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THE SWORD OF DEBORAH
F. TENNYSON JESSE
"Women are timid, cower and shrink
At show of danger, some folk think;
But men there are who for their lives
Dare not so far asperse their wives.
We let that pass--so much is clear,
Though little dangers they may fear,
When greater dangers men environ,
Then women show a front of iron;
And, gentle in their manner, they
Do bold things in a quiet way."
THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.
[Illustration: A "FANY" WITH THE AERIAL TORPEDO DROPPED INTO THE CAMP]
THE SWORD
OF DEBORAH
_FIRST-HAND IMPRESSIONS OF THE
BRITISH WOMEN'S ARMY IN FRANCE_
BY
F. TENNYSON JESSE
AUTHOR OF "SECRET BREAD," "THE MILKY WAY," ETC.
NEW [Illustration] YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
_Copyright, 1919,
By George H. Doran Company_
_Printed in the United States of America_
FOREWORD
This little book was written at the request of the Ministry of
Information in March of 1918; it was only released for publication--in
spite of the need for haste in its compiling which had been impressed on
me, and with which I had complied--shortly before Christmas. Hence it
may seem somewhat after the fair. But it appears to me that people
should still be told about the workers of the war and what they did,
even now when we are all struggling back into our chiffons--perhaps more
now than ever. For we should not forget, and how should we remember if
we have never known?
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A.B.C. 13
II THE FEVER CHART OF WAR 17
III BACKGROUNDS 26
IV MY FIRST CONVOY 34
V OUTPOSTS 41
VI WAACS: RUMOURS AND REALITIES 48
VII THE BROWN GRAVES 58
VIII VIGNETTES 65
IX EVENING 74
X NIGHT 84
XI "AND THE BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER" 93
XII REST 102
XIII GENERAL SERVANTS AND A GENERAL
QUESTION 111
XIV NOTES AND QUERIES 123
ILLUSTRATIONS
A "FANNY" WITH THE AERIAL TORPEDO
DROPPED INTO THE CAMP _Frontispiece_
H. M. THE QUEEN INSPECTING A VAD DOMESTIC
STAFF 48
A VAD MOTOR CONVOY 48
WAAC GARDENERS AT WORK IN THE CEMETERY 48
WREATHS FROM MOTHERS OF THE FALLEN 48
WAACS IN THE BAKERY 80
WAAC COOKS PREPARING VEGETABLES 80
WAAC ENCAMPMENT PROTECTED BY SAND BAGS 80
THE SWORD OF DEBORAH
"_Thou art an Amazon, and fightest with the sword of Deborah._"
--1 HENRY VI. 1. ii.
THE SWORD OF DEBORAH
CHAPTER I
A.B.C.
This world of initials ... in which the members of the British
Expeditionary Force live and move--it is a bewildering place for the
outsider. Particularly to one who, like the writer, has never been able
to think in initials, any more than in dates or figures. The members of
the B.E.F.--and that at least is a set of letters that conveys something
to all of us--not only live amidst initials, but are themselves embodied
initials. To them the string of letters they reel off is no meaningless
form, no mere abracadabra to impress the supplicant, but each is a
living thing, coloured, definitely patterned, standing for something in
flesh and blood, or stone and mortar; something concrete and present to
the mind's eye at the mere mention.
Just as, to anyone who does not know New York, it seems as though all
the streets must sound exactly alike, being merely numbered, while, to
anyone who knows them, the words East Sixty First, say, are as distinct
from East Twenty First, distinct with a whole vivid personality of their
own, as Half Moon Street from Threadneedle Street--so, to the initiate
in the game, the letters so lightly rattled off to designate this or
that official or institution stand for vivid, real, colourable things.
But at first one is reminded forcibly of that scene in "Anna Karenina"
where Levin proposes to Kitty for the second time by means of writing in
chalk on a table the letters "W, y, t, m, i, c, n, b, d, t, m, n, o, t,"
and Kitty, with great intelligence, guesses that they mean "When you
told me it could never be, did that mean never, or then?" Kitty, if you
remember, replies in initials at almost equal length, and Levin displays
an intelligence equal to hers. I had always found that scene hard of
credence, but I have come to the conclusion that Levin and Kitty would
have been invaluable at H.Q.B.R.C.S., A.P.O. 3, B.E.F.
And the fog of initials is symbolic in a double manner; for not only do
the initials stand for what they represent to those who know, but in
their very lack of meaning for those who do not, they typify with a
peculiar aptness the fact that after all we at home in England,
particularly we ladies of England who live at home in ease, know very
little indeed of even what the letters B.E.F. stand for. We have hazy
ideas on the subject. Vaguely we know, for instance, that there are
women, lots of women, working out in France, though quite at what,
beyond nursing, we don't seem to know. Motor drivers ... of course, yes,
we have heard of them. There is a vague impression that they are having
the time of their lives, probably being quite useful too ... but of the
technique of the thing, so to speak, what do we know? About as much as
we know when we first hear the clouds of initials rattling like shrapnel
about our heads if we go over to France.
And if we at home know so little, how can other countries know, who have
no inner working knowledge of English temperaments and training to go
upon as a rough guide to at least the probable trend of things? How can
we expect them to know? And yet knowledge of what every section of the
working community is doing was never so vital as at the present moment,
because never before has so much of the world been working together on
the same job--and the biggest job in history.
It is always a good thing to know what other folk are doing, even when
they are not your sort, and what they are doing does not affect you,
because it teaches proportion and widens vision--how much more
important, then, when what they are doing is what you are doing too, or
what you may yet come to do?
Gentle reader--and even more especially ungentle reader--if in these
pages I occasionally ask you to listen to my own personal confession
both of faith and of unfaith--please realise that it is not because I
imagine there is any particular interest in my way of seeing things, but
simply because it is only so that I can make you see them too. You are
looking through my window, that is all, and it is not even a window that
I opened for myself, but that had to be opened for me. If you will
realise that I went and saw all I did see, not as myself, but as you, it
will give you the idea I am wishful to convey to you. Anything I feel is
only valuable because my feeling of it may mean your feeling of it too.
Therefore, when you read "I" in these pages, don't say "Here's this
person talking of herself again ..." say "Here am I, myself. This person
only saw these things so that I should see them."
If you don't it will be nine-tenths my fault and one-tenth your own.
Just as all the apparently endless combinations of initials in France
are symbols of living realities to those who understand them, and of
their ignorance to those who don't just as the very heading of "A.B.C."
which I have given this chapter typifies both those combinations of
initials and the fact that you and I are beginning at the very
beginning--for no one could have been more blankly ignorant than I when
I went over to France--so the letter "I" whenever it occurs in this book
is a symbol for You.