 stretchers right into the thick of the fight. It 
 would turn broadside so as to give the stretcher- 
 bearers as much shelter as possible from the 
 snipers. 
 
 The bearers would lie down and wriggle along 
 the streets, pulling the stretchers after them. It 
 is never easy to load a stretcher with a wounded 
 man, but add to the difficulties pitch darkness and 
 the fact that you must yourself lie on the ground 
 and it becomes apparently impossible. But the 
 impossible was achieved again and again by these 
 gallant men, who did their duty as simply and as 
 courageously as those other Red Cross men who 
 are working on foreign battle-fields against a com- 
 mon foe. These bearers often had to walk half a 
 mile under cross fire. 
 
 Gallant Conduct. 
 
 Amongst so many instances of gallantry and 
 conspicuous courage it is difficult to mention any 
 names in particular. For instance, Mr. Henry 
 
134 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Olds was informed that a wounded man was lying 
 on O'Connell Bridge. He hastened there and 
 found that a blind man had been seriously 
 wounded. 
 
 First Aid was applied, but whilst he was put- 
 ting on the bandage he was himself shot in the 
 shoulder. This, however, did not prevent him com- 
 pleting his work, and he managed to bring the man 
 to a place of safety before he became unconscious 
 himself. 
 
 On Wednesday work was allotted to a great 
 number of St. John officers and men who wished 
 to assist, a room being placed at the disposal of 
 the Brigade in the City of Dublin Hospital, Baggot 
 Street. 
 
 Corrig Castle Red Cross Hospital. 
 
 Dr. Reginald Peacocke, Assistant County Direc- 
 tor of the County of Dublin Branch of the 
 B.R.C.S., speaks highly of the work done by the 
 V.A.D. members, especially at Corrig Castle Red 
 Cross Hospital. 
 
 There was a continuous procession at the Hos- 
 pital of refugees, amongst them being two stokers 
 from H.M.S. ^*Tara," who had been liberated 
 by the Duke of Westminster's armoured car ex- 
 pedition, and who were passing through Kings- 
 town on their way home, but were unable to 
 proceed. 
 
 Owing to the great difficulty in procuring food. 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN SINN FEIN EIOTS 135 
 
 bread had to be baked and butter churned on the 
 premises, some of the V.A.D. members being on 
 duty for fourteen hours a day, whilst the Matron, 
 Miss Harris, Commandant, was on duty for three 
 days and three nights continuously. 
 
 The British Red Cross branches of the City and 
 County of Dublin took a large share in the work. 
 Mrs. Heppell-Marr, Assistant County Director of 
 the City of Dublin Branch, was at her post at 29, 
 Fitzwilliam Street, each day, and many members 
 of the B.R.C.S. Detachments took their share in 
 carrying the wounded in under fire. The offices 
 at 29, Fitzwilliam Street, were converted into a 
 temporary hospital, the V.A.D. members collect- 
 ing supplies from the public. This Hospital con- 
 tained fifty beds. 
 
 Another Hospital, with twenty-five beds, was 
 set up at 32, Fitzwilliam Square. 
 
 Refugee Women and Children, 
 
 All kinds of duties were taken over by the De- 
 tachments, whilst isolated members helped refugee 
 women and children, gave assistance at the 
 B.R.C.S. Dressing Stations, carried bales of dress- 
 ings on stretchers to the various Hospitals, fed 
 the starving poor and rendered First Aid to 
 civilians. 
 
 One Detachment started a Canteen for soldiers ; 
 another kept a Canteen going at the munition 
 works throughout the riots. 
 
136 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Women Str etcher-Bearers. 
 
 In pre-war days many were the discussions as 
 to whether women could or should do stretcher 
 work. The women V.A.D. members in Ireland set- 
 tled the question once and for all because an enor- 
 mous amount of stretcher work was carried out by 
 them most successfully. 
 
 There were not nearly enough men to do this 
 work, and the women showed not only their knowl- 
 edge of how to do it, but their complete indiffer- 
 ence to danger when it became a matter of duty 
 that they should go out and rescue wounded people 
 in the shell-swept streets. They made regular 
 tours in the city, and rendered First Aid to the 
 wounded before they brought them into the Hos- 
 pitals. 
 
 Filling Gaps. 
 
 All sorts of gaps were filled by the devoted 
 members of V.A. Detachments during that terrible 
 week in Dublin. At the Castle Hospital it was 
 found that there was exceeding difficulty in get- 
 ting the laundry work done. V.A.D. members 
 volunteered to do it, and everything went well. 
 Washing, cooking, kitchen work — it did not mat- 
 ter what it was, what kind of labour was required ; 
 it was all cheerfully and capably undertaken by 
 V.A.D. members. 
 
iV.A.D. WOEK IN SINN FEIN EIOTS 137 
 
 Ella Webb, M,D. 
 
 Dr. Ella Webb, Lady District Superintendent 
 of S.J.A.B., and member of the Joint V.A.D. Com- 
 mittee for Ireland, rendered splendid service dur- 
 ing the rebellion, for she organized Hospitals, and 
 cycled through the firing line continuously. She 
 visited the City Hospitals day by day, ascertain- 
 mg their needs and giving all possible assistance. 
 She and Dr. Lumsden were both awarded silver 
 medals by the Chapter-General of the Order of 
 St. John of Jerusalem for their services during 
 the week of the riot. 
 
 Dr. Webb, in the report which she issued later, 
 remarks that she was particularly struck with the 
 two great lessons which the V.A.D. members had 
 learned ; the first was to be plucky, resourceful and 
 competent, and the second was to obey. She says : 
 **I was particularly struck with the way in which 
 members took their orders to devote themselves 
 to dull, arduous and uninteresting work with the 
 same cheerfulness as to nursing in the wards." 
 
 Dr, John Lumsden, M,D. 
 
 Dr. John Lumsden, M.D., Knight of Grace of 
 the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Deputy Com- 
 missioner of the St. John Ambulance Brigade, 
 Director General of the Joint V.A.D. Committee 
 for Ireland, showed extraordinary courage 
 
138 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 throughout the rebellion. He was always in the 
 thick of the fight. 
 
 An eyewitness, speaking of his work, said : **His 
 conduct was simply magnificent. He is the bravest 
 man I ever saw. He coolly and calmly knelt in 
 the middle of the road attending to the wounded 
 soldiers, while bullets were fired from the houses 
 on both sides. He helped the men into the Ambu- 
 lance wagons himself, sent them off, and waited 
 until they returned, and during all the time he was 
 under a heavy cross fire. ' ' 
 
 He was under fire for several hours together. 
 Day by day the Ambulance cars ran the gauntlet 
 of bullet-swept streets. The dangers increased 
 a hundredfold by night, when the streets, shrouded 
 in darkness and encumbered by obstacles, had to 
 be negotiated without the aid of lights. Ambu- 
 lances were frequently struck by shots whilst on 
 their journeys. 
 
 In one house where six or seven wounded sol- 
 diers were found the men managed under these 
 conditions to get the wounded loaded on to the 
 stretchers and into the armoured cars in safety. 
 Two bearers had very narrow escapes, bullets 
 passing through their clothing; one stretcher 
 handle had its end knocked off. Several bullets 
 struck the armoured car as it left. 
 
 Another typical feature was the extreme care 
 and correct handling given by the stretcher-bear- 
 ers amidst the most nerve-trying conditions. 
 
iV.A.D. WORK IN SINN FEIN EIOTS 139 
 
 Their first thought was for the comfort of the 
 patient, and the best method of ensuring his safe 
 and comfortable transport. 
 
 The Military casualties during the insurrection 
 amounted to some five hundred, and the civilian 
 losses in killed and wounded amounted to more 
 than a thousand, so some idea may be formed of 
 the emergencies under which the Ambulance men 
 and women of Dublin worked during that week. 
 
 Nursing Detachments. 
 
 The chief piece of work undertaken by the Nurs- 
 ing Divisions was the transformation of the War 
 Hospital Supply Depot in Merrion Square into a 
 temporary Hospital. This was carried out in the 
 amazingly short time of three hours. 
 
 Dr. Ella Webb sent out messages at noon to 
 members to report themselves, and at 2 p.m. girls 
 began to arrive, though in many cases their jour- 
 neys had been hazardous. At five o'clock that 
 afternoon an amputation was being done in the 
 improvised operating theatre, and quite half of 
 the thirty beds were already full. 
 
 Dr. Webb says in her report: '*As this work en- 
 tailed the carrying in by hand of all mattresses, 
 beds, bedding, and utensils from the neighbouring 
 houses, and the clearing away of large, heavy 
 work tables with which the rooms were originally 
 filled, it is a performance of which the V.A.D, 
 members have every right to be proud.'' 
 
140 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Auxiliary Hospitals, 
 
 Seven Auxiliary Hospitals were equipped by 
 other Detachments. In one case a Hospital was 
 helped by a band of ladies who organized an all- 
 day working party for dressings, etc., and a food 
 supply party. Large quantities of both food and 
 dressings were provided. 
 
 Too much praise cannot be given to the ladies 
 of the Red Cross Branches of the City and County 
 of Dublin for the work which they performed dur- 
 ing the rebellion, and it is impossible here to men- 
 tion the individual acts of gallantry which were 
 done by many members. 
 
 A great many temporary Hospitals were 
 equipped and made absolutely ready for the re- 
 ception of patients, which happily were never used, 
 as the rebellion was quickly quelled by the au- 
 thorities. 
 
 Kingstown Men's Detachment, 
 
 This Detachment was mobilised, and on Thurs- 
 day, April 27th, twelve of them left Kingstown 
 and marched into Ballsbridge, and reported to 
 the M.O. in command of the R.A.M.C. there. On 
 the following day they returned to Kingstown, and 
 did excellent work at Corrig Castle Hospital. 
 
 Many Milit^ary and Naval refugees arrived at 
 the Hospital, which added considerably to the 
 work of the staff, as they all had to be fed and 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN SINN FEIN RIOTS 141 
 
 housed, the majority of them remaining about ten 
 days. A number of soldiers were brought in on 
 Tuesday, including an R.A.M.C. Captain who had 
 been wounded, and a number of men suffering 
 from vaccination fever. Shortly afterwards there 
 arrived five Queen Alexandra nurses on their way 
 to King George V Hospital. In fact, there was a 
 continuous procession of refugees, both Military 
 and civilian. 
 
 There was such terrible difficulty in procuring 
 bread that the kitchen was turned into a bakery, 
 and even butter was churned on the premises. 
 Some of the V.A.D. members were on duty day and 
 night. 
 
 Canteens, 
 
 Canteens were opened in various places so that 
 the soldiers on duty might be fed, and these were 
 for the most part entirely run by V.A.D. members. 
 Of one lady who was in charge of a Canteen, it 
 is recorded that she never went off duty for eleven 
 days, taking only snatches of sleep in a chair. 
 
 Smart Worh, 
 
 The Misses J. and R. Fitzpatrick first reported 
 to the Military authorities the seizure by the Sinn 
 Feiners of various points of vantage. During the 
 whole of the rebellion they worked in the hottest 
 and most dangerous fighting zone. They warned 
 
142 BRITAIN'S dVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 the incoming soldiers and troops and acted as 
 guides to them. 
 
 They gave First Aid to any number of wounded 
 Military and civilians, and they carried the 
 wounded from under fire to places of safety. They 
 provided food for the soldiers in the trenches on 
 the Canal bank, and elsewhere, and all the time 
 they were passing to and fro, their garden being 
 under a severe cross fire from troops and rebels. 
 
 'A Dramatic Incident, 
 
 It was on the Wednesday evening following 
 Easter Monday that the Sherwood Foresters 
 marched towards Dublin into the death trap that 
 awaited them in the neighbourhood of Northum- 
 berland Road. Into the inferno the Lady Super- 
 intendent and nurses of Sir Patrick Dun's Nurs- 
 ing Home bravely set forth at about four o'clock 
 i;n the afternoon. They were the first on the 
 scene, and they improvised stretchers out of 
 quilts. 
 
 The resident medical staff of the Hospital were 
 also gallantly engaged in this rescue work, and 
 between them they carried seventy-nine wounded 
 men, including soldiers and rebels, into the Home. 
 This work went on from four in the afternoon 
 until midnight. Men and women alike rendered 
 aid under fire with the utmost coolness and 
 courage. 
 
 A soldier who had been for many months in the 
 
Outdoor uniform of a Lady Super- 
 intendent-in-Chief, 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN SINN FEIN EIOTS 143 
 
 trenches in France and happened to be in Dublin 
 on leave during the riots told me that he had 
 never seen hotter fire than that which swept the 
 streets of the Irish capital. 
 
 Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital became full to over- 
 flowing with wounded, and its approaches were so 
 constantly swept with rifle fire that it was found 
 necessary to throw open the Maternity Hospital 
 for the treatment of casualties. In all some forty 
 bullet wounds of a shocking nature were treated 
 at the Hospital, twelve of them proving fatal. 
 
 The priests attached to St. Andrew's Church, 
 close by, were constantly in the thick of the dan- 
 ger, ministering to the wounded and dying. 
 
 It is satisfactory to know that the Sinn Feiners 
 always respected the sign of the Red Cross and 
 never deliberately fired upon an Ambulance or a 
 Hospital. 
 
 Enough has been said to give some slight notion 
 of the magnificence of the work which was carried 
 out by each and every Detachment in the district 
 where the riots took place. Instances of personal 
 courage there were without number, and although 
 we can only mention a few here as being typical 
 of all the others, we are glad to know that their 
 services have been recognized by the War Office 
 and by the authorities of the Red Cross Societies. 
 
 Terrible indeed it was that such an occasion 
 should ever arise; but since the thing happened 
 one can only be thankful that there was already 
 
144 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEKS 
 
 prepared a body of men and women, efficiently 
 trained, capable and willing, who could deal with 
 the emergency. 
 
 Of doctors and regular trained nurses there 
 could not have possibly been anything like enough 
 to cope with the situation, and there can be no 
 doubt that the work of the V.A. Detachments in 
 Ireland proves how invaluable they are to a coun- 
 try whether it be at war or enjoying peace. 
 
 One can scarcely dare to imagine what would 
 have happened to those hundreds of wounded men 
 and women in the streets of Dublin during that 
 awful week had there not been this devoted band 
 of voluntary workers who had trained themselves 
 in the principles of First Aid, of stretcher-bear- 
 ing, and of elementary nursing. 
 
 The work which was done by the V.A. Detach- 
 ments in the Sinn Fein riots alone must prove to 
 the whole world how necessary it is that patriotic 
 men and women should identify themselves with 
 the Voluntary Aid Detachment movement, learn- 
 ing not only the principles of how to render help ' 
 under such circumstances, but perhaps the even 
 more important matters of discipline, and of car- 
 rying out any bit of work which comes to hand 
 and which is an infinitesimal fragment in the de- 
 sign of Mercy which was pictured for the world 
 by the pioneers of Eed Cross work. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 V.A.D. WoKK IN France 
 
 "pv ESTIMATION unknown!'' Soldiers are 
 X^ not the only people who cross the seas know- 
 ing not at all the place for which they are bound, 
 for many V.A.D. members step on board the Chan- 
 nel boat with no more definite instructions than 
 ** report yourselves at Headquarters in Bou- 
 logne." It is only one more of the odd experi- 
 ences which war has given to some of us and no 
 one quarrels with it. 
 
 The principal V.A.D. Commandant in France, 
 Miss Rachel Crowdy, R.R.C., has a big task on 
 her hands, but she handles it with masterly skill, 
 with broad common-sense and, above all, with jus- 
 tice. She shows no favour to British Red Cross 
 Society members, although she was a member of 
 that Society some years before the war broke out, 
 and she puts St. John or British Red Cross So- 
 ciety members into this or that post simply ac- 
 cording to their suitability. I can speak from 
 personal experience of her sense of **fair play'* 
 (a quality in which women are supposed — quite 
 wrongly — to be lacking), and no words can express 
 
 145 
 
146 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 the esteem in which I hold her after having worked 
 under her for nine and a half months. Directly 
 a woman V.A.D. member arrives in France she is 
 absolutely under Miss Crowdy's control, so that 
 this lady, young though she be in years, holds all 
 the threads of V.A.D. Work, which stretch like a 
 vast cobweb over the war zone in France. 
 
 First of all let me try to give you a picture 
 of the work in its entirety. There are hundreds 
 of V.A.D. members working as nurses and order- 
 lies in the great Military Hospitals at the various 
 Bases; there are dozens of members working in 
 the same way in Auxiliary Red Cross Hospitals ; 
 there are members who spend their whole lives 
 on railway stations, attending to the wounded as 
 they come straight down from the firing line. 
 There are Units of girl motorists who drive am- 
 bulances, and dozens of others who run canteens 
 for convalescent soldiers who have not had the 
 luck to be sent to England and who are sadly in 
 need of the understanding word given by a woman 
 whilst she ministers to their physical comforts. 
 Some V.A.D. members do nothing but clerical 
 work, many being engaged in the sad labour of 
 trying to trace ** Missing'' men. This is a spe- 
 cially self-sacrificing bit of work, it always seems 
 to me, for it means close work in an office from 
 morning to night, often with but small results. 
 "When, however, a man is traced, the joy of the 
 relatives surely more than repays the worker for 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN FRANCE 147 
 
 much which must sometimes seem to be labour in 
 vain. 
 
 There are altogether thirty-three different 
 kinds of V.A.D. Units in Prance ! Following our 
 instructions, we will first go to the Headquarters, 
 which is a big Hotel that has been entirely taken 
 over by the Joint Committee. Here all the heads 
 of Departments have offices. Miss Fletcher, Chief 
 of all Trained Nurses in France, has an office here 
 and works in great harmony with Miss Crowdy. 
 The Trained Sisters have learned to appreciate 
 the work of V.A.D. members and freely acknowl- 
 edge that they could not possibly manage without 
 them; whilst on the part of the members they 
 give respect and willing obedience to the skilled 
 women who have spent years in acquiring their 
 knowledge of nursing. There is wonderfully lit- 
 tle friction, considering the enormous number of 
 people who have been thrown to work together 
 suddenly and under som,ewhat difficult circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Here again we get a very valuable fusion of 
 classes. Difficulties arise abroad which can never 
 be encountered in England, and it is, perhaps, the 
 surmounting of these obstacles which tears down 
 any of the old feelings of opposition and makes 
 the majority of workers labour together in mar- 
 vellous accord. 
 
 There is something very fine in seeing a group 
 of V.A.D. members at work at a little Outpost in 
 
148 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 France, some of them wearing the Red Crosses 
 upon their aprons, which show them to be mem- 
 bers of the British Red Cross Society; whilst 
 others wear the white eight-pointed star, which 
 signifies their membership of St. John. Each one 
 is proud of her own Society, and the unimportant 
 differences are frequently discussed with consid- 
 erable interest; but it is rare indeed to trace a 
 bitter word, or to note a suggestion of superiority 
 on the part of either the one or the other. 
 
 Women in the highest ranks of society are con- 
 tent to scrub and clean ; many a highly intellectual 
 woman is working in the kitchen or the pantry or 
 the linen-room of Hospitals in France, with dog- 
 ged determination to overcome the awful fatigue 
 entailed by these physical labors. Surely these 
 women can take place side by side with the cul- 
 tured men who have enlisted and have uncomplain- 
 ingly endured the rough food, the hard sleeping- 
 places, the companionship of men utterly apart 
 from themselves in taste, in order that they should 
 take their place in the great fight. 
 
 Miss Rose Macaulay, in her poem '^Many Sis- 
 ters to Many Brothers,'' says very truly: 
 
 " Oh, it's you that have the luck, out there in blood and muck : 
 You were born beneath a kindly star; 
 All we dreamt, I and you, you can really go and do, 
 
 And I can't, the way things are. 
 In a trench you are sitting, while I am knitting 
 
 A hopeless sock that never gets done. 
 Well, here's luck, my dear; — and you've got it, no fear; 
 But for me ... a war is poor fun." 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN FRANCE 149 
 
 Women must needs be content with doing the 
 humbler jobs which go to build up the defence of 
 our Empire. 
 
 In Prance the workers are brought face to face 
 with the horrors of war. Down at the Base Hos- 
 pitals they have the men coming in direct from 
 the trains which have brought them from the 
 trenches, and their condition is pitiable beyond 
 words. But even more, the members who are 
 placed further up the line get a glimpse of the 
 conditions under which our men fight. 
 
 **I do not suppose I really understand a bit 
 what it is like, ' ' said a V.A.D. member to a young 
 ofiicer; **but it was bad enough to see the men on 
 their way down to the Base just a few hours after 
 they had been hit." 
 
 *^I think you have a very good understanding,'' 
 he returned. **You get your stories first-hand; 
 and whilst everything was fresh in the minds of 
 the men they would be likely to speak more openly 
 than they do after some days have elapsed." 
 
 **I noticed that," said the girl. **Men coming 
 down from the firing line, with their clothes torn 
 off their backs by the barbed wire, and first with 
 field dressings on their wounds, would * blurt out' 
 things which I never heard from a man in Hos- 
 pital. It was as though they were obsessed with 
 the horror of it all, and although I never once 
 heard a grumble or a bad word, they let little facts 
 drop which, pieced together, have taken definite 
 
150 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 form in my mind. It is exactly as if I had been 
 putting together a jig-saw puzzle, for all the odd, 
 queer remarks made by these men who had been 
 in the trenches actually fighting the enemy only 
 a few hours previously are gradually assimilated 
 by one 's mind ; and after a time one finds uncon- 
 sciously that there grows a complete and inefface- 
 able picture, as it were, in one's brain.'' 
 
 That is really the secret of the difference of the 
 work abroad and at home. Undoubtedly there 
 are V. A. members who go forward with their work, 
 carrying it through most excellently, but without 
 ever touching on the inner side of war; but the 
 majority feel it is the greatest privilege that has 
 ever fallen to their lot to have been allowed to 
 see beneath the surface, and to get some faint 
 knowledge of what the men suffer for honour's 
 sake. 
 
 The Network in France, 
 
 Here again we will follow the same plan as that 
 which we pursued in England. I will try to give 
 you a glimpse of the network in France, and show 
 you what men and women V.A.D. members are 
 weaving there for the benefit of our soldiers. Nat- 
 urally out there the majority of men are in the 
 Army, and for the most part it is the women who 
 are engaged in V.A.D. work, though there are 
 numbers of men over military age who are ren- 
 dering magnificent service to the Joint Societies. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 Red Cross and St. John Hospitals in Fbance. 
 
 THERE are in France a great many large Hos- 
 pitals which come under the general term 
 of Red Cross Hospitals. This means that they 
 are not General or Stationary Military Hospitals, 
 but are kept up by Red Cross funds and are staffed 
 by Red Cross members, though in every case fully 
 trained Sisters are in charge of the wards. 
 
 Naturally these Hospitals form a very large 
 field of operations for V.A.D. members, both men 
 and women, for there are a good many posts which 
 must be filled by men, and in which voluntary 
 workers of over military age are giving signal 
 service. 
 
 For the first year of the war a large number of 
 Red Cross orderlies were used in these Hospitals, 
 but it became necessary that they should be re- 
 leased for other work, and women belonging to 
 V.A. Detachments came forward eagerly to fill 
 their places. 
 
 For instance, in a very large Hospital in one 
 of the big French towns, which is an English Base, 
 something like a hundred men orderlies were re- 
 
 m 
 
152 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 leased, and their places were taken by girls, who 
 have proved great successes as orderlies. When 
 it is remembered what it means to be an orderly 
 in a Hospital, we cannot but admire these women, 
 most of them highly educated and delicately nur- 
 tured, who have thrown themselves into the gap 
 made by the departure of the men, and who cheer- 
 fully carry out the arduous labour which falls to 
 the share of the orderly in Hospital. 
 
 In these Red Cross Hospitals the work for 
 V.A.D. members is apportioned with the greatest 
 care. There are those who have had some nurs- 
 ing experience who are put into the wards to act 
 as probationers under the Sisters. When there 
 is a big push on, and the Hospital is filled to over- 
 flowing by wounded men who come down direct 
 from the Front, these girls have the chance of 
 proving themselves exceedingly useful to the Sis- 
 ters. 
 
 In many cases they have benefited by their year 
 or so in Hospital to such an extent that they can 
 be perfectly well trusted with certain responsible 
 tasks, and Matrons and Sisters have constantly 
 told me when I have visited various Hospitals 
 that some of the experienced V.A.D. members are 
 quite as good as regular staff Hospital nurses. 
 This is high praise, because a fully trained woman 
 realises that no risks must be taken where a 
 wounded man is in the case ; and a V.A.D. nurse 
 must show herself not only conscientious and 
 
EED CROSS IN FRANCE 153 
 
 hard-working, but really capable and efficient, be- 
 fore she is put into any position of trust. 
 
 I have known V.A.D. members who have been 
 given charge of wards (always under the super- 
 vision of a Sister of an adjoining ward) who have 
 been theatre nurses, who have acted as *^ specials'' 
 to very serious cases, who have looked after iso- 
 lation patients, and who have had under their 
 charge a large number of German wounded. 
 
 In fact, there is no kind of nursing work which 
 has not been carried out at one time or another 
 by a V.A.D. member ; but it must be remembered 
 that there are an infinite number of grades of 
 knowledge amongst these members, from the fully 
 trained Sister who gives her services voluntarily 
 and is a V.A.D. member herself down to the girl 
 who has never taken even a First Aid certificate, 
 but has enrolled herself under the General Service 
 Regulations of the Voluntary Aid Movement. It 
 is a great pity that there has come to be a general 
 notion on the part of the public that ** V.A.D.'' is 
 synonymous with * * untrained. ' ' They are not un- 
 trained, neither are they often **fully trained." 
 
 All of these grades of workers are to be met, 
 and it is exceedingly interesting to visit them and 
 see exactly what is being done. In one Hospital 
 in France, which I know very well indeed, two 
 fully trained nurses who had belonged to Volun- 
 tary Aid Detachments long before war broke out 
 have given their services for over two years. 
 
154 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 They are very fully qualified women, and they em- 
 phasize the fact by being able and willing to do 
 anything and everything that comes to hand. 
 
 Naturally they take the responsible part of the 
 nursing, but they nobly share in the lowlier tasks 
 of the Hospital when they threaten to overwhelm 
 the staff. These fully trained Sisters take their 
 turn to get up in the early morning and light the 
 fires, and when there is extra pressure in the 
 kitchen or in the house, by reason of the sudden 
 illness perhaps of a member of the staff, they 
 cheerfully and capably put their hands to the 
 plough. 
 
 This is an example which must not be over- 
 looked, because it calls for a special kind of praise 
 and appreciation. The fully trained women who 
 have joined Voluntary Aid Detachments and have 
 thus become V.A.D. members have absorbed the 
 spirit of the movement, and instead of looking 
 down upon their members who are only half or 
 quarter trained, as it were, they realise the valu- 
 able work done by the humbler folk in this great 
 organization. 
 
 Linen Store-keepers, 
 
 The linen store of a great Hospital gives a rare 
 opportunity for the display of organization and 
 method on the part of its keeper. 
 
 At a certain Red Cross Hospital, where there 
 are 500 beds, between 5,000 and 6,000 articles go 
 
BED CEOSS IN FRANCE 155 
 
 to the laundry each week, and of course there are 
 a large number in reserve. Imagine the chaos 
 of having soiled sheets and pillow-cases running 
 into hundreds if there were not a wonderful 
 method employed. 
 
 This work is almost invariably done alone by 
 one or two V.A.D. members. They spend their 
 lives in the store, receiving soiled and giving 
 out clean linen, but their task does not end 
 there, since every torn or worn article must be 
 mended before it is allowed to go into the Hospital 
 again. 
 
 The linen is kept strictly on Military principles, 
 and the first sight of the books which are sent 
 down by the Military authorities is quite enough 
 to frighten the ordinary woman; but the linen 
 store-keeper bravely tackles them and surmounts 
 all difficulties. She gradually falls into the rou- 
 tine, which is much easier than it looks, and it is 
 a rare occurrence for one of these Red Cross Hos- 
 pitals to lose a single article, though it must be 
 acknowledged that the store-keeper goes through 
 many an anxious moment when she thinks some 
 such disaster has befallen her. 
 
 The linen store room becomes a kind of centre 
 to which everyone goes who wants a job of needle- 
 work done quickly. In one of the big Red Cross 
 Hospitals in a French town a St. John V.A.D. 
 member has created a very enviable character for 
 herself, because she is always willing to help in 
 
156 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 all sorts of ways those who are in *' sewing'' dif- 
 ficulties. 
 
 At Christmas time she showed her ingenuity by 
 making fancy-dress costumes at very small cost, 
 to be worn by those who were entertaining the 
 patients ; and once when a Lieutenant got his pro- 
 motion almost at the same moment that he had or- 
 ders to move on to another town, she deftly added 
 his stars and stripes to his tunic in an incredibly 
 short space of time. He was particularly anxious 
 to have his new rank shown for special reasons, 
 and was most grateful to the store-keeper, as no 
 tailor in the town would have undertaken the job 
 in the allotted time. 
 
 The linen shelves are kept with exquisite tidi- 
 ness, and the orderlies have been so inspired with 
 the charm of neatness that they take as much 
 pride in the appearance of the store-room as the 
 store-keeper does herself. 
 
 There is a huge amount of mending and making 
 to be done of all kinds, from putting delicate 
 stitchery into dainty toilet accessories down to 
 mending a carpet which **has seen its best 
 days," as the member said when she looked 
 up, smiling, from the unwieldy fabric in her 
 hand. 
 
 When there is a convoy going out to *'dear old 
 Blighty'' the store-keeper has a busy time of it. 
 Sometimes she sees from her window a man lying 
 on a stretcher without slippers, muffler, or helmet, 
 
EED CROSS IN FRANCE - 157 
 
 and she rushes out and puts them on before he is 
 carried away. 
 
 Work starts at 7.45 a.m., and the store-keeper is 
 supposed to lock up and get away at seven o'clock 
 in the evening, having had her usual time off dur- 
 ing the day ; but very often odd jobs turn up which 
 necessitate her going back to the store and putting 
 in an hour's work or more before she goes to bed. 
 
 A complete system of ** chits" is used in the 
 store, everything that is wanted in the wards being 
 asked for on a chit by the Sister in charge. These 
 chits are copied and filed for further reference. 
 All laundry bills are checked before they are paid, 
 and a complete record is kept of everything that 
 goes into the store or leaves it. 
 
 St. John Brigade Hospital, 
 
 One of the many wonderful sights to be seen 
 in France during these war months is a certain 
 northern seaport which has become nothing more 
 nor less than a town of Hospitals. 
 
 I had travelled all night under circumstances 
 which were more warlike than comfortable. I had 
 immensely enjoyed the luxury of washing my face 
 and hands, in spite of the fact that the only utensil 
 to hand was a saucepan, and in the very early 
 hours of the morning we slowly steamed into the 
 little station which has become an important one 
 for war work. 
 
 I had been fortunate enough to be sent on a 
 
158 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 special mission to visit the St. John Ambulance 
 Brigade Hospital, and the twenty-four hours I 
 spent there have left a strong impression upon me. 
 
 As we approached the little town by the long 
 bridge which crosses the estuary there my atten- 
 tion was drawn to marvellous sights. There on 
 the ridge of sand-dunes were lines and lines of 
 white tents, intersected here and there by groups 
 of brown wooden huts. That was in the early 
 days of the war, but in the course of time the 
 tents were made less conspicuous, and in many 
 places were entirely replaced by huts. 
 
 An Ambulance had been sent to meet me, and 
 as I sat on the front seat and we dashed over the 
 cobbled stones of the quaint little town whilst it 
 was still only 6 a.m., I was conscious of a thrill, 
 and also of being the recipient of a great privi- 
 lege in being allowed to see the inner working of 
 this great Hospital only a few weeks after it had 
 been opened. 
 
 From the very beginning the Hospital was en- 
 tirely under the control of Sir James Clark, Chief 
 Commissioner of the St. John Ambulance Bri- 
 gade, and it has been entirely maintained by sub- 
 scriptions given direct to it. 
 
 It is, in fact, the modern outcome of the won- 
 derful work which was founded by the Knights 
 of St. John in the Eleventh Century. A flag of 
 the same device as that which they flew in those 
 days floats now over the Brigade Hospital, and 
 
Outdoor uniform of a Com- 
 mandant of V.A.D. 
 
RED CEOSS IN FRANCE 159 
 
 the entire staff of the Hospital are men and women 
 who are closely connected with the St. John Ambu- 
 lance Brigade, which forms a very important part 
 of the Ambulance Department of the Order of 
 St. John of Jerusalem in England. 
 
 In the vast majority of cases members of the 
 Brigade are also members of Voluntary Aid De- 
 tachments, so that in writing about V.A.D. work 
 in France it would be quite wrong not to make 
 some reference to the work of this Hospital, which 
 is said by the Military authorities to be one of 
 the finest in France. 
 
 In some respects its equipment is better than 
 any other, and its staff has been chosen with such 
 extreme care that the working of the whole place 
 goes on oiled wheels. 
 
 The site on which the Hospital stands is a beau- 
 tiful one, for it occupies a large area on sand- 
 dunes which rise some little way behind the sea- 
 shore. The wards are large huts which will ac- 
 commodate some thirty beds, and at the end of 
 each ward there is a small kitchen and all lavatory 
 arrangements, with a clever ventilation shaft, as 
 it were, between the ward and its kitchen and the 
 sanitary portion. All the wards are connected 
 by wooden corridors, which are open at the sides 
 but have roofs, so that the nurses and orderlies 
 are always under cover when they pass from one 
 part of the Hospital to another. 
 
 JThe quarters for the Matron and Sisters occupy 
 
160 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 one long building, whilst a smaller one is given 
 over to the V.A.D. nurses. The orderlies also 
 have excellent quarters across the road, and there 
 is a nice building which accommodates the medi- 
 cal staff. 
 
 There are 580 beds in the Hospital, and about 
 fifty-two fully trained Sisters are employed, with 
 a staff of twenty-four V.A.D. members under 
 them. The food is all cooked by orderlies, but 
 the parlour-maid and housemaid work is entirely 
 undertaken by V.A.D. members. 
 
 The Hospital, which is now in charge of Lt.- 
 Col. Trimble, R.A.M.C., who has for many years 
 been an enthusiastic St. John worker in Lanca- 
 shire, is run on extremely economical lines, the 
 Matronship being held by Miss Constance Tod, 
 R.R.C. 
 
 Lt.-Col. Trimble, in speaking of the nursing 
 staff, says: ** After my experience in this Hos- 
 pital I can safely say that no body of women could 
 have discharged their duties in a more conscien- 
 tious, kind and painstaking manner than the 
 trained Sisters who have served with us. They 
 have really been most self-denying in every pos- 
 sible way in the interests of the patients placed 
 under their charge."' 
 
 **I would just like to add a word respecting our 
 V.A.D. members. All who have come to us have 
 had their minds made up to make themselves use- 
 ful in every way possible. Our rule has been that 
 
RED CROSS IN FRANCE 161 
 
 these girls have had to manage the Sisters' Mess. 
 They have had to keep it tidy, serve the meals, and 
 do general washing up, having a couple of order- 
 lies to assist them. 
 
 ** With regard to their work in the wards I have 
 no words of praise that would quite meet what 
 they have done. Many of them had considerable 
 nursing experience in other Hospitals before com- 
 ing to us. Others had little or none. 
 
 ** After a year and a half's work there are many 
 of our V.A.D. members whom I consider very 
 capable nurses, and so good are they that it is an 
 everyday occurrence that these girls are placed 
 in absolute charge of wards, both medical and 
 surgical. 
 
 **It would be superfluous to comment upon the 
 manner in which their work has been discharged, 
 but I can safely say that no body of girls could 
 have entered more thoroughly or seriously into 
 their duties, with the result that the work is ex- 
 cellently done in every respect. The trained Sis- 
 ters now acknowledge that they have found the 
 V.A.D. members very helpful associates and most 
 agreeable companions. The patients love and re- 
 spect them, for, like the trained Sisters, they have 
 been more than conscientious in everything they 
 have done." 
 
 That the work of these girls has been exception- 
 ally good is shown by the fact that twelve of them 
 have been honoured by the Order of St. John of 
 
162 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Jerusalem by being made Honorary Serving Sis- 
 ters of that Order. This distinction is only given 
 after very careful consideration by the Chapter 
 of the Order, and then cannot be bestowed without 
 the approval of the King. 
 
 Quite a number of distinguished people have 
 taken regular work in this Hospital, amongst them 
 being Lady Perrott, R.R.C., Lady Superintend- 
 ent-in-Chief of the St. John Ambulance Brigade. 
 From the day war was declared Lady Perrott has 
 worked unceasingly, but necessarily, from her po- 
 sition in the Brigade, a great deal of it has had to 
 be administrative work discharged from Head- 
 quarters. 
 
 Happily she knows the work practically as well 
 as from the point of view of a Chief, and on va- 
 rious occasions she has taken the place of a V.A.D. 
 member in Hospitals in England as well as in the 
 Brigade Hospital in France. 
 
 In the latter she worked regularly for some 
 time, and this was a matter of congratulation to 
 all those who love the Brigade, and who know quite 
 well that its usefulness to the nation has depended 
 not a little upon the fact that every one of its mem- 
 bers, from the highest to the lowest, has to be fully 
 qualified in those arts of First Aid and elementary 
 nursing which may well be called the backbone of 
 all ambulance work. 
 
 There is something very poetic and very fine 
 in having a great Hospital in France run entirely 
 
EED CROSS IN FRANCE 163 
 
 under the auspices of the Brigade, with the Chief 
 Commissioner at the helm, with the Lady Super- 
 intendent-in- Chief working there regularly for a 
 time, and with every post filled by Brigade mem- 
 bers. This gives another aspect of V.A.D. work 
 of which no more need be said, for much can be 
 read between the lines by those who are inter- 
 ested. 
 
 In connection with the Brigade Hospital in 
 France there has now been opened a Depot in Lon- 
 don, where all sorts of Hospital equipment will be 
 made. Halkyn House, Belgrave Square, has most 
 generously been placed at the disposal of the La- 
 dies' Committee of the Order of St. John by Earl 
 Beauchamp, and the work of making bandages 
 and dressings will be carried out there on a very 
 extensive scale. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Best Stations in Feance. 
 
 AS one steps off the Channel boat on to Bou- 
 XjL logne Quai, the first thing to strike one for- 
 cibly is the change which war has brought about 
 in the French town. There are still a few French 
 porters running about in their blue smocks; but 
 they are all old men or exceedingly young ones, 
 and to every Frenchman there are at least two 
 English Tommies, or so it seems. 
 
 The wearing of a recognized Red Cross uniform 
 smooths the way for one extraordinarily so far 
 as the Customs are concerned because the authori- 
 ties know quite well that every member who is sent 
 out is put on his or her honour only to carry legiti- 
 mate articles. 
 
 During the early part of the war there was a 
 wonderful Stationary Hospital which the Military 
 authorities had built up in goods sheds close to the 
 Quai, and it was my privilege to be allowed to go 
 through it. 
 
 The Stationary Hospitals now employ many 
 V.A.D. members ; but at the beginning of the war 
 military hospital work was entirely carried out 
 by Military Sisters and R.A.M.C. officers and men. 
 It was perfectly wonderful to see how these old 
 
 164 
 
EEST STATIONS IN FRANCE 165 
 
 sugar sheds had been converted into a good, clean, 
 cheery Hospital. 
 
 In the entrance there sat a non-comn^issioned 
 officer, who took down the particulars of each case 
 as it was brought in and assigned to it a bed in a 
 special ward. The stretcher-bearers would then 
 take the case on and would put the patient to bed 
 with the assistance, if necessary, of one of the 
 Army Sisters. 
 
 In the first shed, which had been turned into a 
 great ward, there were rows upon rows of beds. 
 The shed had been whitewashed, and on the walls 
 there were pinned coloured pictures from the 
 ** Christmas Annual, '* conspicuous amongst them 
 being several portraits of the King and Queen. 
 At one end of the ward there were tables strewn 
 with magazines and games, where the convales- 
 cent men could amuse themselves, and at the other 
 end a portion was cut off as a dispensary and 
 dressing room, where ^* walking'^ cases could come 
 for re-dressing. 
 
 Turning to the right, there was a very large 
 ward devoted to the saddest of all the cases, as 
 it seems to me — to the men who had suffered in- 
 jury to the eyes. The light here was kept very 
 dim, but many of the men were chatting together, 
 and the Sisters seemed to be particularly cheery. 
 
 Another portion of the Hospital was given over 
 to the men who had been gassed. It made one's 
 heart ache to see them gasping for breath, but it 
 
166 BRITAIN ^S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 was good to hear that many new remedies had 
 been discovered, which made the percentage of 
 recoveries very much larger than they were at 
 first. 
 
 During the advances after the terrible retreat 
 this Hospital was crowded out; so much so that 
 one of the Army Sisters told me she had often 
 seen a stretcher with a patient upon it under every 
 bed. The Doctors and the Sisters and the entire 
 staff worked night and day during these pushes, 
 and all honour to them be it said that they kept 
 their Hospital up to a high standard of efficiency, 
 and that they themselves remained optimistic and 
 undismayed. 
 
 At that time Boulogne was in a very different 
 position, from the military point of view, from 
 what it is to-day, and they never knew from one 
 moment to another what orders might come 
 through about a general evacuation. 
 
 This is but a glimpse at a Military Hospital, 
 for it has no direct bearing on the work about 
 which I am writing; but I could not pass it by 
 without adding an humble word of appreciation. 
 This particular Military Hospital is only typical 
 of the huge numbers which exist all over France 
 and England, and no poor words of mine can give 
 any adequate idea of the amount of self-sacrifice 
 which has been put into the upkeep of these Hos- 
 pitals by the devoted men and women who staff 
 them. 
 
REST STATIONS IN FRANCE 167 
 
 Across the wide, cobble-stoned road we make 
 our way to the big railway station in Boulogne, 
 which is the parent, as it were, of all Rest Stations 
 in France. 
 
 In the very early days, when things were still 
 chaotic, a little band of V.A.D. members under 
 the command of Mrs. Furse, R.R.C. (who has since 
 become Commandant-in-Chief), established by 
 permission of the Military authorities a Rest Sta- 
 tion there. 
 
 During the great advances, when we get thou- 
 sands of wounded, many of them happily being of 
 a minor character, the regular Hospital trains 
 cannot possibly carry them all. The rail heads 
 (the furthest points to which the railways can 
 run near the firing line) become choked up with 
 wounded men, and the first necessity is to get rid 
 of them and send them down to the Base Hos- 
 pitals. 
 
 There is a system in the Army by which every 
 wounded man wears a distinctive label to show 
 whether his wound is serious or not. The serious 
 cases are put at once on the regular Ambulance 
 trains, which are most wonderfully fitted up with 
 an operating theatre and kitchens, and which carry 
 three Medical Ofiicers, three fully trained Sisters, 
 and a great many R.A.M.C. orderlies. The road 
 is more or less cleared by the railway authorities 
 for these Ambulance trains, and they make the 
 Journey down to the Base in fairly good time. 
 
168 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 But what is to be done with the thousands of 
 ** walking" cases which cannot be put upon Ambu- 
 lance trains ? They are men with wounds of very- 
 divers character, some of them very slight, some 
 of them severe, but none vital nor likely to become 
 dangerous to life. They have all been dressed 
 either at a Field Dressing Station or at a Casualty 
 Clearing Hospital. 
 
 They are put on an ordinary train in the charge 
 of one Medical Officer, who has with him a staff 
 of R.A.M.C. orderlies. The train is rationed, and 
 it is sent off on its journey. This journey may 
 take many hours, and in order to give the men a 
 chance of a hot drink and, where necessary, of 
 having their wounds re-dressed. Rest Stations 
 have been set up at various junctions, where the 
 train can halt for something under an hour and 
 the men receive attention. 
 
 Perhaps it would be wrong to say that the Rest 
 Station work in France is the pride of the V.A.D. 
 Headquarters Staff, because it is invidious to pick 
 out any one kind of work and say that it is better 
 than another ; but it is true that the members who 
 work on French railway Rest Stations have had 
 to cope with emergencies, improvise all sorts of 
 articles almost out of nothing, meet unheard-of 
 difficulties with calmness and promptness, and 
 have lived under harder conditions, perhaps, than 
 any others who are at work in France, 
 
REST STATIONS IN FRANCE 169 
 
 The First Unit to Go Abroad. 
 
 It was on October 16th, 1914, that a Unit, com- 
 posed of sixteen members and two trained nurses 
 drawn from Voluntary Aid Detachments, was 
 mobilized for foreign service, and went out under 
 the charge of Mrs. Furse. First of all the Unit 
 was sent to Paris, and then it was returned to Bou- 
 logne, one more trained nurse and two members 
 being added to its strength. 
 
 Accommodation in the town was extremely diffi- 
 cult to find, and on October 26th the Unit took over 
 three French wagons and two passenger car- 
 riages, turning them into a dispensary, a kitchen, 
 and a Quartermaster's store, the members them- 
 selves doing all the necessary scrubbing, cleaning, 
 and painting. This was no light task, as can be 
 imagined when you remember the condition in 
 which French railway wagons are likely to be. 
 
 Within twenty-four hours one thousand 
 wounded men had been fed, the cooks having only 
 three small alcohol stoves with which to work. 
 Into this one sentence is compressed a long and 
 wonderful story of what can be done by a devoted 
 band of women. Perhaps to the reader it does 
 not sound very much ; but turn your mind for one 
 moment to what really must have happened dur- 
 ing those twenty-four hours. 
 
 It could not have been easy to get the food, to 
 begin with. Utensils would be scarce ; the heating 
 
170 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 of enormous quantities of water on three small 
 alcohol stoves presents a difficulty in itself which 
 would appall many of us. It was October, and 
 the weJather would not be too warm; and the 
 amount of physical exertion in running about col- 
 lecting the necessary equipment, and then of dis- 
 tributing the food to one thousand wounded men, 
 would be strenuous, to say the least of it. 
 
 **In order to cope adequately with the great 
 volume of work, stoves were fitted into the wag- 
 ons during the following days, and various 
 shelves and cupboards were put up by the mem- 
 bers." 
 
 That is as the official report puts it; but as a 
 matter of fact those wagons were turned into 
 really charming rooms, bright with clean white 
 paint, gleaming tin utensils, and even with com- 
 fortable chairs made out of barrels. It was, in 
 fact, a triumph of improvisation. 
 
 As though they had not already got their hands 
 sufficiently full, the R.T.O. (Railway Transport 
 Officer) asked the Unit if it could billet nightly any 
 sick men requiring shelter. The work was under- 
 taken immediately, and the men were put into rail- 
 way carriages whenever they needed accommoda- 
 tion for the night. 
 
 After working for one week an abnormal num- 
 ber of wounded began to arrive, and on Monday, 
 November 2nd, the resources of the Unit were 
 taxed to the utmost, 2,300 wounded being fed dur- 
 
BEST STATIONS IN FRANCE 171 
 
 ing the day, and over 200 dressings being done 
 in the wagons by the Sisters with the help of 
 two members and three other trained nurses who 
 had been hastily called for the emergency. 
 
 The authorities saw that more facilities must be 
 given for the work, and on the following day two 
 more wagons were supplied, one to act as a re- 
 serve store and one for the use of the staff, and 
 a general Dressing Station was erected by the 
 platform. The sanitary arrangements were im- 
 proved, and a motor Ambulance was put at the 
 disposal of the Unit, one of the members being 
 appointed as driver. 
 
 Boy Orderlies. 
 
 Eight boy orderlies from an East Lancashire 
 V.A.D. were attached to this Unit, with an orderly 
 Superintendent and two orderly Quartermasters, 
 and proved themselves to be of invaluable assist- 
 ance. 
 
 During those first weeks the Unit seems to have 
 gone out of its way to look for work, although it 
 must have been overwhelmed by it already. It 
 took in, sorted, and distributed hundreds of mag- 
 azines biweekly to fourteen Hospitals. It under- 
 took to make sand-bags, bandages and pad splints 
 for many of the Military Hospitals, which were 
 then in urgent need of these things, as the War 
 Depots at home had not got into full going order. 
 Ever since then a very large number of dressings 
 
172 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 and padded splints have been turned out by the 
 members of the Boulogne Rest Station. 
 
 The food which was supplied to the wounded 
 consisted of soup, cocoa, bread and butter, ham, 
 cheese, chocolate, apples and bananas. Hundreds 
 of medical and surgical cases have been dealt with 
 by the Sisters, and the one Ambulance attached to 
 the Unit has conveyed a huge number of cases 
 to and from Hospitals. 
 
 At Christmas time presents were given to every 
 one of the men travelling on Ambulance trains, 
 and thousands of cigarettes and papers were dis- 
 tributed. A very large number of sick men have 
 been billeted on the Unit for single nights, and 
 have been fed and, where necessary, given skilled 
 nursing. 
 
 Members who go out to France as V.A.D. mem- 
 bers are expected to take things as they find them, 
 and to make the best of everything. Discipline is 
 strict, and they are not allowed to question the 
 decision of those in authority. A girl may be 
 put into the kitchen and do nothing but cut up 
 vegetables or washing-up for weeks together. 
 There is a sigh of contentment from the members 
 who are lucky enough to be put **on the trains,'* 
 as it is called, when they actually help in the 
 feeding or the dressing of the wounded men; 
 but they are far too well disciplined to make 
 any remark as to their private wishes on the 
 subject. 
 
REST STATIONS IN FRANCE 173 
 
 This little party of pioneers set the pace, as it 
 were, in the matter of discipline, and it has been 
 nobly upheld by all those who have followed in 
 their footsteps. 
 
 Thousands of Dressings. 
 
 This first Rest Station is still in existence, and 
 an enormous amount of work has been carried 
 through since the new push began in July, 1916. 
 Some rooms in the station have been given up 
 by the railway authorities, and the V.A.D. mem- 
 bers have turned them into a delightful suite for 
 Ambulance work. 
 
 There is a kitchen, where several members cook 
 meals for non-combatant men, such as R.A.M.C. 
 orderlies, who are sent down to the station on 
 various kinds of work, and may have to spend 
 many hours there. The dispensary is most beau- 
 tifully fitted up with bright dressing tins and one 
 or two beds, whilst the store beyond is filled with 
 all the necessary foodstuffs used for the wounded 
 men. 
 
 Great ingenuity has been used by these mem- 
 bers in making the best of everything. One of 
 them, who is a clever carpenter, has evolved a most 
 useful truck for the carrying of supplies along the 
 platform for the trains ; whilst several other mem- 
 bers have learnt the art of soldering, and con- 
 stantly turn condensed milk tins into admirable 
 mugs. 
 
174 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 The V.A.D. members who come out from Eng- 
 land are very often put into this Rest Station for 
 a week or two to obtain a short training for what- 
 ever kind of work they may eventually have to do 
 in Prance. 
 
 The Rest Station is never closed night or day, 
 some of the members always being on duty; and 
 it is very often in the night hours that the biggest 
 rushes occur. Numbers may not be given, but ab- 
 solutely thousands of dressings have been carried 
 out here (under the direction of M.O. and trained 
 nurse), and tens of thousands of wounded men 
 have been fed. 
 
 The Opening of More Rest Stations. 
 
 The Military authorities expressed themselves 
 as being exceedingly pleased with the work that 
 had been done at the Boulogne Rest Station, and 
 they requested that other Stations should be 
 opened on the Lines of Communication. 
 
 In England comparatively few people seem to 
 understand what these Lines mean, but in France 
 everybody realises that the '*L. of C' are some- 
 thing of great Military importance. They are, 
 in fact, the railway lines which run from the Bases 
 to the Front. 
 
 There are at the present moment several of 
 these Rest Stations (or Aid Posts, as they are 
 sometimes called) in full working order at various 
 spots on the Lines. The members who work at 
 
^ 
 
 Lady District Officer. Com- 
 mandant of a V.A.D. has the 
 same uniform, except the belt is 
 white instead of black. 
 
BEST STATIONS IN FEANCE 175 
 
 each one form a complete Unit with a Comman- 
 dant in charge. 
 
 In many ways the work at these Eest Stations 
 is more akin to that which the Army nurses ex- 
 perience at a Casualty Clearing Hospital close 
 behind the firing line than anything else. How- 
 ever hard the work may be at a Hospital at 
 or near a Base, the staff usually has all 
 necessary utensils supplied to it, and a certain 
 amount of personal comfort is provided for 
 them. 
 
 The members at a Eest Station have to live 
 somewhere near their work, going to and from 
 the Station at all hours of the day and night. A 
 railway station is likely to be an extremely 
 draughty, cold and damp place during the winter 
 months, and the members have to contend with a 
 great deal of dirt coming from the railway en- 
 gines. 
 
 At a very large railway junction in France the 
 second Eest Station was established by a devoted 
 little party of V.A.D. workers. The four V.A.D. 
 members and four orderlies were shown a goods 
 shed and told that that was to be their Headquar- 
 ters. It was a dreary-looking place, extremely 
 dirty, and part of it was cut off from another shed 
 by a drooping canvas curtain. 
 
 The Commandant-in-charge, a most excellent 
 worker, who has since been honoured by being 
 Mentioned in Despatches, set to work, and in a 
 
176 BEITAIN^S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 very few hours the place was tidy and suitable for 
 the reception of wounded men. 
 
 There were a certain number of Sawyer stoves 
 close by, where tea or cocoa could be made for the 
 supply of the men in the improvised Ambulance 
 trains, and all the cases that could walk came into 
 the Ambulance room for re-dressing by the trained 
 Sister. 
 
 Smart Worh. 
 
 There was something almost occult about the 
 premonition which assailed the Commandant one 
 chilly evening when she refused to go home and 
 leave her Second-in-command in charge for the 
 night. She said she felt sure that ** something 
 was going to happen." They waited until the 
 early hours of the morning, and things were still 
 absolutely peaceful, so that she began to think her 
 premonition was all nonsense. 
 
 Suddenly there came a message that three im- 
 provised Ambulance trains would be coming into 
 the station in a couple of hours, but that a change 
 of traffic arrangements had necessitated their 
 being sent in on a line far away from the Rest 
 Station room. This particular railway station is 
 a huge one, resembling Waterloo or Victoria, and 
 it would be quite impossible to carry food and 
 drink across all the lines to the train. 
 
 There was only one thing to be done. The en- 
 tire Rest Station must be shifted. History does 
 
REST STATIONS IN FRANCE 177 
 
 not record what the orderlies or the juniors of 
 the Unit thought when the Commandant calmly- 
 announced her intention that the Aid Post, root 
 and branch, must be transplanted to the other 
 side of the station. But this is where discipline 
 comes in triumphantly. There was not a murmur 
 of dissent, but, on the other hand, a glad acquies- 
 cence. 
 
 There is something peculiarly exhilarating in 
 taking part in a quick change. The railway au- 
 thorities gave them the use of a large shed which 
 stood at siding close to the line where the trains 
 would come in. Luckily it was in a fairly 
 clean condition, and with an extra run round 
 with a brush and pail of water it was quite 
 habitable. 
 
 All the equipment, which had been improvised 
 out of biscuit tins, kerosene tins, barrels and 
 boxes of every shape and kind, was put on to lor- 
 ries and trundled across the lines. Tables and 
 benches were set up in position, and ration box 
 cupboards were placed against the walls of the 
 shed. The orderlies managed to move the Saw- 
 yer stoves and to get them alight, and within a 
 couple of hours no one could have guessed that the 
 Aid Post had not existed in that particular spot 
 for the last year or so. 
 
 It was a magnificent piece of generalship, wor- 
 thy of the highest military ability. The railway 
 authorities were candidly amazed at what had 
 
178 BKITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 been done, for it seemed little less than miracu- 
 lous. 
 
 When the three improvised Ambulance trains 
 steamed into the station, one after the other, the 
 little Unit of V.A.D. workers, looking calm and 
 dainty in their clean uniforms, was ready to serve 
 out steaming cocoa and food to the men and, under 
 the supervision of trained nurses, to help with 
 some hundreds of dressings. 
 
 It was an achievement that should go down in 
 the annals of the history of V.A.D. work, typical 
 of many other instances of the same kind which 
 cannot be mentioned here, but showing that women 
 can rise to an emergency and acquit themselves 
 creditably. 
 
 It was at this Rest Station that the members 
 had cleverly made old kerosene cans into dirty 
 dressing utensils. They had cut lids out of wood, 
 putting rope handles on to them, and fitting them 
 to a nicety. Biscuit tins had been sterilized and 
 brightened into the likeness of mirrors, and large 
 bottles had been obtained for the contents of va- 
 rious lotions. 
 
 Everything was beautifully marked in plain red 
 lettering, and the exquisite tidiness of the place, 
 the whiteness of the boards, the artistic charm of 
 big bowls filled with flowers, gave one a sense of 
 rest and welcome. 
 
 It was discovered that the Sisters on the regu- 
 lar Ambulance trains experienced great difficulty 
 
EEST STATIONS IN FRANCE 179 
 
 in getting their linen washed and returned to them, 
 as they never knew whether their trains would 
 stop for more than an hour at a time. 
 
 The Unit at this big Rest Station, knowing that 
 every Ambulance train halted there on every one 
 of its journeys, offered to take in the soiled linen 
 of the Sisters, get it washed and counted, and 
 made into parcels ready for them on their return 
 journey. 
 
 This has been a bigger work than would appear, 
 and the proportionate amount of comfort it has 
 brought to the hard-worked Sisters is extraor- 
 dinary; for life on an Ambulance train is more 
 exciting than comfortable, and it is no small mat- 
 ter to have the added discomfort of not being able 
 to get clean linen. 
 
 Another outside job which is undertaken by the 
 Unit is the keeping of a library of books, which 
 are lent to the numbers of Tommies who are sta- 
 tioned round about the junction. In their spare 
 time, of course, the girls make bandages and swabs 
 for the neighboring Hospitals; and tobacco and 
 cigarettes are kept for the supply of soldiers and 
 sailors. 
 
 A Tiny Unit in an Out-of-the-Way Spot, 
 
 Another of these rest stations was established 
 on an important junction of railway lines, but in 
 a very out-of-the-way French village, where there 
 was only one tiny epicerie and one little hotel. 
 
180 BKITAIN^S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 The Unit that was put here was a particularly 
 small one, there being only the Commandant and 
 one junior, with four orderlies. 
 
 The doctor attached to the station had a very 
 long round and could not be there constantly ; and 
 a trained Sister was only sent down during the 
 big rushes ; for these highly skilled women are far 
 too valuable to be employed at places where they 
 may have many weeks of slack times so far as 
 wounded are concerned. 
 
 In these cases the Commandant who is put in 
 is a woman of experience, who, though not fully 
 trained in the sense of having had three years' 
 consecutive Hospital training, has spent a great 
 deal of time actually in Hospital work, and is 
 thoroughly capable of dealing with accidents. 
 
 Many of the older and more experienced mem- 
 bers are quite equal, so the doctors say, to nurses 
 who have had at least a two years' training, and 
 it is these women who are put into the important 
 posts where they have a good deal of responsibil- 
 ity on their shoulders. 
 
 The raw V.A.D., who has taken her certificates 
 since the war began, is excellent as a worker under 
 close supervision ; but it would be well if people 
 did not run away with the idea that because a 
 woman is a member of a V.A.D. Detachment she 
 must be very much an amateur in the matter of 
 nursing. 
 
 I am simply pointing this out so that people 
 
EEST STATIONS IN FEANCE 181 
 
 may not imagine for one moment that our 
 wounded men are ever left in the hands of un- 
 skilled people, for that is never the case. The 
 Military authorities inspect the Rest Stations con- 
 stantly and ask the Commandants all sorts of 
 searching questions. 
 
 On a beautiful summer afternoon the Com- 
 mandant of one of the Eest Stations had allowed 
 her junior and some of her orderlies to be off duty 
 for an hour or two, and she herself was calmly 
 writing letters home, when an important man of 
 high rank in military circles suddenly walked into 
 the Eest Station and made a close examination of 
 everything there. He opened cupboards, he looked 
 into dressing tins, he enquired closely into the 
 commissariat arrangements, and he asked a hun- 
 dred questions as to what would be done if certain 
 circumstances arose. 
 
 ^'Suppose you had an air raid here," he said; 
 **what arrangements have you made for dealing 
 with the wounded! You have only one bed here." 
 
 **I have arranged," said the Commandant, **to 
 have the use of an Army store opposite the sta- 
 tion, and I can count on from thirty to forty mat- 
 tresses which could be put into the store within a 
 few minutes. We have hundreds of dressings 
 ready cut up, and stores of lotions. We have 
 plenty of candles handy if there should be 
 no other light. We have tried to think out a 
 plan that would cope with every emergency." 
 
182 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 ** Suppose, on the other hand," said the genial 
 Army Inspector, '*that, instead of having one or 
 two improvised Ambulance trains, there arrived 
 twice or three times as many. What would you 
 do for food for them?" 
 
 ^'We have arranged with the Army Service 
 Supply Unit," was the prompt reply. '*We can- 
 not store the food here, hut it is all ready across 
 the road, and the men know that we might need 
 it at any moment of the day or night." 
 
 That is the kind of incident that is constantly 
 happening, and I quote the little scene about which 
 I was told in order to show what a close eye the 
 Army keeps upon these voluntary workers. 
 
 Johs, 
 
 V.A.D. members are fond of taking on and car- 
 rying out all sorts of jobs which do not strictly 
 belong to Red Cross work. They have to remem- 
 ber the laws of the Geneva Convention, and do not 
 do any work for combatants in their duty time, 
 nor spend any Red Cross funds upon them; but 
 there is nothing to prevent a V.A.D. member from 
 spending her leisure time in holding out a kindly 
 hand to the men who are making such a magnifi- 
 cent fight for King and country. 
 
 For instance, it was found at one of the Rest 
 Stations that the men on a troop train which went 
 through there every evening were very often 
 parched with thirst during the hot nights. Hence- 
 
EEST STATIONS IN FRANCE 183 
 
 forward cans of cold water were placed at inter- 
 vals all along the platform, and V.A.D. members 
 gave drinks to the men or filled their waiter- 
 bottles. 
 
 As the autumn came on and the nights grew 
 chilly the cold water was exchanged for boiling 
 water, and the dry tea carried by the men was 
 turned into a hot drink, to their great delight. 
 
 Picture for yourselves a long troop train in the 
 station on a pitch-dark night with rain falling 
 fast, or a clear, crisp night with several inches of 
 snow lying upon the platform. The men, with 
 their heads encased in the woollen helmets which 
 they love, hang in little clusters out of the windows 
 of the train, and directly they catch the words, 
 ** Boiling water, boiling water,'' shouted by an 
 orderly, fumble for their canteens, throw in a 
 handful of tea, and eagerly hold the can out for 
 one of the Red Cross workers to fill it with boiling 
 water. 
 
 It is not only the hot drink that cheers them on, 
 but it is the thought and the kindliness and the 
 cheery word which gives these men, who are then 
 getting very near to the firing line, a last glimpse 
 of English womanhood, and of the love which lies 
 in the hearts of all true women for their dear 
 fighting men. 
 
 Many a time a train filled with Indian troops 
 has halted at this station, and the Indians have 
 gladly accepted cold water, in spite of their old 
 
184 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 traditions, from the English nurses; and then, 
 seizing their hands to shake, have said in their 
 broken English, **I fight for the King.'* 
 
 A Tiny Ccmteen, 
 
 Another of the odd jobs was the running of a 
 canteen at one of these Rest Stations for the Brit- 
 ish Tommies stationed there. This again they 
 had to do quite unofficially. 
 
 It is mentioned, however, to show that V.A.D. 
 workers are not like the traditional servant who 
 says, **I was not engaged to do so and so." Theirs 
 is precisely the opposite point of view. 
 
 They go out first of all to attend to the sick and 
 the wounded, but directly they are not occupied 
 in this direction they look around and see what 
 else there is to be done, and they do it with all 
 their heart and with all their soul. 
 
 A little shed was set up in a waste strip of 
 ground close to the station, and was equipped 
 with tables and benches, stoves and cooking uten- 
 sils ; and the girls used to take it in turns to get 
 up early in the morning and go down to make 
 the men a comfortable breakfast, men who had 
 been travelling all night with wounded horses and 
 were greatly in need of a little kindly care. 
 
 It was pathetic to see how these men appre- 
 ciated having a talk with an English woman, and 
 perhaps it is not too much to say that the women 
 who minister to the minds of the men who are 
 
BEST STATIONS IN FEANCE 185 
 
 cut off from their homes and from their own 
 women folk are not doing a less ^* great'' job than 
 when they are attending to the men who have been 
 broken in battle. 
 
 No one who has not lived on the Lines of Com- 
 munication can quite understand the loneliness 
 of our men who are stationed there. A French 
 village offers but little entertainment save by its 
 cafes. Occasionally there comes a Lena Ashwell 
 concert party, and there is exceeding joy, for the 
 pleasure which these parties have brought into 
 the lives of the men behind the lines cannot be 
 measured in words. That, however, is a rare 
 occurrence, especially for the men who are sta- 
 tioned in a tiny village where there are no big 
 camps. 
 
 It is impossible to give any idea of the queer 
 tasks which the large-hearted V.A.D. members un- 
 dertake in these Outposts. They do the mending 
 for the men; in one case they do the soldering 
 for the little Hospital near by. They are the re- 
 cipients of all sorts of sad stories, and they help 
 to pull many a man out of a scrape. In some 
 cases they manage small recreation huts for the 
 men. 
 
 **You are as good as a mother to us," said a 
 lad who had come from a good home, but had 
 fallen amongst evil companions, and was rapidly 
 dropping into bad ways when he was suddenly 
 brought back to his original level by the kindly 
 
186 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 interest shown in him by a V.A.D. member who 
 was on the wrong side of thirty. 
 
 A private, crouching miserably against the wall 
 of the station on a wild, wet night in winter, was 
 approached by a V.A.D. member. He told her 
 quite frankly that he was a prisoner, and was 
 returning after having undergone twenty-eight 
 days ' field punishment. His guard, knowing that 
 the man was too cowed to try and escape, and 
 having money in his pocket, had gaily gone up the 
 village street to the estaminet to get a drink ; but 
 the wretched prisoner had not a sou in the world, 
 and had somehow missed the rations which should 
 have been given to him. 
 
 He was taken into the warm, lamp-lit room and 
 given a good square meal. The hot tea put new 
 life into him, and gradually the food began to 
 make him something of a man and less of a cow- 
 ard. He told his story to the nurses, and vowed 
 that he would never run the risk of getting such 
 a punishment again. 
 
 He still had a long journey to go that night be- 
 fore he got back to his own camp, and it was some 
 time before his guard returned to look after him. 
 
 These are the things that a woman may do by 
 the dozen when she has the proud privilege of 
 working on the L. of C. in France. Such stories 
 could be multiplied by the hundred, but this one 
 only is given so that some sort of glimpse may 
 be gained of the extra work, as it were, which 
 
REST STATIONS IN FRANCE 187 
 
 is being faithfully carried out, and which is sel- 
 dom spoken of by V.A.D. members. 
 
 First Aid in a Hurry, 
 
 At all the Rest Stations injuries are constantly 
 attended to for the soldiers of the Allied Armies ; 
 for wherever great numbers of troops are travel- 
 ling by train there naturally must occur all sorts 
 of accidents. 
 
 ** First Aid in a hurry," it was called by one 
 Commandant, who devised an emergency basket 
 in which she kept every kind of dressing and all 
 necessary utensils. 
 
 A troop train would be standing in the station, 
 when perhaps the door of the Ambulance room 
 would fly open and someone would announce in 
 French or English that there was an accident on 
 the train. The basket would be caught up in 
 one hand, and a kettle of boiling water in the 
 other, and within one minute the nurse would be 
 in the railway carriage attending to the injured 
 man. 
 
 Very often it was only a minor accident which 
 might easily develop into a serious injury if left 
 uncovered, and in that case it was dressed, and 
 as the train was signalled to go the nurse would 
 leap out on to the platform and smile her good- 
 byes to her patient and his comrades. 
 
 On the other hand, if a man were seriously hurt 
 he would be brought into the Ambulance room and 
 
188 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 put upon the bed and kept there until he had been 
 seen by the Medical Officer, who would send him 
 down to the Base on an Ambulance. Very often 
 patients are kept all night in these Rest Stations, 
 men who are taken off the troop trains suffering 
 from illness or from accident. Soldiers of the 
 Allied Armies, of course, are attended to equally 
 with our own. 
 
 A curious thing happened one night in a Rest 
 Station when a British soldier was brought in 
 by the Medical Officer from a train, who said that 
 the man was suffering from a broken leg. Within 
 five minutes a French soldier was brought in also 
 with a broken leg! The French and Flemish sol- 
 diers have First Aid rendered and are then dis- 
 patched to their own Military Hospitals. 
 
 The one predominant feature of Rest Station 
 work is the necessity of being ready instanta- 
 neously for anything that may happen. The door 
 is flung open and a man is brought in suffering 
 from a cut on the scalp caused by the falling of 
 a rifle from the rack. It is only a superficial 
 wound, but it must be dressed. The train can only 
 remain in the station five minutes, and the man 
 must go on with it when it leaves. 
 
 There is no bustle, but the hair is cut away 
 carefully from the neighborhood of the wound, 
 which is thoroughly washed and bound up. The 
 man is escorted back to his carriage by an orderly, 
 well within the five minutes. 
 
REST STATIONS IN FRANCE 189 
 
 A young officer, who had been on Salisbury Plain 
 during the hot weather, and had not taken any 
 notice of the fact that his eyes had become in- 
 flamed with the dust, went out to France, and at 
 Havre managed to get more grit into his eyes 
 during a gust of wind. On his way up in the 
 train to the Front a M.O. noticed the condition of 
 his eyes, and having done the journey several 
 times before, was well aware of the fact that these 
 Rest Stations existed en route. 
 
 At the next one he took the young officer with 
 him to the Ambulance room and asked for the 
 ophthalmic case which is in every Army Field 
 Pannier. There was no spare time, as the 
 train might go on at any moment. The V.A.D. 
 member produced the ophthalmic case instan- 
 taneously, and the M.O. put a certain drug, which 
 would reduce the inflammation, into the officer's 
 eyes. 
 
 It had to be done by the light of a lamp, and 
 it was not an easy operation to do under such 
 hurried circumstances; but it was done success- 
 fully, and at the moment the train began to move 
 the M.O. and the officer sprang into their carriage. 
 
 That is the everyday life of the members who 
 are stationed at an Aid Post; but the routine is 
 roughly broken into by the work for which they 
 were placed there — the attending to wounded men 
 who come down in the improvised Ambulance 
 trains. 
 
190 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 A Big Push and Its Work, 
 
 When there is a big push on the members work 
 day and night. Thousands of gallons of cocoa 
 are made; hundreds of loaves of bread are cut 
 up, and jugs upon jugs full of beef essence or a 
 milky drink are distributed, whilst wounds are re- 
 dressed by the hundred. 
 
 At one of the Eest Stations it was found that 
 the improvised Ambulance trains always came in 
 at a platform which was several lines away from 
 the Ambulance room. The row of Sawyer stoves 
 had been set upon the platform where the trains 
 rested, but everything else had to be carried across 
 from the room, and this always had to be done 
 in plenty of time to avoid the possibility of there 
 being goods trains on the lines between the room 
 and the ** cocoa platform," as it came to be called. 
 
 A complete set of bottles containing lotions was 
 made and kept in a box, whilst certain biscuit 
 tins, sterilized and filled with dressings, were kept 
 untouched, ready for the arrival of a train. 
 Chairs, tables, lamps, mackintoshes, a small ster- 
 ilizer, cans of boiling water, basins, washing ma- 
 terials and all the other paraphernalia of a dress- 
 ing station used to be carried across the lines to 
 the glass shelter, where they were set up in or- 
 derly array. 
 
 Everything was kept closely covered, and when 
 it came to the moment for the men to have their 
 
Nursing Sister's and V.A.D, 
 member's indoor dress. 
 
EEST STATIONS IN FEANCE 191 
 
 wounds dressed everything possible was done to 
 keep them sterile, and of course only wounds that 
 were urgently needing re-dressing were actually 
 undone. Everything was done by the order of 
 the Medical Officer on the train. 
 
 The serving out of the cocoa and food was sys- 
 tematized, so that the thousand-odd men each re- 
 ceived his quantum in due course, there being left 
 no loophole by which a man might be missed over. 
 Eighty gallons of cocoa were made for each train- 
 load of wounded men ; and when it is remembered 
 that on one occasion only half an hour's notice 
 of the coming of a train was given to the Unit, and 
 yet that every man had his hot drink when he ar- 
 rived, perhaps it is not too much to say that the 
 Eest Station workers have not been altogether a 
 failure. 
 
 Of the courage of the men who come down in 
 these improvised trains one would like to say just 
 a word, since the people in England, sjrmpathetic 
 though they are, can have no real conception of 
 what things are like out in France. 
 
 It is no unusual sight to see mud-stains up to 
 the men's waists, or to have a man come into 
 one's hands for the dressing of a wound without 
 a whole garment upon him. When the men have 
 been through barbed wire they come down liter- 
 ally with their clothes torn off them; and it has 
 been known for a V.A.D. member, whilst pinning 
 the remnants together with safety pins, to ask 
 
192 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 whicli particular article of attire it was she was 
 handling. 
 
 Optimistic, courageous under their sufferings, 
 unselfish in the extreme, the men are never heard 
 to grumble at their hard lot, but will always try 
 to induce the nurse to **0h, do him, Sister; he is 
 worse than I am." 
 
 Their gratitude is out of all proportion to the 
 service rendered. Many a time a V.A.D. member 
 has had to choke back her tears when words of 
 thankfulness have been brokenly uttered by the 
 wounded men. In reply she would say, *^It is 
 nothing to what you have done for us. If you 
 had not put up such a fine fight we should have 
 been in the same position as the poor women are 
 to-day in Lille and the Belgian towns." 
 
 It is difficult to leave the subject of Rest Sta- 
 tion work, for there is a great deal to be said 
 about it. It has a fascination all its own, because 
 it does not run on the regular lines laid down by 
 Hospital work. It leaves many an opening for 
 the woman who has imagination and ingenuity 
 and capacity. It gives her an opportunity of 
 using her hands and her brain. The woman who 
 can do a bit of amateur carpentering and uphol- 
 stering is as invaluable at a Rest Station as the 
 one who can play an accompaniment at sight or 
 by ear, or can turn her hand to laundry work or 
 cooking. 
 
 Officers as well as men very often are attended 
 
EEST STATIONS IN FEANCE 193 
 
 to at Rest Stations, for it frequently happens that 
 they suffer minor injuries or become ill whilst 
 on the long journeys in France, and then it is that 
 they turn thankfully to the bare Station rooms 
 which have been touched into homeliness by the 
 women of their own country. 
 
 There are many sides to the life of a Eest Sta- 
 tion, and it is as well that most of the people who 
 are connected with them seem to have an abundant 
 sense of humor. They are brought so much up 
 against the tragedies of war that life would be 
 well-nigh impossible if they did not get some relief. 
 
 At one of the Eest Stations it happened that 
 an officer, who had had to get down from his train, 
 was horrified to see it on the move, and in trying 
 to catch it slipped from the footboard and fell 
 into a huge heap of soot. It probably saved his 
 life, but the soot was of such an affectionate na- 
 ture that it effectually hid his identity, and when 
 he was picked up in a semi-conscious condition 
 and carried into the Eest Station in the gloom of 
 night it was thought that he belonged to the col- 
 oured race. 
 
 He had suffered a slight scalp wound, which 
 was attended to immediately, and his clothes were 
 so completely smothered with the soot that they 
 were gingerly removed by an orderly and taken 
 away, who folded them together without disturb- 
 ing them, so as to prevent the smuts from flying 
 about. 
 
194 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Imagine the astonishment of the nurses when 
 they came to wash the man's face and hands and 
 found that he was white ! They were still, how- 
 ever, under the impression that he was a Tommy, 
 and were not a little dismayed when the orderly 
 came in the morning and said that he had been 
 cleaning the clothes and had discovered that the 
 patient was an officer. 
 
 It seems that after he had regained conscious- 
 ness he heard somebody say that they thought he 
 was a coloured man, and he was so indignant that 
 he made up his mind not to speak. It is possible 
 that his temper was not improved by being treated 
 as a Tommy by the orderly ! 
 
 In the morning, however, he had regained his 
 sense of humour and laughed heartily at the whole 
 thing. He was very grateful for the attention 
 he had received and never failed to call upon the 
 members when he happened to be passing through 
 that particular Station. 
 
 It is impossible to give any adequate notion of 
 the widely different bits of work that are under- 
 taken by Rest Station members. They hold out 
 a helping hand at the crucial moment, and the only 
 unsatisfactory part of the work is that they sel- 
 dom hear the end of the story. 
 
 Occasionally news comes to them, as in the case 
 of a man who was very terribly injured in a train 
 accident, and whose life was saved by the prompt 
 seizing of the arteries by a V.A.D. member. He 
 
BEST STATIONS IN FRANCE 195 
 
 had to be taken down to the Base, and she says 
 she will never forget the journey of thirty-odd 
 miles over terribly bad roads ; but he was got to 
 the Hospital in fairly good condition, an opera- 
 tion was performed, and later on they heard that 
 the man had been sent to England minus a hand, 
 but otherwise perfectly well. 
 
 Perhaps a young officer who had some sort of 
 help from a Rest Station put the thing into a nut- 
 shell when he quoted, 
 
 " Ships that pass in the night, speak one another in passing. 
 Only a signal shown — a distant voice in the darkness ; 
 So on the Ocean of Life, we speak and pass one another. 
 Only a voice and a look, then darkness again and a silence." 
 
 It may be only a word or a cup of cold water, 
 or it may be the saving of a life by skilled atten- 
 tion; but the loftiest ideals of V.A.D. work can 
 be reached up to at any one of the Aid Posts, 
 where the conditions of life are hard, where the 
 members often live on Army rations and become 
 veritably a bit of the Army, where they plod 
 through snow and mud far up the ** permanent 
 way,'' taking big risks of getting caught by a 
 train in the darkness of the night; but theirs is 
 the privilege, the high honour of being allowed to 
 follow in the footsteps of the ancient Knights of 
 St. John, who took unto themselves the fine old 
 Latin motto, ^^Pro utilitate hominum." 
 
CHAPTER XVn 
 
 Detention Hospitals in France. 
 
 ABIT of V.A.D. work which is very little 
 known of by the general public is that 
 which is admirably carried on in the small Deten- 
 tion Hospitals that lie behind the Lines of Com- 
 munication. Civilians seem to have no under- 
 standing of how war is engineered from the back. 
 They apparently often forget that the man in the 
 firing line has to be fed and clothed and mounted 
 by comrades who are gathered together in great 
 camps between the Front and the ports. 
 
 It is a hard, dull life that is lived by these men, 
 who are put down in out-of-the-way country dis- 
 tricts, sometimes far from any town, where they 
 have to contend with oceans of mud and all sorts 
 of depressing conditions. 
 
 During this last winter, at one of the big camps, 
 they have actually had to have boats out to get 
 over the floods. That one remark conveys a whole 
 history of miseries and discomforts to those who 
 have lived amongst the men who work in these 
 camps. Yet they are cheery and bright, though 
 many of them may be heard to regret that they 
 have been put behind the lines instead of up in 
 the trenches. 
 
 196 
 
DETENTION HOSPITALS 197 
 
 Naturally sickness sometimes com^s upon these 
 men, and as they are all horse camps of one kind 
 or another, there are very often accidents and in- 
 juries which necessitate skilled attention. It is 
 for this purpose that the Detention Hospitals have 
 been established. They are not intended for the 
 wounded from the firing line. 
 
 At the moment of writing there are two of these 
 Hospitals, one of them being run by a B.R.C.S. 
 Unit and the other by a St. John Unit. In both 
 cases commodious French villas were leased in 
 small towns which were near several very large 
 camps. The Hospitals thus serve some thousands 
 of men, and are truly looked upon as havens of 
 rest and joy. 
 
 Many elderly men are accepted for service in 
 these camps, and during very wet weather they 
 are apt to suffer from rheumatism or from bron- 
 chial troubles. Then there are accident cases and 
 all sorts of minor ailments. The men may only 
 be kept in these small Hospitals for a certain time, 
 and if they are not recovered by then they are 
 sent down to a Military Base Hospital. 
 
 The entire work of the Hospital is carried out 
 by V.A.D. members. A Commandant is in charge 
 of the staff and the housekeeping and general 
 management of the Hospital, whilst there is a 
 fully trained Sister in charge of the nursing mem- 
 bers and the wards. 
 
198 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 Converting a French Villa into a Hospital, 
 
 Difficulties of all sorts confronted the devoted 
 little band of workers who descended upon a cer- 
 tain small French town not many months after the 
 war had commenced. They had travelled for 
 many miles in a motor lorry, and when they were 
 deposited at the French villa they must have been 
 somewhat dismayed to find it in a very filthy con- 
 dition, but with a patient actually waiting on the 
 doorstep for admission. 
 
 An Army doctor is attached to each Hospital, 
 and in this case he gallantly turned to and helped 
 the women members and orderlies to get the Hos- 
 pital ship-shape. The patient was admitted at 
 once, and within a few hours the wards were clean 
 and straight and some sort of food had been served 
 to everyone. 
 
 But imagine the scene which met the eye of the 
 V.A.D. cook when she went into the kitchen at six 
 o'clock the next morning. The place was dirty 
 in the extreme, and there was no water to be got 
 except by sending for it from the town pump. 
 Everything was in the last stage of muddle and 
 the stove refused to work. 
 
 Perhaps it is as well that history recordeth not 
 what she said to herself at that moment, but be 
 it to her credit that whatever her feelings were 
 she kept them to herself and bravely set to work 
 and evolved method out of muddle. 
 
DETENTION HOSPITALS 199 
 
 The tiny kitchen to-day is a model of neatness, 
 with a nail for everything and everything on its 
 nail. The same cook has toiled there day after 
 day, year in and year out, and certainly has 
 earned some special distinction, for she has cooked 
 for the patients and for the staff and for the two 
 chauffeurs, who come in and out at all times of 
 the day, and yet always find a good hot meal await- 
 ing them. 
 
 Many of the rooms in the house were repapered 
 and whitewashed by the staff, and all sorts of 
 clever contrivances have been put up to make the 
 house, which must have been an exceedingly pic- 
 turesque residence, into a fairly convenient Hos- 
 pital. 
 
 Vegetables are grown in the little garden, and 
 the many outhouses, in which the French people 
 seem to rejoice, have been turned into a Pack- 
 store, a vegetable store, an isolation ward and 
 an extra recreation room for the convalescent 
 men. 
 
 One of the V.A.D. members acts as housemaid, 
 whilst the others are at work in the wards. It is 
 a wonderfully happy little community of workers, 
 who take the trials and the sudden emergencies 
 which come along as part of the daily routine, in 
 philosophical fashion. 
 
 At Christmas time wonderful parties are held 
 for the patients, and it is odd how many men dis- 
 cover that they are suffering from some sort of 
 
200 BKITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 illness just at that particular moment and thereby 
 are welcomed to the Christmas festivities. 
 
 An Overflow of Patients. 
 
 In the middle of a winter night the Commandant 
 of the St. John Hospital sprang out of bed in an- 
 swer to a violent ringing of the front-door bell. 
 As it happened there had been no need to leave 
 anyone on night duty, and the entire staff was 
 peacefully sleeping when the summons came. Out- 
 side there was a motor car, and in it the doctor 
 and a patient. 
 
 **But I have not got an empty bed," cried the 
 Commandant in despair. **What are we to do?" 
 
 **You must make one," said the doctor calmly, 
 as two orderlies brought in the laden stretcher. 
 **This is a very serious accident which happened 
 at one of the camps some miles away. ' ' 
 
 The solution to the problem was a simple one. 
 A mattress was taken off the bed of one of the 
 staff and put on the floor for a convalescent pa- 
 tient, whilst the seriously injured man was put 
 into a bed in a single ward where he would be per- 
 fectly quiet. 
 
 The Water Is Cut Off, 
 
 Little trials such as having the water cut off 
 from the main with only five minutes ' notice may 
 give the Commandant a nasty shock at first, but 
 she becomes accustomed to it in the course of time. 
 
DETENTION HOSPITALS 201 
 
 It is nothing unusual to go into one of these Hos- 
 pitals and see every kind of jug and basin stand- 
 ing on a table in the kitchen, filled to the brim and 
 covered with papers. It means that the town au- 
 thorities have given them short notice that the 
 water will be cut off for the next twenty-four 
 hours, and every sort of vessel has been pressed 
 into service for the storage of water. 
 
 Army Rations. 
 
 Both patients and staff are fed on Army rations, 
 and this fact does not add to the joys of the cook, 
 for she very often has to wait for the arrival of 
 the rations, and then they may not be in the least 
 what she had expected. The food is exceedingly 
 good and there is plenty of it, but no definite plans 
 can be made early in the day as to of what the 
 meals shall consist. 
 
CHAPTER XVm 
 Motor V.A.D. Units in France. 
 
 HUNDREDS of strong men were being em- 
 ployed as Motor Ambulance drivers in 
 France, and as the grip of war took deeper hold 
 it became apparent that these men must be re- 
 leased for work in the trenches. Many a girl who 
 was an expert motor driver had offered her serv- 
 ices, but had been refused by the Military authori- 
 ties; but when the necessity arose for the men 
 drivers to be released it came about that women 
 were gladly accepted, and the Joint Committee 
 was asked to form two Motor Ambulance Units 
 which would work in different districts in France. 
 
 It was one of the many experiments which have 
 been tried by the Joint Committee, and it is satis- 
 factory to know that scarcely any few of them 
 have proved failures. The members of the Unit 
 not only drive the Ambulances, but do all the run- 
 ning repairs and clean the cars. In some cases a 
 girl will drive as many as a hundred and fifty 
 miles a day. 
 
 A fine idea of the work is given by the Com- 
 mandant in her report : 
 
 **We are a Convoy of thirty-seven Ambulances, 
 one small lorry, and one workshop, with a staff of 
 
 203 
 
MOTOR V.A.D. UNITS IN FEANCE 203 
 
 forty V.A.D. members, one orderly, four mechan- 
 ics, and one man officer, called Transport Officer. 
 Our Ambulances deal with stretcher cases chiefly, 
 as buses still run for sitting cases ; but we also do 
 lots of odd jobs. 
 
 ^* We feel that it is a great honour for our girls 
 to be allowed to drive at funerals, though it is 
 very trying work when the relatives sit on the 
 front seat of the Ambulances." 
 
 The girls do all the work on their cars exactly 
 as men do, cleaning, oiling and greasing them, 
 and changing tires; but they do not do adjust- 
 ments, as the men on Convoys are not allowed to 
 do that either. Our girls drive very carefully 
 and well, and they are exceedingly popular with 
 the French people, who are not afraid of their chil- 
 dren and dogs being run over by them. 
 
 In a Motor Unit roll call is at 7.30 a.m., at which 
 all the girls must be present, even though they 
 may have been out driving part of the night. They 
 work on their cars, except for an interval for 
 breakfast, till 10.30 a.m., when the Commandant 
 holds engine inspection. 
 
 The Convoy is divided into two sections, with 
 a Section Leader and Sub-Section Leader to each. 
 One Section does all the odd driving for the day, 
 whilst the other Section provides all the orderlies 
 who have to do the cleaning duties in the house. 
 The Sections alternate their duties day by day. 
 For Convoys or evacuations the whole strength 
 
204 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 of the Unit is out, with the exception of three 
 girls who have to be left to do the orderly work. 
 
 It is not a popular job to be put as assistant to 
 one of the three V.A.D. cooks, but it has to be 
 done, and as it is taken in turns by the entire Unit 
 there is a long space in between the duty for each 
 girl. 
 
 The Military authorities have intimated their 
 satisfaction at the way the work is being carried 
 out, and certainly it is not easy to keep up with 
 all the demands. Every now and then little con- 
 tretemps occur, such as when the girls oversleep 
 themselves and have to jump into oilskins and 
 long leather boots and drive off at the very last 
 moment. 
 
 The day's routine in a Motor Unit is something 
 after this style: A girl gets down at 7.30 and 
 goes straight to her car. She has breakfast and 
 finishes the cleaning of her engine for the inspec- 
 tion of her officer. Her Section Leader then tells 
 her to be ready for the next call, and directly the 
 whistle goes she mounts and is off. 
 
 On her return she cleans her cubicle, and per- 
 haps has to mend a punctured tire, which means 
 an hour or more of hard work. She is not allowed 
 to leave her car until it is in perfect order for the 
 road. 
 
 After lunch she probably goes and plays tennis 
 or takes a rest; but she has to ** stand by,'' for 
 an Evacuation may have been ordered at 6 p.m. 
 
MOTOR V.A.D. UNITS IN FEANCE 205 
 
 By that time she will have blankets in her car, and 
 the stretcher racks down with stretchers upon 
 them. The cars all line up, and at a given signal 
 go off to their destinations. The girls sign on 
 and off before and after every journey for Evac- 
 uation or Convoy. 
 
 Both the Motor Units are run on the same prin- 
 ciple, and every day sees an increase in their work, 
 for it is very evident that they fill a much needed 
 want and are perfectly equal to any emergency. 
 
 It is a fine arm of V.A.D. work in France, and 
 the Commandants are well deserving of high 
 praise, to say nothing of the individual members, 
 who drive their cars over roads which are not in 
 too good a condition, who face all sorts of weather 
 conditions, and who very often are called up at 
 night and get no chance of making up their hours 
 of sleep during the day. 
 
 It is a hard life, but has its many compensa- 
 tions, for the woman who really loves her car will 
 tell you that there is an all-powerful allurement 
 about driving it, and the difiiculties of the circum- 
 stances add to rather than detract from the fas- 
 cination of the work. 
 
 Above and beyond all, these women have the 
 satisfaction of knowing that whilst they cannot 
 fight themselves, they have actually given men 
 to the Army, whilst they themselves are doing the 
 merciful work of convoying the wounded and the 
 sick. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 Hostels in Fbance. 
 
 THE big Hotel at Boulogne, which was taken 
 over by the Joint Committee as Headquar- 
 ters, is entirely staffed by V.A.D. members, who 
 cook, sweep, do house and parlour work without 
 complaint, knowing that they are saving the So- 
 cieties hundreds of pounds which may be spent 
 on the sick and wounded. 
 
 Self-sacrificing indeed is the work of this little 
 army of V.A.D. members, who never come into 
 direct contact with any wounded or sick man, but 
 who simply cook and clean for the staff who are 
 administering the great work of the two Societies 
 in Prance. 
 
 There is a Commandant in charge of the mem- 
 bers, and by her economical management she has 
 effected a very large saving on the cost of the up- 
 keep of Headquarters. The administration of 
 huge sums of money such as pass through the 
 hands of the Joint Committee of the British Red 
 Cross Society and St. John is bound to be very 
 heavy ; but a sharp eye is kept on every detail, and 
 accounts are closely looked into by those in au- 
 thority. 
 
 206 
 
HOSTELS IN FRANCE 207 
 
 Every Unit has to keep a minute account of its 
 expenditure and make a regular return, together 
 with a report of the work that has been done. This 
 is all condensed and put into a summary which 
 is sent round regularly to all the Units, so that 
 each one can see exactly what is going on in other 
 Units. 
 
 The keeping of these accounts is no small part 
 of each Commandant's duty. At first some of 
 them are bewildered by having to keep them in 
 French money, but they very soon become enam- 
 oured of the metric system. 
 
 Hostels for the nursing staff of the Hospitals 
 also are run by V.A.D. staffs in several districts, 
 and three Hostels for relations of the wounded 
 are also staffed in the same way. 
 
 In the Military Hospitals in France V.A.D. 
 members are not only to be found in the wards 
 as probationers, but they act as orderlies in the 
 kitchens and in the linen-rooms, and thus they 
 liberate hundreds of healthy men for the firing 
 line. 
 
 Nurses' Clubs, 
 
 Three Clubs for nurses have been established 
 and are entirely staffed by V.A.D. members, and 
 in several cases the gardens also are cared for 
 by them. 
 
 In one of the Hospitals, which is very close to 
 the Front, the cooks who are in charge of the 
 
208 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 kitchen have French women working under them, 
 and this arrangement seems to be most satisfac- 
 tory. In this particular Hospital there is a dug- 
 out, in which refuge can be taken during bombard- 
 ment or aerial attack. This is mentioned to show 
 that many V.A.D. members are risking their lives 
 whilst carrying on their unostentatious work. 
 
 **We are quite used to being bombed from en- 
 emy aeroplanes," said a V.A.D. nurse who was 
 working in an Anglo-Belgian Hospital not far 
 from the frontier. **The regularity with which 
 the Germans fly over the town and drop bombs is 
 astonishing. We are so accustomed to it that we 
 scarcely take any notice of it, and, as a matter of 
 fact, very little damage has been done by them 
 and they have never yet got anything of Military 
 importance. They have even reached us with 
 their shells from guns, but no one in the town is 
 frightened, and we go about our work quite calmly. 
 It really is funny how one can get used to any- 
 thing.'' 
 
 So much for the effect of German f rightfulness I 
 
 Barges as Hospitals, 
 
 Very little has been written about a barge which 
 has been converted into a Hospital for the use 
 of the civilian population and is moored in a cer- 
 tain Belgian canal. A couple of V.A.D. members 
 work there, under the supervision of a trained 
 Sister. 
 
HOSTELS IN FRANCE 209 
 
 Confidential Work. 
 
 In one of the big French towns several V.A.D. 
 members are doing confidential work under the 
 Military authorities. They are proving them- 
 selves to be thoroughly efficient and trustworthy 
 in every way. 
 
 At one of the Eest Clubs for nurses the mem- 
 bers sleep in tents on the sand-dunes outside the 
 Club house, and considering that they have no 
 means of transport and have to get all their milk 
 and eggs from a village two miles away, it is not 
 too much to say that the work is fairly strenuous. 
 Winter and summer they have carried out this 
 work, which probably demands as much unselfish- 
 ness as any other in France. They have created 
 a small garden in the sand, which gives a delight- 
 ful patch of colour, for in it they grow nastur- 
 tiums, mignonette, and heliotrope. 
 
 Joint Committee Post Office, 
 
 It is comparatively a new development for the 
 Joint Committee Post Office to be managed by 
 a V.A.D. Unit, but it is a venture which has suc- 
 ceeded very well indeed. The Office is clean and 
 tidy and the members look smart and happy. At- 
 tached to the Post Office is a postal van which is 
 driven by a V.A.D. member. She generally drives 
 about sixty miles a day, delivering letters, news- 
 papers, etc., to the various Joint Committee for- 
 mations in the district. 
 
210 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 At the V.A.D. Club for Sisters and Military 
 V.A.D. members one worker, who has been in 
 charge for many months, has shown great devo- 
 tion and unselfishness. Through her work dozens 
 of tired nurses off Ambulance trains and out of 
 Hospitals have had restful and happy times in 
 the Club. 
 
 It has been truly said of V.A.D. members that 
 no job is too small for them to undertake, and 
 no gap is too large for them to fill. They are per- 
 petually adding to their branches of work and 
 constantly devising new schemes for the advance 
 of their work. 
 
 For example, during the big pushes it happens 
 that improvised Ambulance trains come in one 
 close upon the heels of the other, and it is exceed- 
 ingly difficult, almost impossible at times, to make 
 a sufficient quantity of cocoa for the wounded men. 
 "With characteristic ingenuity, the V.A.D. mem- 
 bers have now devised enormous hay boxes, in 
 which they keep large cauldrons full of cocoa or 
 tea hot for hours during a rush, when they do not 
 know whether hundreds or thousands of wounded 
 will need food. 
 
 The house members in the Hostels also deserve 
 great praise. They cheerfully do the cooking, 
 house and pantry work, and many have admitted 
 that they will ** understand things better" in their 
 own homes in future. Complaints are rare, and 
 the whole spirit of the V.A.D. members in Prance 
 
HOSTELS IN FRANCE 211 
 
 might well be taken as an example to many of the 
 girls at home. 
 
 The rules and regulations are very strict, and 
 there is but little entertainment. War conditions 
 prevail everywhere, and the members show a fine 
 sense of honour in obeying the spirit of the law 
 rather than the letter. They rise early, work 
 hard all day, and they go to bed in cubicles which 
 before the war would not have been offered to the 
 lowliest of domestic servants. 
 
 Red Cross Stores, 
 
 The first Red Cross Stores to be established in 
 France were opened by Mrs. Clipperton, the wife 
 of the Consul-General of Rouen. The necessities 
 of the Hospitals in France during the early months 
 of the war far exceeded the supplies, and it was 
 a heart-rending matter for Mrs. Clipperton to try 
 to send consignments of goods that would at all 
 meet with the needs. Words cannot express how 
 she worked in order to gather together the equip- 
 ment which was constantly being demanded by 
 Matrons of Hospitals, but by her marvellous en- 
 ergy and her wonderful personality she effected 
 that which might have seemed to be impossible. 
 
 After a time some very fine premises in a cen- 
 tral position in Rouen were put at her disposal, 
 and they may well be looked upon as model Red 
 Cross Stores. 
 
 Everything is worked on a thoroughly business 
 
212 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 basis, and requisitions have to be made out on 
 forms by Commandants or Matrons before any- 
 thing is allowed to leave the Stores. Requisitions 
 are packed and dispatched with the utmost 
 promptitude, a motor lorry being kept for the pur- 
 pose of sending the goods to the various Units 
 which are situated on the outskirts of the district 
 served by the Rouen Red Cross Stores. 
 
 Here again we must speak of the Stores as being 
 typical of many others which exist, but as they 
 were the first to be got into working order, it is 
 only just to describe them rather than any others. 
 
 How Mr. Clipperton manages to spare time from 
 his heavy official duties is always a marvel to 
 those who know him; but his heart and soul are 
 in Red Cross work, and he has never yet been 
 known not to fulfil a demand that has been made 
 upon him when it sprang out of the needs of our 
 wounded. 
 
 Stores there are of every sort of article that 
 can possibly be wanted in Red Cross work, and 
 they are methodically arranged on shelves all 
 round the big rooms over which Mrs. Clipperton 
 presides. From china and enamel plates, cups, 
 pots and pans, the eye is carried along to piles of 
 under-garments, fascinating groups of invalid 
 foods, and all kinds of household equipment. Ta- 
 bles and chairs even can be supplied by Mrs. Clip- 
 perton at very short notice, and when a big cup- 
 board was begged for by the Commandant of a 
 
HOSTELS IN FRANCE 213 
 
 Rest Station, who did not know what to do with 
 the bandages she had to store for the big rush, a 
 huge packing case was quickly converted into a 
 cupboard, well finished, even to having a lock and 
 key on it, and was dispatched at very short notice. 
 
 Mrs. Clipperton keeps a close eye on various 
 branches of work outside the actual Stores. 
 When the two little Detention Hospitals were first 
 started she gave invaluable assistance in deciding 
 what furniture should be put in and helped in 
 making the curtains. When the Hostel was 
 started for the accommodation of the relatives of 
 wounded in Rouen the entire furnishing of the 
 house fell to the lot of Mrs. Clipperton, who had 
 a little band of V.A.D. members under her. The 
 whole thing was done with great rapidity, and the 
 house is quite charming and makes a comfortable 
 refuge for the weary and sad people who come 
 to see their stricken loved ones. 
 
 That is only one instance of many in which Mrs. 
 Clipperton has been the moving spirit in starting 
 Red Cross establishments, and latterly she had 
 added to her own work by giving a helping hand 
 to the Canadian Red Cross Organisation which is 
 in Rouen. 
 
 As time goes on the work at her own Red Cross 
 Stores grows heavier, but the system on which she 
 works is admirable and everything goes smoothly. 
 Only the Commandant of any Unit which is out in 
 France can quite realise the help which is given 
 
214 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 to her by Mr. and Mrs. Clipperton's ready assist- 
 ance and kindly, genial interest. 
 
 The Discretion of V,A.D, Members, 
 
 The Military authorities have long since real- 
 ised that women can be trusted in the zone of the 
 Armies; that they understand discipline and ap- 
 preciate the necessity of discretion. 
 
 **Do you know to what place General Headquar- 
 ters have been moved?" someone recently asked a 
 V.A.D. member, lately returned from France. 
 
 **Yes, I know," she admitted. 
 
 '*Then tell me," he begged. '*I have a special 
 reason for wanting to know." 
 
 * * I cannot do that, ' ' said she staunchly. * * I only 
 got to know in the course of my work, and we 
 never speak of Military matters." 
 
 That is the general aspect of the V.A.D. mem- 
 ber. She can keep a secret, and has as high a 
 sense of honour as her brother who is in the Army. 
 The war, pitiful and horrible and costly in human 
 life as it has been, has done a great deal for the 
 manhood of the country, but perhaps it has done 
 even more for its womanhood. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 V.A.D. Work in Feench Hospitals. 
 
 A LARGE number of English men and women 
 have given their services ever since the 
 commencement of the war in aid of French pa- 
 tients, and their labours have been intensely ap- 
 preciated by the French nation. 
 
 It is curious that French people, with all their 
 fine organisation and educational progress, should 
 not have had regular training schools for nurses 
 long ago. There are a few fully trained French 
 nurses, but so few are they that one seldom meets 
 them. 
 
 The three recognised Red Cross French Socie- 
 ties have done splendid work among the French 
 wounded, and in a few instances the Red Cross 
 Detachments were thoroughly well established 
 long before the war, and have since shown them- 
 selves capable of doing the most excellent work; 
 but the French people have been exceedingly 
 thankful to accept the offer of assistance from us 
 in their Hospitals, and there is no doubt that in 
 a very large measure the Entente Cordiale has 
 been enormously strengthened by the willing as- 
 
 215 
 
216 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 sistance which' has been given by English men 
 and women to sick and wounded French soldiers. 
 
 Hospitals in Monasteries, 
 
 Many of the beautiful and historic Monasteries 
 and Chateaux of France have been turned into 
 Hospitals, and in not a few of them fully trained 
 English nurses are in charge of the wards, some- 
 times working entirely under French doctors and 
 sometimes under British doctors, and in one case 
 at least both French and English doctors work 
 amicably together with an English staff under 
 them. 
 
 As I write there rises a picture in my mind's 
 eye of a wonderful old Castle situated in a wooded 
 part of Seine Inferieur. The two great castel- 
 lated towers, built in grim grey stone, stand out 
 boldly from the side of a hill, and are joined by 
 an ancient wooden drawbridge, which stretches 
 across a wide and very deep moat. From the 
 drawbridge, up between the two towers, there 
 springs a flight of circular steps, and on the slop- 
 ing ground at either side there are curious-shaped 
 flower beds, ablaze with geraniums and many 
 gaudy blossoms. 
 
 The great door was thrown open and we were 
 ushered into a long stone corridor, and eventually 
 taken through the wards, filled with French sol- 
 diers. This was not a Military Hospital, but had 
 been equipped and staffed by private endeavour, 
 
Officer. Ordinary Member. 
 
 Uniforms for Voluntary Aid Workers. 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN FRENCH HOSPITALS 217 
 
 and reflected great credit on the organisation of 
 the French people who were at the head of it. 
 
 We were shown a very beautiful old painted 
 chamber, and various other rooms filled with fine 
 old furniture, which were carefully locked from 
 general view. 
 
 An Ancient Abbey. 
 
 A fine Abbey not very far from the French fir- 
 ing line has been staffed almost entirely from 
 the beginning of the war by English people, and 
 in the Verdun district there are several big 
 French Hospitals entirely run by British men 
 and women. 
 
 It is interesting to know that in many cases the 
 fully trained Sisters who are working amongst 
 the French are Canadians and Australians, so 
 that the Entente is spreading its influence far be- 
 yond the United Kingdom, and is stretching away 
 to the furthest corners of our Greater Dominions. 
 
 Englishmen who are over military age or are 
 physically unfit have been working in these Hos- 
 pitals from the very beginning, and have proved 
 themselves to be invaluable as orderlies. They 
 have learned to become expert stretcher-bearers, 
 they have driven motor Ambulances many times 
 under fire, and they have carried out all the lowly 
 work which falls to the lot of the men in a Hos- 
 pital ward. 
 
 They labour under conditions much more diflfi- 
 
218 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 cult than those which prevail in the English Hos- 
 pitals in France, because the sanitation is not as 
 good, and the work entailed is extremely heavy 
 in consequence. Highly cultured men are labour- 
 ing in these Hospitals day and night, and find 
 immense satisfaction in being of some assistance 
 to the gallant French soldier. 
 
 They all tell the same story about the marvel- 
 lous endurance of the Frenchman after he has 
 been hit, and I have no difficulty in believing this, 
 for I have seen many times for myself the mag- 
 nificent courage of French wounded soldiers. If 
 they are not as boisterously cheery as our own 
 men, they are more philosophical and quite as 
 patient. 
 
 Their gratitude is intense, and they are not 
 ashamed of showing their emotion. To an Eng- 
 lish woman it is embarrassing when a soldier 
 seizes her hands, kisses them and cries over them ; 
 but she cannot fail to be touched, because it is 
 not all mere outward expression, but shows the 
 real sentiment and gratitude which lie deep in 
 the heart. 
 
 Self -Sacrificing Labour, 
 
 For pure self-sacrifice it would be hard to match 
 the action of a young English V.A.D. member, who 
 has for months on end worked for the best part 
 of the day in a cellar at retrimming lamps. The 
 lighting of these French Hospitals is one of the 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN FRENCH HOSPITALS 219 
 
 difficulties which has to be faced, and every day 
 someone has got to do the not too exhilarating 
 task of trimming between one and two hundred 
 lamps. 
 
 The cellar is cold and dark, the work is dirty 
 and the life is lonely, but this brave young girl 
 is dauntless, and laughed merrily when an or- 
 derly happened to descend to the cellar and was 
 astonished to see her surrounded by a bewilder- 
 ing number of lamps. 
 
 We might quote dozens of such examples for 
 self-sacrificing unobtrusive work which forms one 
 of the cogs in the great wheel of war work. There 
 is no glory and no fame, no excitement and cer- 
 tainly no sort of comfort in a job of this kind; 
 but ** somebody has got to do it; I may as well 
 be that somebody as anyone else." A valiant 
 spirit, and one which has made English people 
 the real friends of France. 
 
 It is no unusual thing for the English people 
 working in French Hospitals to be near enough 
 to the line to be within range of the shells. One 
 English woman, who had worked as a V.A.D. mem- 
 ber in the Verdun district, said that they became 
 expert in knowing the sound of the shells as they 
 passed over their Hospital and fell in a village a 
 mile away. They knew from the sound the size 
 and the kind of shells that were being thrown. 
 
 The Hospital in which she was working has been 
 established in a very beautiful old Chateau, and 
 
220 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 it was said that the German artillerjmaen had been 
 specially warned not to injure it because the Kai- 
 ser wished to make it a summer residence for one 
 of his sons after the war! 
 
 The work in this Hospital was very hard be- 
 cause the patients came in direct from the 
 trenches; but everything went exceedingly well, 
 and the little band of English people seem to have 
 been very happy there. 
 
 In the south of France a big school has been 
 turned into a Hospital with five hundred beds, and 
 in it a few English women started work in Janu- 
 ary, 1915, gradually adding to their numbers un- 
 til there were about a dozen all told. With some 
 devoted French women to assist them, two or 
 three of them ran a section each of the Hospital 
 with about eighty beds under their care. 
 
 The building was quite suitable for a Hospital, 
 having very large dormitories and fair-sized class- 
 rooms which could be made into good wards. Al- 
 though the Hospital was many miles from the 
 Front the cases, which of course were not of the 
 worst character, arrived in a most pitiable con- 
 dition. 
 
 The English V.A.D. members were of various 
 grades of experience, some of them being highly 
 trained and others with but little knowledge of 
 nursing. The orderlies were all untrained, but 
 showed great willingness. 
 
 The experienced members felt it was a great re- 
 
V.A.D. WORK IN FRENCH HOSPITALS 221 
 
 sponsibility to cope with the convoys of several 
 hundreds of patients, but they always managed 
 it excellently. The convoys generally came in at 
 night, and in the dimly lit wards it was a hard 
 task to get even the poor stumbling, tired stream 
 of walking cases washed and comfortably put to 
 bed. Each division of the Hospital had its own 
 surgery in which all the dressings were done, 
 which lightened the work and also made it pos- 
 sible for the dressings to be done under the most 
 hygienic circumstances. The stretcher cases pre- 
 sented a good deal of difficulty in this direction, 
 but the V.A.D. members were determined to keep 
 everything up to a high standard, and they 
 brought not only knowledge but hard work to 
 bear on every department of the Hospital. 
 
 One of the V.A.D. members of this Hospital 
 summed the feelings of herself and her comrades 
 up in a few words when she wrote home : **If work 
 is sometimes hard — as during the arrival of con- 
 voys, when we often have to do day and night 
 shifts — all of us are ready to overcome even worse 
 difficulties for the sake of the brave and ever- 
 cheerful Poilu.'* 
 
 British Ambulance Drivers on the French Front. 
 
 A magnificent service has been rendered by 
 many Englishmen as Motor Ambulance drivers. 
 They have constantly taken their lives in their 
 hands, for their work has carried them out almost 
 
222 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 to the firing line, and certainly within reach of 
 the heavy shells. 
 
 One needs to see as I have done the Motor Am- 
 bulances coming in, torn here and there by shrap- 
 nel, to realise in the slightest degree what it must 
 mean to run over the fire-swept roads which lead 
 from the Hospitals to the Clearing Stations. It 
 is a thrilling sight to see a long stream of Am- 
 bulances wending its way down a French road, 
 bearing its burden of broken manhood. 
 
 In a town which was at that time only fifteen 
 miles from the firing line I had the opportunity 
 of speaking to an American who had generously 
 brought an Ambulance car over from the States 
 and ran it out every night to fetch in French 
 wounded. He said that there were many English- 
 men doing this same kind of work, and by his 
 courtesy I was allowed to see the French Casualty 
 Clearing Hospital to which he took his patients 
 from the firing line. 
 
 The state of his Ambulance car was indescrib- 
 able. It is unnecessary to say that it was covered 
 with mud; it had been hit in several places by 
 shot and shell, and it rocked and swayed ominously 
 as we dashed down the crowded way. He said 
 that there was nothing vital the matter with it, 
 and that it had got plenty of good work in it yet, 
 which I did not doubt; but a more war-worn and 
 utterly dilapidated vehicle never have I seen. 
 
 These voluntary motor drivers live very often 
 
y.A.D. WORK IN FRENCH HOSPITALS 223 
 
 in anything but comfortable quarters. They set 
 forth on their daily work late in the afternoon, 
 and it is marvellous how they find their way down 
 the dark roads, for of course they can carry no 
 sort of light with them. When they meet the 
 stretcher-bearers their cars are loaded up and they 
 turn and dash away as fast as possible. 
 
 Many a thrilling story did I hear that day, and 
 they gained not a little in emphasis and point be- 
 cause whilst we talked there was the incessant 
 boom of the heavy guns, and the frail sides of 
 the Goods Shed which had been turned into the 
 Casualty Hospital shook and reverberated again 
 and again. 
 
 In speaking of the conditions under which these 
 English motor jirivers live, perhaps we may quote 
 the words of Commandant New, the officer in 
 charge of the British Ambulance Committee's sec- 
 tions working with the French Army: 
 
 **Our Ambulances were quite unfit to sleep in, 
 but we had the use of a bam, which had a thor- 
 ough system of ventilation on all sides. Various 
 odd gipsy-like tents made of old stretcher poles, 
 blankets, corrugated iron, canvas and wood were 
 put up, but the weather was kind, so no matter. 
 We took our food from the usual tin plates and 
 cups in the porte-cochere of a farm, amongst 
 wagons, accumulated litter, and flies in myriads. 
 When the meal is ready a wagon and team may 
 demand passage, and everything has to be cleared 
 
224 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEKS 
 
 away. Without warning the order came to move 
 up to the front again. This meant another ex- 
 hausting day for everyone, from early morn till 
 late afternoon. When we reached our new camp- 
 ing ground one and all were so coated with dust 
 that we were like old men with white hair and 
 moustaches. There was no water, so with parch- 
 ment-like lips we made our camp on the hillside 
 far more bare than the Downs near Brighton. . . . 
 
 **Our Ambulance route runs under the very 
 
 walls of . Picture a large town without a 
 
 single resident left in its miles of streets. Entire 
 quarters are nothing but ruins and rubbish heaps, 
 though others have escaped. At night not a 
 twinkle of light anywhere save, perhaps, that from 
 the blue-white star shells overhead or a peep of 
 moon. It is eerie and wonderful beyond words. 
 Enormous German shells come over frequently. 
 You must find your way in pitch darkness down 
 narrow alley-ways which have been cleared with 
 pick and shovel." 
 
 These Ambulances have to run between the 
 French artillery and the firing line, and a clever 
 device has been thought out for the safety of the 
 cars. At one point on the road there has been 
 set up a pole the exact height of an Ambulance, 
 carrying a little light on the top at night. This 
 gives the batteries the minimum elevation per- 
 missible when the road is being used. The guns 
 bark incessantly from behind, and the German re- 
 
V.A.D. WOEK IN FEENCH HOSPITALS 225 
 
 plies — ^high explosives — come thick and fast; yet 
 the courageous motor drivers dash between with 
 their cars calmly and unafraid. 
 
 Commandant New gives us another glimpse of 
 the work: ** Through all this our Ambulances 
 stand in the open near the poste de secours, a dug- 
 out heavily sand-bagged and cut into the hillside. 
 The wounded arrive by scores; not an instant is 
 lost. The car is loaded and passes away into the 
 darkness. Willit ever reach safety? Another fol- 
 lows and another, hour by hour, until as the dawn 
 breaks a thick white fog obscures everything and 
 soaks the exhausted men. But the Ambulance has 
 to run the gauntlet again all the way. It has a 
 groaning load of suffering; the shell holes in the 
 road are to be avoided. Few men can keep a 
 steady pace when the car is struck and mud and 
 stones fly everywhere in the blackness. Still, 
 though half-choked with smoke, nothing less is ex- 
 pected. At first as you descend the hill it gives 
 some shelter, but an absolutely exposed stretch 
 follows, and as the road winds about so the chances 
 against you vary every fifty yards. In time you 
 come to the zone of fewer but larger shells from 
 the long-range guns, and further still at last you 
 have left the bombardment booming and snapping 
 and grumbling behind you entirely, all this time, 
 be it remembered, travelling at five miles an hour. 
 As one of our cars passed a level crossing a Boche 
 shell cut the railway rails through like sticks ; an- 
 
226 BKITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 other car had a piece of shell through the dash- 
 board, front, and roof, and no one hurt ; another 
 fragment passed right through from side to side 
 between the heads of the men inside, and again 
 no harm done; but the same luck cannot always 
 be with us." 
 
 That, alas, is true, for not long since several of 
 these gallant motor drivers were seriously in- 
 jured. The French Government has recognised 
 the gallantry of several of the Englishmen who 
 have undertaken this particular work for their 
 French friends, and have decorated them with the 
 Medaille Militaire and with the Croix de Guerre. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 Canadian and Ovebseas V.A.D. Work. 
 
 CANADA has given such magnificent aid in 
 sending fighting men to the help of the 
 Mother Country, with such superb generosity, that 
 it comes as no surprise to hear that the men and 
 women who are left at home in the Canadian towns 
 have done their utmost to help Red Cross work. 
 
 The ground was already prepared for this as 
 there had always been keen interest shown in St. 
 John Ambulance work throughout Canada, and 
 some years ago, when the King reviewed the St. 
 John Ambulance Brigade a great many Canadian 
 members came over for the occasion. Many of 
 these have actually become V.A.D. members, and 
 all of them may well be classed as belonging to 
 the movement, since they have given their services 
 for Red Cross work ever since the war began. 
 
 The Duke of Connaught, who is the Sovereign 
 Grand Prior of the Order of St. John of Jeru- 
 salem, became Patron of the Canadian branch, and 
 showed an intense interest in all its work. At 
 the annual meeting held in Ottawa, His Royal 
 Highness said: **I would like to say that our 
 Voluntary Aid Detachments have been found most 
 
 227 
 
228 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 useful. At the present moment there are three 
 or four Convalescent Hospitals almost entirely- 
 staffed by the Voluntary Aid Detachments. At 
 first there was a little difficulty in their recognised 
 position, but I am happy to be able to announce 
 that the Militia Department have very generously 
 and very kindly recognised the position of the 
 Voluntary Aid Detachments, and now they form 
 a recognised part of our Military Hospital sys- 
 tem.'* 
 
 Voluntary Aid Detachments were organised in 
 the city of Halifax and in the city of Quebec, and 
 other Detachments have since been formed. 
 
 History of Canadian V.A, Detachments, 
 
 It is interesting to remember that the Militia 
 Council (Canada) on November 29th, 1911, ap- 
 proved of a scheme for **the organisation of Vol- 
 untary Medical Aid in Canada." This plan was 
 revised in 1914, and as amended was approved 
 by the Militia Council on March 3rd of that year. 
 Committees were created in each district and they 
 were charged with the responsibility of organising 
 Voluntary Aid Detachments in connection with 
 the Militia. 
 
 It was arranged at a conference of representa- 
 tives held at Government House on August 14th, 
 1914, with the approval of H.R.H. the Governor 
 General, that the duty of organising Voluntary 
 Aid Detachments should be given over to the St. 
 
CANADIAN V.A.D. WORK 229 
 
 John Ambulance Association. Thus the organisa- 
 tion began, the first V.A. Detachment to be formed 
 being in Halifax. The second was at Quebec, and 
 Montreal and Ottawa quickly followed. 
 
 An enormous number of classes in First Aid 
 and Home Nursing have been held all over Canada, 
 with the result that thousands of qualified men 
 and women are now in a position to form Detach- 
 ments throughout the Dominion. 
 
 The First Ottawa Women's V.A,D. 
 
 This was formed in January, 1915, of about 
 thirty members and officers. They laid down three 
 distinct objects for which the Detachment was 
 formed: (1) putting to practical use the knowl- 
 edge acquired in First Aid and Home Nursing by 
 continual practice in the making of beds, applica- 
 tion of bandages, and the preparing of invalid 
 diets, etc.; (2) being able in a time of calamity or 
 public distress to turn any suitable building into 
 an emergency Hospital, and to assist graduate 
 nurses in the care of the sick and wounded; (3) 
 being able to act as probationers under graduate 
 nurses in Convalescent Homes which may be es- 
 tablished by the Militia in Ottawa or vicinity. 
 
 Not content with having these objects merely 
 set down upon paper, the Detachment approached 
 the Public Works Department and asked for the 
 use of a good-sized room. This was granted, and 
 the public were invited to assist in furnishing the 
 
230 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 room, with the result that there grew up in Well- 
 ington Street a room with a kitchen and bath- 
 room attached, where the members of the Detach- 
 ment could practise all the work required in a 
 Hospital. 
 
 The Girl Guides volunteered to act as patients, 
 and as well as classes in nursing instruction, those 
 for the study of the Braille System for the blind 
 were held, so that the V.A.D. members could help 
 to teach blinded soldiers and sailors to read and 
 write. 
 
 In September, members of the Detachment were 
 put in charge of a tent at the Central Canada Ex- 
 hibition, at which all kinds of First Aid and Home 
 Nursing appliances were displayed. 
 
 Useful Work. 
 
 From time to time the members have been able 
 to collect fruit, jam, books, etc., for the 77th Bat- 
 talion of Engineers in camp on Rock Cliff, and 
 five cases of oranges were collected and presented 
 to the 38th Battalion on its departure from Ot- 
 tawa. The men were exceedingly grateful for 
 this, as they had no drinking water on the train. 
 
 A smart bit of work was carried out by the De- 
 tachment early in October, when the 8th Canadian 
 Mounted Rifles passed through Ottawa from 
 Kingston. The V.A.D. members heard that the 
 men would be unable to have a meal from the 
 time they left Kingston very early in the morning 
 
CANADIAN V.A.D. WORK 231 
 
 until after they left Ottawa at 5 p. m. They im- 
 mediately made arrangements to have hot soup, 
 bread, and fresh fruit at the station, and the ap- 
 peal to the public for funds was so generous that 
 there was more than sufficient food to supply the 
 six hundred and fifty officers and men who were 
 fed that day. Three ladies of the Detachment 
 supplied the soup, which was made in their own 
 homes, and Colonel D. R. Street lent a field kitchen 
 belonging to the 77th Battalion. 
 
 The Detachment has grown enormously, and the 
 members are all very enthusiastic and anxious to 
 help in any way that is possible. 
 
 The late Sir Sanford Fleming's residence on 
 Sandy hill has been offered and accepted by the 
 Militia Department to be used as a Convalescent 
 Home for returned wounded soldiers, and mem- 
 bers of the V.A.D. hope to be able to serve in re- 
 lays as probationers under graduated nurses who 
 will be in charge. 
 
 In the district of Quebec the Voluntary Aid De- 
 tachment at Sherbrooke Centre has been doing a 
 fine work of mercy in looking after the require- 
 ments of sick and wounded soldiers from the Front 
 at the EZhaki Convalescent Home. 
 
 Canadian Army Medical Corps. 
 
 A very large number of Canadian St. John men 
 have volunteered for active service with this corps, 
 and are working in Hospitals or right up close to 
 
232 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEEES 
 
 the firing line in France or other parts of the Con- 
 tinent. 
 
 WorJcing Parties. 
 
 These have been formed in various places in 
 Canada and have done magnificent work for the 
 Bed Cross Society. 
 
 Sixty V,A,B, Canadians at Work in Military Hos- 
 pitals, 
 
 During the autumn of 1916 sixty Canadian 
 V.A.D. members came to England to give their 
 services in Military Hospitals. Ten of these were 
 sent on to France to work there in Military Hos- 
 pitals and fifty remained in England. They have 
 done exceedingly well and certainly reflect credit 
 on their organisation. It is too well known a fact 
 for it to be necessary to remark on the splendid 
 way in which graduate (fully trained) nurses vol- 
 unteered under the banner of St. John quite early 
 in the war and came over in their hundreds to 
 share in the responsible nursing of our men, both 
 abroad and at home. 
 
 V,A.D, Work Overseas. 
 
 It is impossible in a general survey of V.A.I). 
 work to give any real impression of all that has 
 been accomplished by members in Hospitals in 
 Malta, Egypt, Salonica, Russia, Serbia, Italy, Rou- 
 mania and Belgium. In fact in all the Allies' 
 
CANADIAN V.A.D. WOEK 233 
 
 Countries British Voluntary Aid members have 
 given of their best. 
 
 The story of those who took part in the great 
 retreat in Serbia has been told so well that I need 
 do no more than touch upon it, but it proved thai 
 our women, who went to the succour of these 
 defeated but unconquered people, have courage 
 and skill in an extraordinary measure. 
 
 In Malta and Egypt the members have worked 
 splendidly in the great hospitals, always under 
 the direction of fully trained nurses. In Belgium 
 they are still at work, but not in the numbers that 
 went to that stricken country in the early days 
 of the war, when the sudden invasion of the enemy 
 devastated the fair lands and the beautiful old 
 cities which were beloved not only by their own 
 people, but by thousands of travellers who grieve 
 to know of the wanton destruction of some of the 
 most exquisite buildings in the world. 
 
 Quite recently, however, a V.A.D. member who 
 has worked in an Anglo-Belgian Hospital for 
 nearly a year told me that it was so regular an 
 occurrence for enemy aeroplanes to bomb the town 
 that no one took any notice of them, especially as 
 they seldom do any real damage. 
 
 Newfoundland, Several members of the Ambu- 
 lance Detachment of the First Newfoundland Eegi- 
 ment fell in Gallipoli, one of them whilst perform- 
 ing a deed of greatest gallantry. 
 
 Orange Free State, A great many ladies have 
 
234 BEITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 qualified in First Aid and Home Nursing here and 
 many of them have volunteered for service as 
 nurses at the National Hospital. Their work has 
 been excellent and has been highly commended. 
 Transvaal. Voluntary Aid Detachments are 
 being formed here. 
 
 St, John Ambulance Brigade Overseas, 
 
 Some of the latest Detachments to be utilised 
 at the Front are those supplied from within the 
 Empire of India for service in Mesopotamia. 
 Brigade Overseas men are serving practically 
 in every theatre of war where the British Forces 
 are engaged. 
 
 Peace and War Work, 
 
 The two were curiously joined together for me 
 suddenly one night when I was doing dressings 
 for men on a train which was passing down to a 
 Base in France. The few of us at the Aid Post 
 who had been put on to do dressings were sur- 
 rounded with wounded men. It was the middle 
 of a dark and stormy night and we had nothing 
 better than a single lamp as light. Suddenly my 
 hand was seized and in the dim light I discerned 
 the uniform and badges of a R.A.M.C. Orderly, 
 but the face was unfamiliar. **Are you not Miss 
 Bowser? I used to work with you on Hampstead 
 Heath on Bank Holidays ! ' ' 
 
 I knew the voice in a moment. It was a St. 
 
CANADIAN V.A.D. WORK 235 
 
 John man who had regularly given up his Bank 
 Holidays in order to come and do ambulance work 
 at the tent on Hampstead Heath, where we always 
 had a number of accidents to attend to in the 
 course of the day. For years in peace time we 
 had worked together, and now we met under these 
 strange circumstances, both glad to have had that 
 other training in years when war was only a 
 chimera. 
 
 To be prepared for all eventualities is the secret 
 which every country and every nation must realise 
 is a vital one. But however well prepared may 
 be an Army and a Navy, there must exist an or- 
 ganisation for the supplementary care of the 
 wounded and sick in war time. The civilian work 
 of the St. John Ambulance Association and Bri- 
 gade in England and her Empire laid a strong 
 foundation, especially amongst the men, for the 
 work of the Voluntary Aid Detachment scheme 
 which was formulated by the War Office in 1909 
 and actually started in 1910. That it is not per- 
 fect no one would deny, but when it is remembered 
 that it involves the administration of millions of 
 pounds sterling, of the use of hundreds of thou- 
 sands of articles for hospital equipment, and sends 
 forth thousands of men and women, who volun- 
 tarily give their services, all over the Kingdom 
 and to every theatre of war, it can be said to be 
 nothing but a success. The Medical authorities 
 in the Services, the doctors in hospitals and the 
 
236 BRITAIN'S CIVILIAN VOLUNTEERS 
 
 trained nurses agree to-day that they could not 
 have managed without the help given to them by 
 the Red Cross and its personnel. 
 
 Upon the man or woman debarred by age or 
 health or sex from participating in the greatest 
 honour of all — fighting for one's country — the 
 next best privilege which can fall upon him or 
 her is to serve under the Red Cross. We who 
 have been allowed to give some little aid, in what- 
 soever humble a manner, know that the only alle- 
 viation in the awful sorrows brought about by the 
 war is that gained by working for the men who 
 give their lives, and more than their lives — their 
 eyesight, their limbs and their health — in the 
 cause of righteousness. 
 
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