Transcriber’s Note
Illustration of 'Miss Lena Ashwell' moved from p89 to p79 to correct position.
Illustration of 'The days last load of timber' moved from page 31 to 30
[Illustration]
WOMEN OF THE WAR
BY
BARBARA McLAREN
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
THE RIGHT HON. H. H. ASQUITH, M.P.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
INTRODUCTION
I have read this volume with an interest which I feel confident will
be widely shared by the English-speaking public. Its simple and
unexaggerated account of the varied fields of work which have enlisted,
during the last three years, the energies and efforts of women of our
race, forms a unique chapter in the annals of war.
Looked at as a whole, these narratives are as good evidence as could
be found of the depth and universality of the appeal which the war
has made to our women, not only for sympathy but for service. For the
first time it has taught us as a nation to realise how large and how
decisive is the part that can be played in a world-wide contest by
those who are prevented from taking a place in the actual fighting
line. There is no question here of any form of compulsion. The services
and sacrifices which are described in these pages were given and
suffered spontaneously by volunteers. That they should have been on
such a scale, covering such wide and diverse activities, and shared
in by women of every class and of so many types of special or general
capacity, is a speaking tribute, not only to the quickened sense of
national duty, but to the commanding and irresistible authority of a
great cause.
Hardly less remarkable is the testimony which this book affords to the
versatility, one might say the inventiveness, displayed in the share
which women have contributed to the general stock of patriotic effort.
They have done and are doing things which, before the war, most of us
would have said were both foreign to their nature and beyond their
physical capacity. It would be invidious to discriminate, but anyone
turning over these pages will find abundant illustrations. Nor can it
be doubted that these experiences and achievements will, when the war
is over, have a permanent effect upon both the statesman’s and the
economist’s conception of the powers and functions of women in the
reconstructed world.
But I must leave the book to speak for itself and teach its own
lessons. It does not profess to be an exhaustive account of women’s
work in the war. It is content with the more modest task of selecting
and describing some typical cases. I know the scrupulous care with
which it has been prepared, and I heartily commend it, not only as a
trustworthy and uncoloured delineation of actual fact, but as a message
of stimulus and inspiration to us all.
H. H. ASQUITH.
PREFACE
These accounts of the work of some British women during the war have
been collected, not with any attempt at even outlining the scope of
women’s achievement, but simply as pictures, showing the influence
which women in varied spheres have exercised in the course of the
war. Some of those whose records follow are women who, by force of
character and personality, would always have stood apart, even in the
limited opportunities of peace time. Others are taken rather as types
of workers, representing many hundreds who are serving the country in
similar ways. The selection has seemed at times invidious; but it is
easy to realise that when the numbers of workers are so immense in each
of the fields of activity mentioned in the book, no complete record of
individual effort can be attempted.
The object in writing of the experiences of particular workers is to
present a more vivid story than a merely general description could
convey. True understanding of our women’s war work can come only from
personal experience or through the power of a keen imagination. Those
who have no other opportunities can appreciate that work by visualising
the measure of endurance, patience, determination, and unflinching
courage demanded for the successful performance of the tasks which
women have undertaken. If any of these chapters succeed in creating a
living atmosphere in which readers picture themselves working under
similar conditions in similar fields of labour, the primary object of
the book will have been fulfilled. Much will be written hereafter on
every form of women’s service touched on in these little accounts. They
claim only to be windows through which may be seen that wide vista
which has for its foreground the fulfilment of the great tasks of the
war, and for its background a limitless horizon of potential effort.
B. McL.
CONTENTS
I. DR. GARRETT ANDERSON, C.B.E., AND DR. FLORA MURRAY, C.B.E. PAGE The
first women doctors to manage a Military Hospital under the War Office.
This hospital is entirely staffed by women 13
II. LADY PAGET, G.B.E.
Lady Paget took a hospital unit to Serbia when the typhus epidemic was
raging there. She remained at Uskub with her staff after the invasion
of Serbia, continuing her work during enemy occupation 17
III. MISS LILIAN BARKER, C.B.E., AND MISS MABEL COTTERELL
Two outstanding Welfare Workers under the Ministry of Munitions. Miss
Barker is Lady Superintendent at Woolwich, and Miss Cotterell at Gretna
21
IV. MISS C. E. MATHESON AND THE VILLAGE LAND WORKERS
Miss Matheson has been working on the land for over two years, and has
specialised in work with live stock 26
V. DR. ELSIE INGLIS
The founder of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. Dr. Inglis has worked in
Serbia, where she was taken prisoner. She is now serving in Rumania 31
VI. MISS SPROT, THE MISSES PLAYFAIR, AND LADY BADEN-POWELL
Outstanding workers in the Y.M.C.A. Canteens in France. Lady
Baden-Powell has started Boy Scout and Girl Guide Canteens 36
VII. MISS AGNES BORTHWICK
Miss Borthwick is Works Manager in a big filling factory under the
Ministry of Munitions. She is the first woman to hold this position in
a Government factory 41
VIII. MRS. ST. CLAIR STOBART
Mrs. Stobart was with hospital units in Brussels, Antwerp, Cherbourg,
and finally in Serbia, where, attached to the Serbian army with a field
ambulance column, she accompanied the army in its heroic retreat 44
IX. MISS E. G. BATHER AND MISS DOROTHY RAVENSCROFT
Two workers in charge of Remount Depôts for the War Office 49
X. MISS EDITH STONEY AND DR. FLORENCE STONEY
Two X-ray specialists. Miss Stoney is working X-rays in a hospital in
Salonika; Dr. Stoney is in a military hospital in London 53
XI. THE BARONESS DE T’SERCLAES AND MISS MAIRI CHISHOLM
These ladies have worked in Belgium since the beginning of the war, and
are the only women allowed by the Belgian military authorities to be in
the firing line 59
XII. LADY MARY HAMILTON AND MISS DRUMMOND
Typical workers engaged on skilled processes in munition factories. 62
XIII. MRS. FURSE, G.B.E., R.R.C., AND LADY PERROTT, R.R.C.
Mrs. Furse’s successful administration of the Women’s Voluntary Aid
Detachments has been an important factor in the organisation of their
invaluable work. Lady Perrott’s work, both before and during the war,
has added greatly to the numbers and the efficiency of the Voluntary
Aid Detachments 67
XIV. COMMANDANT DAMER DAWSON AND MRS. CARDEN
Commandant Damer Dawson has organised the Women Police. Mrs. Carden has
helped to organise Women Patrols 74
XV. MISS LENA ASHWELL, O.B.E.
Miss Ashwell originated the Concert Parties at the front which have had
such a stimulating influence. For over two years she has organised,
developed, and financed the scheme on an ever-increasing scale 79
XVI. MISS VIOLETTA THURSTAN
Since August, 1914, Miss Thurstan has been nursing in Belgium and in
Russia, where she was wounded in the trenches. She is now Matron at a
great Belgian hospital 85
XVII. H.R.H. PRINCESS BEATRICE, THE HON. LADY LAWLEY, G.B.E., AND THE
COUNTESS OF GOSFORD
Workers in the various organisations of hospital supplies and comforts
90
XVIII. MISS EDITH HOLDEN, R.R.C.
The Matron of a great base hospital 98
XIX. MRS. GASKELL, C.B.E., AND THE HON. MRS. ANSTRUTHER
The organisers of the War Library and the Camps Library, which supply
books to the Army and to the sick and wounded 103
XX. MISS LILIAN RUSSELL AND MISS ALICE BROWN
Workers for the Y.M.C.A. in France, who are managing hostels for the
relations of the wounded 110
XXI. MISS DOROTHY MATHEWS AND MISS URSULA WINSER
Miss Mathews is a typical agricultural worker, engaged in ploughing and
heavy land work. Miss Winser drives an agricultural tractor 114
XXII. MISS EVELYN LYNE AND MISS MADGE GREG
Two representative Voluntary Aid Detachment workers who have done
canteen and rest-station work in France 118
XXIII. MRS. LEACH
The head of the organisation of Army women-cooks 122
XXIV. MRS. GRAHAM JONES
A representative V.A.D. worker who has specialised in motor work. She
went to France in charge of the first Women’s Motor Ambulance Unit
under the British Red Cross Society 125
XXV. MISS GERTRUDE SHAW
Miss Shaw has specialised in the housing and canteen organisation for
the Ministry of Munitions, and is now Chief Inspectress of Hostels and
Canteens 129
XXVI. MRS. HARLEY
Mrs. Harley worked for the Scottish Women’s Hospitals from the outbreak
of war, and was killed by a shell at Monastir in March, 1917, while
tending Serbian refugees 132
XXVII. MISS ETHEL ROLFE AND THE WOMEN ACETYLENE WELDERS
Women engaged on a skilled process largely used in aeroplane
construction 136
XXVIII. LADY LUGARD
Lady Lugard helped to organise the War Refugees Committee for the
reception and allocation of Belgian refugees 141
XXIX. MISS CHRISTOBEL ELLIS
The head of the branch of the Women’s Legion which organises women
motor-drivers for the Army 148
XXX. MADAME BRUNOT AND MISS MARION MOLE
These ladies lived in Cambrai under German rule for over two years, and
did splendid work for wounded and prisoners 151
XXXI. SOME ARMY NURSES
Typical examples of nurses in various forms of hospital service 155
WOMEN OF THE WAR
[Illustration:
IN THE PATHOLOGY LABORATORY AT THE ENDELL STREET MILITARY HOSPITAL,
LONDON
_Alfieri_
_To face page 13_ ]
WOMEN OF THE WAR
I
DR. GARRETT ANDERSON, C.B.E., AND DR. FLORA MURRAY, C.B.E.
Dr. Garrett Anderson and Dr. Flora Murray have contributed one of the
finest pages to the annals of women’s work during the war, and by their
success have greatly advanced the position of women in the medical
world.
Dr. Garrett Anderson was already a well-known surgeon, and Dr. Flora
Murray equally well known as a physician, in pre-war days, the former
having qualified in 1897, and the latter in 1903. Dr. Garrett Anderson
is a daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, M.D., the first
British medical woman.
During the month after the war broke out, Dr. Garrett Anderson and Dr.
Flora Murray together organised a Voluntary Women’s Hospital Unit,
staffed by medical women, and offered their services to the French Red
Cross. They established a hospital of 100 beds in Paris, at Claridge’s
Hotel, Champs Elysées, and it is notable that this was the first of the
voluntary hospitals in Paris to start work in September, 1914. Both
British and French wounded were received and treated.
It was not long before the excellent work of these two doctors
attracted very special attention, with the result that they were
approached by the War Office, and asked to organise a hospital at
Wimereux near Boulogne, attached to the Royal Army Medical Corps. This
invitation was a considerable triumph, for it was the first time that
medical women were officially singled out by the British Government and
given equal responsibility with medical men.
The Army medical authorities were quick to realise how wisely their
trust had been bestowed, and, in February, 1915, Dr. Garrett Anderson
and Dr. Flora Murray were asked to take up work on a larger scale, and
to undertake the entire management of the Endell Street Hospital, a
large military hospital in London.
During its two years of work for the sick and wounded, no military
hospital has succeeded in establishing a finer record. To see it is a
wonderful experience. The hospital consists of 17 wards, with 578 beds,
and is entirely staffed by women--surgeons, doctors, pathologists,
oculists, dental surgeons, anæsthetists, dispensers, nurses, orderlies.
The only men are the patients.
Sir Alfred Keogh, the Director-General of the Army Medical Service,
said, when speaking of it: “The hospital is in every respect a military
hospital, differing in no way from any other military hospital in the
country. Major operations comparable to those in any other institution
are performed, and there is no limitation whatever, either medical or
surgical, to the functions which the staff of the hospital undertakes.
Particularly excellent work has been done in the pathological
departments. A special feature of the surgery of the hospital has been
the adoption there of a new method of treating wounds, introduced by
Professor Rutherford Morison.”
This treatment consists of the use of a bismuth-iodoform-paraffin paste
for cases of septic wounds and fractures. Writing of the treatment, Dr.
Garrett Anderson says: “In every case fœtor has disappeared, sepsis has
subsided, and union of bone has taken place with astonishing rapidity,
while the condition of the patient has benefited greatly from being
spared painful daily dressings.”
Set in the very centre of London, and surrounded by tall buildings,
with the buzz and whirl of London traffic all about it, a visitor would
be inclined at first to think the hospital a sad and gloomy place. But
that impression soon passes, for in the wards, bright with colour,
in the recreation room and library, but most of all in the faces of
the soldier patients, happiness and contentment are the prevailing
elements. An atmosphere is as hard to describe as it is easy to
recognise, but the atmosphere of the Women’s Hospital breathes rest and
quiet, and the mutual confidence between patients and doctors which is
so invaluable an asset in successful treatment.
Here, then, for the first time, it has been proved beyond all dispute,
both to the medical profession and to the world outside, that women
doctors and surgeons can equal the success of men in all branches of
their calling, and not only with the ailments of women and children.
The work that these women have proved themselves able to accomplish and
to continue without sign of strain during three years of war ought at
last to secure the recognition that it deserves. Dr. Garrett Anderson
and Dr. Flora Murray will feel that they have worked successfully,
not only for their patients, but for medical women in general, if, as
a result of their demonstration, the doors of the medical schools are
thrown open to women. That the majority of medical women working for
their country to-day have been forced to gain their knowledge and skill
in the schools of the enemy is surely one of the conditions which the
war will sweep away for ever.
[Illustration:
LADY PAGET, G.B.E.
_Hugh Cecil_
_To face page 17_ ]
II
LADY PAGET, G.B.E.
As a monument to human endurance and courage there can be no more
wonderful record than that of Lady Paget’s Hospital Unit in Serbia.
The whole unit, several members of which were Americans, worked with a
devotion and a loyalty unsurpassed during the war, but in Lady Paget
they had a born leader, and a woman of indomitable heroism. At all the
crucial moments, of which there were many, Lady Paget’s wisdom, tact,
foresight, and rapidity of decision saved the situation and enabled her
hospital to render inestimable work to stricken Serbia.
Lady Paget, as wife of a former British Minister to Serbia, already
possessed a wide experience of Balkan hospital work, having worked
through the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913.
In November, 1914, Lady Paget’s Hospital Unit reached Uskub. This
was one of the most critical phases for Serbia in the whole war.
The Austrian invasion was at its height, and the Serbian armies,
their ammunition exhausted, were being driven helplessly through the
country before the enemy guns. Uskub was one of the main hospital
bases, though the conditions there were of the roughest as regards
sanitation and hospital equipment. As soon as Lady Paget’s hospital
could be hurriedly installed it was filled to overflowing with wounded
Serbian soldiers, and for three months the work was incessant. When
the surgical work began to slacken, the great typhus epidemic swept
over the country. The Serbians had no means of meeting it, and Lady
Paget, with two doctors and two nurses, by super-human labours prepared
a great Typhus Colony at Uskub, Lady Paget herself undertaking the
hardest menial work of scrubbing and cooking, and sparing herself no
risk in washing and caring for the infected patients. By the labours
of this gallant staff of five, and some Austrian prisoners working
under them as orderlies, huge barracks were converted into hospital
buildings and filled with hundreds of typhus-stricken soldiers within
little over a week. Then Lady Paget herself caught the deadly fever,
and for many days her life was despaired of. She was so much beloved
throughout Serbia that her danger was felt as a national disaster, and
the children of peasants in far-away places, where she was known only
by name, were taught to pray for her daily, while in the synagogues a
special day was set apart for prayers for her recovery.
In the spring, before Lady Paget was fully restored to health, she
returned to England to prepare for further work, and in July, 1915,
she again went to Serbia. She returned to her previous headquarters at
Uskub and reorganised her staff, and during August and September the
hospital was continuously full.
About the middle of October the storm of invasion again broke over the
unhappy little country, and, while the German and Austrian armies swept
down from the north, the Bulgarians poured in from the east. It was
at this point that Lady Paget had one of her most momentous decisions
to make. The Serbian population was flying before the oncoming tide
of the enemy armies--“one of the greatest tragedies in history,” Lady
Paget wrote; “a nation was shattered, crushed, and driven forth into
the wilderness to die of cold and hunger.” But, refusing to desert
her Serbian patients, and in the hope of being able to save her large
hospital stores for the help of the refugees, Lady Paget, with her
staff, gallantly decided, in spite of strong opposition, to remain at
Uskub and face the enemy. Describing this critical decision, a friend
wrote of her: “Lady Paget’s will was the only fixed point that night in
the universal land-slide around her. By setting her single will against
the stampede, she turned back the flood of panic that was hurrying the
wretched inhabitants of the town away to certain destruction; for the
next day in Uskub, when it became known that the British Mission was
staying to look after the wounded, it went far to reassure the people,
and hundreds who would otherwise have gone to their death in the icy
mountains of Albania remained in the shelter of their homes.”
With the coming of the Bulgarians on October 22nd began a long and
difficult period. Until the middle of February, 1916, the Hospital
Unit remained at Uskub, prisoners in the enemy’s hands. But, owing
to Lady Paget’s tact and resource, they were able to carry on work
of inestimable value, not only in nursing many hundred wounded, both
Serbian, Bulgarian, and Austrian, but also in feeding and clothing
thousands of Serbian refugees. Through the worst weeks of winter,
between three and four thousand were fed and clothed daily, and from
first to last over 70,000 were relieved entirely from Lady Paget’s
stores. It is a remarkable tribute to her personality that the enemy,
though not too plentifully equipped themselves, should yet have allowed
her to retain possession of this large quantity of stores, trusting as
they did to her scrupulous sense of fairness and straight-dealing.
By February, 1916, Lady Paget and her workers had done all in their
power for Serbia. By this time the refugees had been either interned or
sent to their homes, the hospital had been evacuated of patients, the
staff was worn out with hard work, and the stores were exhausted. After
difficult negotiations Lady Paget obtained permission to leave and was
able to return with her unit to England.
This is the third war in which she has given herself unsparingly to
help the Serbians, and she has become an object of worship to this
desolate people. To mark the national gratitude, King Peter has
bestowed upon her the first class of the Order of St. Sava, an honour
that had never before been given to an uncrowned woman.
[Illustration: MISS LILIAN BARKER, C.B.E.,
MISS MABEL COTTERELL
_To face page 21_ ]
III
MISS LILIAN BARKER, C.B.E., AND MISS MABEL COTTERELL
The first element in the great development of munition work during
the war, which has drawn women in tens of thousands into the service
of their country, has certainly been the all-powerful motive of
patriotism. But second to this, the practical success of the work has
been made possible largely through the recognition and development of
welfare work. What we understand nowadays by “welfare” does not consist
merely in the provision of canteens and other amenities for workers.
It means the study of human nature, the introduction of the humanising
element into work. Experience has proved that there is nothing in the
world so calculated to get the best out of human nature as the human
touch. Welfare work, undertaken sporadically in this country since the
beginning of the nineteenth century, has been gradually introduced
in our factories by the more enlightened employers, but the advent
of women in such great numbers to munition works has set the seal of
official approval on the system.
The result of this work cannot be better illustrated than by the
example of what has been accomplished by two of the most successful
welfare workers.
Miss Lilian Barker, the Lady Superintendent at the Royal Arsenal at
Woolwich, supervises the women operators employed there with the good
humour and sagacity of an ideal statesman. When Miss Barker took up
her work at Woolwich in December, 1915, there were 400 women and girls
employed at the Arsenal. To-day there are over 25,000, every one of
whom has been personally engaged by this “superwoman” of Woolwich.
Round Miss Barker’s office there gathers a constant throng of workers,
and it is one of her tasks, with the assistants whom she has trained,
to straighten out their difficulties, to inquire into their grievances,
and to act if need be as mediator with their superior officers. She
advises all who come to her for help as to their health, their meals,
their recreation, and the hundred and one details which the domestic
guardian of a huge works can set to rights by understanding, patience,
and tact. It is hard to give an adequate impression of the wonderful
atmosphere which Miss Barker has created at Woolwich, but a visitor
privileged to go round the shops in her company cannot fail to be
deeply struck, not only by her influence with the workers, but by the
general sense of contentment and health. As one approaches a shop, one
hears the girls singing at their work--a sure sign of happiness. When
Miss Barker enters, their faces light up, gay greetings pass, and one
feels instinctively the confidence and mutual trust with which she has
inspired her great family.
Miss Barker makes frequent tours round the women’s shops (it is said to
take a week to go over the whole Arsenal), and all the time she is on
the watch for possible improvements--perhaps the better ventilation of
a factory, or some needed alteration in a cloakroom--stopping ever and
again for a word with a girl on some matter relating to her well-being.
It is rare to see a sickly face, even among the workers in the danger
zone, and visitors are struck by the high proportion of good looks,
even of beauty. The workers are drawn from every grade of society, but
the democracy of the overall and cap levels all distinctions.
Recently much trouble was experienced by the Arsenal management owing
to bad timekeeping in the shops. Able to earn considerable sums of
money by working only three or four days weekly, the girls were apt
to stay away for the rest of the week. Miss Barker was approached and
asked to take over the responsibility for the timekeeping, never before
part of her work, and the results were astonishing. “If you leave 200
fuse-rings incomplete,” she would say, in making personal appeals to
small groups of girls, “they delay 200 fuses. 200 fuses delay 200
shells from being sent out to the front. Think what 200 shells might
mean to Tommy in a tight corner!” Miss Barker knows the wisdom of
instilling into each worker the sense of her personal responsibility,
and under her inspiration the timekeeping difficulty is no longer an
acute problem.
Miss Mabel Cotterell is another welfare worker who has accomplished a
stupendous task. Little more than a year ago the first buildings of the
greatest Filling Factory in the country began to rise from a desolate
bog on the borders of England and Scotland. During the year a town has
grown to house the thousands of women employees who came to work in
answer to the national appeal for their help. Miss Cotterell engaged
and took to Gretna the first fifty fisher-girls from the Aberdeen
coast. “I had one assistant in those days,” Miss Cotterell recalls,
“and we met the new-comers at the countryside station and took them
over the fields to the hostel and the bungalow which had been furnished
for their use. It was well they came first in the summer days, for
there were then no proper roads, no lights, no shops, no halls or
clubrooms, while at the factory the canteens were not ready for use.
However, it was warm and sunny, and there were flowers and the birds
sang. The girls carried sandwich lunches with them, had a good meat
meal on returning to the hostel, and a pleasant country walk in the
evening.”
To-day there are 64 hostels and 30 bungalows at Gretna, and Miss
Cotterell has an army of assistants, clerks, matrons, and factory
supervisors. The former wilderness is now inhabited by a well-housed
community, organised in all details with a thoroughness and practical
care which speak volumes for the genius of its moving spirit.
When the workers came to inhabit the convenient and attractive homes
prepared for them, they found that equally enlightened plans had been
formulated for their welfare. Miss Cotterell has kept careful watch
of the leisure hours of those under her charge, and she has seen that
every opportunity for rest, recreation, and improvement is open to
them, and facilities for reading, writing, playing games, and attending
classes. Periodic entertainments are given--sometimes by the “Gretna
Ramblers,” a troupe of munition girls who have been trained in singing,
dancing, and recitation.
The added responsibility of having the girls entirely resident, as at
Gretna, entails serious problems. The whole work of catering, and the
domestic arrangements of the hostels fall on the Welfare Department.
Another of its duties is to file the record of every girl in the
factory; and the procedure for discharges, leave of absence, transfers,
or sick leave, all passes through this Department--a considerable task
when, at the rate at which the factory is increasing, as many as 200
new girls arrive in one day. Inevitably, difficulties of administration
are not unknown, even in a model community. There has been occasional
shortage of furniture, dampness of new houses, or girl workers
unaccustomed to discipline who decline to obey orders. But difficulties
seem to vanish under Miss Cotterell’s experienced touch. Her wise
administration is already responsible for a marked improvement, not
only in health and physique, which good food, clean housing, and
regular employment have brought to the workers. Her influence is also
noticeable in a greater regard for truth, honesty, and duty.
This outcome of women’s munition work will mean much in the future
developments of their industrial life. Women like Miss Barker and Miss
Cotterell, in attempting a great achievement, have accomplished an
immeasurable one.
IV
MISS C. E. MATHESON AND THE VILLAGE LAND WORKERS
Early in 1915, when recruiting for the Army was beginning to draw men
away from agriculture as from all other work, a first effort was made
to substitute women for men on the land. Although she knew nothing of
agriculture, or the management of live stock, and was unaccustomed to
hard manual work, Miss Matheson determined to offer herself as one of
the pioneers. Before the war she was known in a very different sphere,
for as a promising authoress of the younger school she had already
attracted wide popularity. On volunteering, Miss Matheson was sent for
a four weeks’ agricultural training course to a Farm Institute to learn
to milk; to make butter; to harness and drive a team; to clean, dress,
and prepare land; to plant and hoe; to clean stables and cow-houses; to
feed cattle; to disregard backaches, weariness and blistered hands; and
to live a new, hard life.
[Illustration:
MISS C. E. MATHESON AT THE PRINCE OF WALES’ STOCK FARM IN CORNWALL
_Wynferd Swinburne_
_To face page 27_ ]
After this breaking in, she went to a Wiltshire dairy-farmer who
possessed forty to fifty cows in milk. He was prejudiced against women
workers, and Miss Matheson’s first day was not a happy one. Writing of
it afterwards, she said: “I arrived on a Saturday. On Sunday morning I
assisted with the milking, and found I was expected to milk at least
eight or ten animals. My four weeks’ training had simply taught me
_how_--there had been little time for practising new accomplishments.
Consequently my employer told me he would not require me after the
end of the week. This announcement was a shock, and exceedingly
discouraging. However, I toiled through that week, and at the end of it
was asked to stay. Soon I was milking from eight to fifteen cows twice
a day; had full charge of the churns and pails, took the milk to the
station to meet the London train, looked after the poultry and helped
on the land--harvesting, threshing, spreading manure, etc.”
Of course, such work meant rising at five, and by the time Miss
Matheson returned from her evening drive to the station it was nearly
seven, but the station drive was, she said, a pleasurable duty, “for
the sight of the London train reminded me that I still lived in the
world.”
Miss Matheson spent seven months on the Wiltshire farm, and the farmer
on her departure paid her the compliment of engaging three girls to
assist him. She then went to the Prince of Wales’s farm on the Duchy of
Cornwall estate, where she is still working.
This farm specialises in stock-breeding, and the herd is a large and
valuable one. With cows to milk, calves to rear, bulls to groom and
exercise, food to prepare, bedding to change, the work is perpetual,
for there are only three workers to tend the animals, and people
in charge of stock must work seven days a week. During the winter
the cattle claim all the time and attention, but in the summer
Miss Matheson manages to help on the land in addition. When autumn
came, Miss Matheson’s employers at the Duchy farm began to wonder
if she would be able to stand the winter work, but she hastened
unhesitatingly to reassure them. The work certainly needs pluck and
endurance, both physical and mental. The handling of bulls, for
instance, demands no small amount of nerve. “I have had one or two
adventures with the bulls,” wrote Miss Matheson to a friend, “and
though I must confess I tremble at times, I manage to hold my own. Of
course, I could get help if I asked for it, but I do dislike asking.
It gives one such an only-a-girl sort of feeling, and then again I am
always afraid to let anyone know that sometimes I am afraid.”
It is unnecessary to state the reasons which bring an educated woman
voluntarily to take up such a hard and exacting life, not merely for
a few weeks of summer, but month after month. Only a deeply-rooted
motive can be the impelling force, and there can be no finer form of
patriotism than the unsensational performance of these strenuous tasks,
far from the glamour and excitement of direct contact with the war. Not
only in the fruits of her own labour, but by the force of her example,
as one of the pioneers along a new road for women, Miss Matheson is
performing as fine a war service as any Englishwoman to-day.
Just as the educated women have made an inspiring response to the
call of the country in taking up agricultural work, so also have the
women of the villages. In many country districts they have always been
accustomed to work on the land, but to-day thousands who never worked
before have come forward to give the most concrete proof of their
patriotism. They are rightly proud to be entitled to wear the green
Government armlet, given for 30 days’ work or 240 hours.
[Illustration:
WOMEN AS WOODCUTTERS
_To face page 29_ ]
The most recent development of women’s land work is their employment
on timber-felling and bark-stripping; and though this is a completely
new industry for women, and has not so far been taken up on a general
scale, the results of the first experiments are full of promise. Timber
work has been started in Devonshire under the energetic auspices of
Miss Calmady Hamlyn, the inspecting officer for the Western District of
England under the Board of Agriculture. An expert woodman instructor,
after watching some of the novices at work, pronounced that in barking
these women already excel men, and in tree-felling they will certainly
equal them.
Many of the village women whose husbands are serving have wisely taken
up land work as being the best antidote to worry. From Devonshire
comes the story of a soldier ordered to the front, who gave his wife
the parting counsel: “My dear, you go up and work on that old field
to-morrow; it will help you more than anything.” Mrs. Hockin went,
and worked indomitably at any job in all weathers, and is proud that
she can earn a man’s day-wage at piece-work. “Why I am a war worker
is because I felt it was my duty to do my bit,” Mrs. Hockin writes.
“I am a married woman with three children. My husband has joined the
Army, and I have done my best to help my country. As I live in the
country, there is nothing for me to do but to work on the land, which
I have done for nearly two years.... I have worked on the farm doing
various kinds of work, such as weeding corn, hoeing turnips, spreading
manure over the fields, turning up ground, picking in apples, wheeling
away coke, helping in the harvest-fields, both hay and corn, and, by
what our employers have told our instructor, we have given them every
satisfaction.” Mrs. Hockin has recently taken up the new timber-felling
work, and is now leader of a gang of woodwomen. Though she is new to
the work, Mrs. Hockin is able to fell trees at the rate of thirty in
half a day, and she states that she does not find the work unduly
fatiguing, though “a bit windy.”
An agricultural demonstration by women, held recently in Surrey under
the auspices of the Board of Agriculture, provided striking examples
of the excellence of women’s agricultural work. A hundred and twenty
women took part, the majority of whom have started the work since the
war. They entered for competitions in ploughing, harrowing, milking,
management of calves and horses, hoeing corn, hand weeding, etc. In
spite of the difficulties occasioned by bad weather, and having to work
with strange animals under unfamiliar conditions, the women succeeded
in making a deep impression on the farmers who came to watch their
efforts. The sensation of the afternoon was caused in the milking
competition, when the first prize was won by Miss M. Soutar, aged 10½,
who obtained a total of ninety-five points out of a possible hundred.
Experimental demonstrations of this kind will do much to solve one
of the greatest difficulties in the employment of women, namely, the
conversion of the farmers; but most of those who have given the women a
chance have not had cause to regret it.
When the farmers recognise the motive behind the women’s work, and are
willing not only to employ them but to treat them generously, it is
certain that both farmers and women, working together under the same
influence of patriotism, are bound to achieve results of which both may
be proud.
[Illustration:
THE DAY’S LAST LOAD OF TIMBER
_Alfieri_
_To face page 30_]
V
DR. ELSIE INGLIS
To Miss Inglis, M.B., C.M., belongs the honour of originating the
Scottish Women’s Hospitals, one of the noblest efforts achieved by
women in the war. As a medical woman, Dr. Inglis, who qualified in
1892, has specialised in surgery, and for many years she has held
the posts of surgeon and gynæcologist to the Edinburgh Hospital and
Dispensary for Women and Children, and lecturer to the School of
Medicine in Edinburgh.
At the outbreak of war Dr. Inglis felt that the medical services of
women should be organised for the country, and she originated the idea
of forming the Scottish Women’s Hospital Units for war service, staffed
entirely by women. The idea was carried out through the organisation
of the Scottish Federation of Women Suffrage Societies. In the early
months the War Office, though since converted, refused to accept
women’s hospitals, so Dr. Inglis and her committee offered their
services to the Allies. Their record of work is truly wonderful, and
presents an outstanding example of women’s industry and administrative
ability. Hospitals have been established and maintained in France,
Serbia, Corsica, Salonika, Rumania, and Russia, and the work has been
entirely supported by the funds which the organisation has raised,
mainly through the branches of the National Union of Women Suffrage
Societies throughout Great Britain.
Dr. Inglis has been throughout the leading spirit, and has displayed
extraordinary initiative. After spending the first months of the war in
starting the work at headquarters, she went to Serbia in 1915 to act
as Commissioner to the Scottish Women’s Hospitals established there.
One unit on its way to Serbia was detained for a few weeks in Malta for
service with the British wounded at a moment of medical shortage, and
Lord Methuen, the Military Governor, wrote a glowing appreciation of
their work. “They leave here,” he wrote, “blessed by myself, surgeons,
nurses, and patients alike, having proved themselves most capable
and untiring workers.” In Serbia the Scottish women were confronted
with all the hardships and difficulties experienced by workers in
that unfortunate country. Undaunted, however, they established their
hospitals, heroically overcoming the problems of sanitation and
supplies which beset them on all sides. The hospital at Kragujevatz,
over which Dr. Inglis had personal charge, was described by the
military authorities as a picture of cleanliness, order, and comfort.
When the time of the Serbian retreat came, the five hospitals in charge
of the Scottish women fell back towards Albania. At Krushevatz Dr.
Inglis decided to remain with her staff to care for the Serbian wounded
during the enemy occupation. Another unit under Dr. Alice Hutchinson
also stayed, and was taken prisoner; while the remaining staffs
accompanied the retreating armies across the mountains.
[Illustration:
DR. ELSIE INGLIS
_Bassano_
_To face page 33_]
“These months at Krushevatz were a strange mixture of sorrow and
happiness,” Dr. Inglis wrote afterwards. “There was a curious
exhilaration in working for those grateful, patient men ... yet
the unhappiness in the Serbian houses and the physical wretchedness
of those cold, hungry prisoners lay always like a dead weight on our
spirits.”
By February, 1916, the hospital was emptied and the staff sent as
prisoners to Vienna. After enduring many discomforts, they were
eventually released through the good offices of the American Embassy,
and enabled to return to England, where their friends had heard no word
of them during four months. When the veil was at last lifted, it showed
Dr. Inglis coming out of all the stress and suffering the first woman
to wear the decoration of the White Eagle, given to her by the Serbian
Government in recognition of her services. Other members of her unit
received the Order of St. Sava. “The Serbian nation,” said the Crown
Prince, “will never forget what these women have done.”
But not content with such services to Serbia, and with her courage
still undaunted, Dr. Inglis again set out in September, 1916, at the
head of a fresh unit, for service with the Serbian army fighting in
South Russia. The unit, numbering seventy-six women, comprised a
staff of women doctors, an X-ray operator, a dispenser, seventeen
fully-trained nurses, sixteen orderlies, besides cooks and laundresses.
The accompanying transport column, under the Hon. Mrs. Haverfield,
consisted of eight ambulances, two kitchen cars, a repair car, four
lorries, and three touring cars, with a large staff of women chauffeurs
and cooks. The unit landed at Archangel and travelled across Russia
to Odessa, where the workers met with a rousing reception. They then
proceeded to join the Serbian division to which they were attached,
in the Dobrudja, and another splendid chapter of Scottish Women’s
Hospital work was opened. A base hospital was started at Medjidia in
Rumania, with a field station nearer to the front; but after about
a fortnight’s work the inevitable evacuation was ordered before the
Bulgarian advance, and the unit retreated with the army. Of this first
hospital in Rumania Dr. Inglis writes: “The day after the unit arrived
at Medjidia, where the whole seventy-five were obliged to camp in one
big room, wounded began to pour in and ambulances to ply between there
and the firing line. There were no roads, just tracks across endless
plains.” Of the field station Dr. Inglis says: “The destination was a
place smoking from shells, and filled with a sense of destruction and
desolation impossible to describe. The Scottish women set up a camp
near by, and were attached to the Serbian Field Hospital. Aeroplanes
bombed them daily, and on one occasion the ambulance suffered a heavy
bombardment. When the orders came to move, the transport went through
five appalling days of labour, which can be understood only by people
who have done cross-country tracks in roadless countries ... the scenes
were indescribable--of confusion, terror, misery; of blocks of carts,
troops, pigs, women, children, lame horses, and exhausted animals of
all sorts. The refugees were throwing out things to lighten their
carts, and the Scottish women got out and picked them up to use for
their own kitchen.”
Dr. Inglis and the hospital party, on evacuating Medjidia, managed
to secure what is known as a “sanitary train”--a long train of horse
waggons, very different from an ambulance train, and they had to do
their best for the crowd of wounded on board. Eventually Dr. Inglis
reached Braila, where she was able to render valuable help to a large
number of Rumanian wounded, who were very short of medical assistance.
Some members of the unit have since returned to England, but Dr. Inglis
is still in Rumania. She is temporarily working for the Russian army,
pending the re-formation of the Serbian divisions, to which she will
return.
The General in command of the Russian Red Cross on the Rumanian front
(Prince Dolgouroukoff) has conferred the medal of St. George on all the
members of the unit now at Reni who have worked under fire.
“Wherever the odds against the Allies seem overwhelming, there one may
be nearly sure of finding a unit of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals
working for the wounded,” writes an admirer of their work. “You do not
find them in the well-equipped hospitals surrounded by every modern
appliance, with crowds of men orderlies to carry out the heavy work,
but rather in back-blocks of the war, as one may say, fighting a
desperate battle of their own against dirt, disease, and wounds, and
winning back precious lives of men whose language is in many cases
unknown to them.”
Dr. Elsie Inglis has that magnetic personality which can command
efficiency, even with inadequate equipment and in hopeless environment.
The inspiring work of this great woman doctor makes her indeed a worthy
leader for those wonderful Scottish women, who are putting their
whole soul into the work they have undertaken, without any thought of
recompense, without vainglory, and without any other motive than the
desire to help and heal.
VI
MISS HARRIET SPROT, THE MISSES PLAYFAIR, AND LADY BADEN-POWELL
The Young Men’s Christian Association commenced work in the camps in
France as soon as war began. For many years it had been accustomed
to provide huts in the summer camps at home, but since the war the
organisation has increased to such an extent that it now covers a vast
field of enterprise. The Y.M.C.A. huts and those of the Church Army
have proved the salvation of the men, who, when off duty, had nowhere
to go, while in the camps the canteens provide an opportunity for
them to buy small necessaries, tobacco, or any supplementary food in
addition to their Army rations. The work of the ladies in the Y.M.C.A.
huts in France is largely responsible for their great success. This
work is arranged by a Committee under Princess Helena Victoria, with
the Countess of Bessborough as hon. secretary, and it is owing to their
insight and skilful organisation that it has been so successfully
managed.
[Illustration:
MISS AUDREY PLAYFAIR MISS LILIAS PLAYFAIR
_To face page 37_]
The workers, whose service is entirely voluntary, sign on for four
months, pay all their own expenses--travelling, board, lodging,
etc.,--and provide their uniform--dark grey coats and skirts with blue
facings. Many of them have been living in France for over two years,
in the simplest accommodation, devoid of all luxury, and devoting
themselves entirely to the work. The best illustration of what they are
doing can be taken from the experiences of a few typical workers.
Miss Harriet Sprot manages a district which has its headquarters in
a base town under the shadow of a great cathedral. Describing the
average day of her workers, Miss Sprot says that their mornings till
twelve o’clock are spent in preparation of the canteen counters, so
that the quickest possible distribution of refreshments and other
small purchases may be made to the soldiers in the short hours fixed
by the camp authorities which they may spend at the hut. No money is
taken over the counter--tickets have to be bought. “It is usual for
the queue of men waiting to buy tickets to extend the whole length of
the room. On a busy night it even stretches into the billiard-room and
curls back half way up the main hut.” Old Y.M.C.A. _habitués_ know the
arrangements so well that no time is wasted, but Miss Sprot reports
that it takes double the time to serve a newly arrived draft, to whom
the French money and its purchasing power are sources of bewilderment.
The heaviest part of the work is always at night, but the men are
unanimously said to be so good-natured, patient, and orderly that,
however dense the crowd, they all get served in time. When the hut
closes, the workers may be justified in feeling that valuable work has
been accomplished and the night’s rest well earned.