stages of the war, the untiring energy and patience with which she
prepared for the time when these needs should be recognised, and, above
all, her immense personal influence, have proved her to be one of the
real leaders whom the war has brought to light. It is largely through
her fine personal example of the spirit in which all work should be
done that the V.A.Ds. have won for themselves such a good name for
keenness and discipline.
Lady Perrott, the Lady Superintendent-in-Chief of the St. John
Ambulance Brigade, is another outstanding woman amongst the small
number of workers who had the foresight to prepare themselves and
others in peace time for what then seemed the improbable chance of
war. One of the most active pioneers of V.A.D. work, Lady Perrott for
five years before the outbreak of war worked under the War Office for
V.A.D. development and improvement. In 1910 she was appointed Lady
Commandant-in-Chief of the St. John V.A.Ds. By constantly holding
meetings and inspections of detachments all through the country, she
helped to standardise the training, and made herself acquainted with
every detail of the work. Lady Perrott further performed a splendid
service when she induced some of the principal hospitals, both in
London and in the provinces, to give facilities for instruction to
V.A.D. members. This experience in civil hospitals proved of immense
value when war started. In 1913 Lady Perrott organised a conference on
V.A.D. work, which was held at St. John’s Gate and attended by large
numbers of St. John V.A.D. officers from all over the country. The
effect of this conference was to arouse widespread enthusiasm for the
work. Her own personal and detailed knowledge of the detachments stood
Lady Perrott in good stead in the stress of the early days of war.
When the call came from the War Office for V.A.D. members to serve in
military hospitals, the whole organisation for selecting and posting
the St. John members was in her hands, and she carried out this work
with marked success. She also went to France from time to time to
inspect. From the beginning Lady Perrott toiled early and late at St.
John’s Gate, and by her great powers of organisation, as well as by
her personal influence and untiring zeal, she was able to initiate and
carry out an enormous amount of work. Apart from all she has done for
the V.A.D., Lady Perrott holds a fine record of achievement. To mention
only one of her other activities, it was through her instrumentality
that the Board of Matrons was appointed at St. John’s Gate for the
selection of fully-trained nurses, one hundred of whom were sent out
to Brussels in the first three weeks of the war by the Order of St.
John. Lady Perrott has also been largely associated with the St. John
Ambulance Brigade Hospital, one of the finest hut hospitals in France,
for which she has collected a large sum of money, besides organising a
special depôt for its supply of stores and comforts.
Lady Oliver is another untiring worker to whose keenness and energy
much of the success of the V.A.D. activities is due. As staff officer
to Lady Perrott before the war, she was responsible for a large part
of the detailed work. Since the formation of the Joint Department, Lady
Oliver has worked with Mrs. Furse at Devonshire House. Lady Perrott,
Lady Oliver, and Mrs. Furse have all been decorated by the King with
the Royal Red Cross, and are also members of the Order of St. John,
Lady Perrott and Lady Oliver being Ladies of Justice, and Mrs. Furse a
Lady of Grace.
XIV
COMMANDANT DAMER DAWSON, MRS. CARDEN, AND THE WOMEN POLICE AND PATROLS
The employment of women for police service, in vogue for some years on
the Continent and in the United States of America, has been developed
in this country only by the outbreak of the war. Women in uniform are
so frequent nowadays that the passer-by scarcely spares a glance for a
hard “bowler” kind of hat, plain blue clothes, and a blue armlet with
white letters on it. The wearers of this uniform seem to be peculiarly
unobtrusive people, anxious to avoid, rather than to attract,
attention. For all that, among the innumerable women who are taking on
the new work which the times have entailed, the women police are by no
means the least valuable, brave, and steadfast.
[Illustration:
CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT M. S. ALLEN INSPECTOR GOLDINGHAM COMMANDANT
DAMER DAWSON
_Barratt_
_To face page 75_ ]
The names of three pioneers are impressed on the memory of those
who have watched the development of this movement in Great Britain:
Commandant Damer Dawson, Superintendent M. S. Allen, and Inspector
Goldingham. It is largely through their tireless efforts that the Women
Police Service, the association that they originated, has now at its
command one of the finest bodies of women in the country. The influx
of the Belgian refugees in August, 1914, became the starting-point
of the movement. While aiding forlorn exiles lost in London byways in
the small hours of the night, it was borne in upon Miss Damer Dawson
how much work in the streets could be done by an organised band of
trained women, armed with authority. The idea took root in her mind
and grew with her work. She was soon joined by Miss M. S. Allen and
Miss Goldingham, and from that period the Women Police Service may
be said to have originated. These pioneers obtained the necessary
training and soon set to work in the organisation of a voluntary
corps. Recruits flocked in, undertook necessary training in drill,
practical and theoretical instruction, and soon obtained positions
as officially appointed policewomen. In this capacity they undertake
such work as patrolling the streets, attendance at police courts,
domiciliary visiting, the supervision of music-halls, cinemas, and
public dancing-halls, and the inspection of common lodging-houses.
The need for their services grew steadily. In the summer of 1916 it
was found necessary to obtain further control and supervision of the
women employees in munition factories, and Sir Edward Henry, the Chief
Commissioner of Police, recommended that the Ministry of Munitions
should apply to the Women Police Service for a supply of trained
women. This request has now created an extensive development, and a
new department of the Women Police Service is at present working at
high pressure under the Ministry of Munitions. Recruits are streaming
in, and are receiving a special training, on completion of which
they are drafted to the munition factories. There they undertake
multifarious duties, including checking the entry of women into
the factory; examining passports; searching for such contraband as
matches, cigarettes, and alcohol; dealing with complaints of petty
offences; assisting the magistrate at the police court; and patrolling
the neighbourhood of the factory with a view to the protection of the
women employees. In the case of misunderstandings amongst the women
employees, the services of the women police have been remarkable, and
there are many recorded instances where they have averted strikes in
the munition factories, and thus saved the nation from ill effects on
output.
In many such ways the women police have proved themselves a valuable
national asset. When the war is over, Commandant Damer Dawson and
her colleagues will doubtless find that the service they helped to
introduce as an emergency measure has become a recognised institution
of a new social order.
A further service, that of Women’s Patrols for the protection of girls
in the streets, has originated with the problems connected with the
war. Reports from various quarters having reached the National Union of
Women Workers as to the dangers caused by the presence of numbers of
young girls in the neighbourhood of military camps, it was resolved to
organise a body of women of mature age and experience to aid the police
in maintaining order. Here again the names of three outstanding women
are associated with this work: Mrs. Carden, the hon. secretary to the
movement; Mrs. Creighton, widow of the late Bishop of London; and Lady
Codrington, chairman of the London Committee of Women’s Patrols. To
these pioneers the work owes its initiation and development. A scheme
was formulated, welcomed at once by the Home Secretary and the Chief
Commissioner of Police, and by November 1914 the Women’s Patrols were
in working order. Branches were quickly established throughout the
United Kingdom and Ireland, and there are now over 2000 women working
in this connection in different parts of the country. In its initial
stages the work was entirely voluntary; but since its efficiency has
been established and noted by the authorities, women’s patrols have
been appointed in various districts and paid at the same rate as men
constables.
The main duty of the patrols is to enter into kindly relationship with
girls loitering in vicinities where soldiers congregate. Their mission
is not to the vicious, or to the “fallen,” but to the thoughtless
girls, led astray mainly through their excitement at the unaccustomed
presence of so many soldiers and by patriotic emotions of admiration
and gratitude to the nation’s young defenders. The women on patrol aim
at getting into touch with such girls and helping them to a healthy
employment of their leisure hours. In numerous cases the Patrol
Committee have organised clubs in the neighbourhood of the military
quarters, these meeting-places being either for girls alone, or “mixed
clubs,” where the soldiers may bring their girl friends. In the latter
case, most careful vigilance and supervision from the patrols are
required and given, and success is in most instances attained. This
work has been warmly welcomed both by the military authorities and the
police, and it is impossible to estimate the unhappiness and suffering
that have been prevented by this provision of healthy recreation in a
moral danger zone.
Reports both from the Metropolitan area (where over 400 patrols are now
working) and from provincial towns give some measure of the success of
the movement. It is significant that during the Irish disturbances of
1916 the Women’s Patrols were enabled to pursue their customary tasks,
being “passed through” both by the Revolutionary party and by the
soldiers.
XV
MISS LENA ASHWELL, O.B.E.
Miss Lena Ashwell’s work in starting and arranging concerts at the
front has probably given more delight to a greater number of people
than the efforts of any other individual woman in the war. The entire
scheme was her own, and it is through her untiring efforts and her
personal energy that the work has been carried on and extended in a way
that is little short of marvellous.
[Illustration:
MISS LENA ASHWELL, O.B.E.
_Hoppé_
_To face page 79_ ]
It was in February, 1915, that Miss Ashwell was asked by the Ladies’
Auxiliary Committee of the Y.M.C.A. to send a concert party to France,
and with the goodwill and co-operation of that Committee the work was
launched on its successful course. The first party was an experiment in
every way, but its reception left no doubt as to the feelings of the
soldier audiences. The love of music is enhanced by the alternating
monotony and danger of life at the front, and is as fundamental in
human beings as the craving for beauty. This instinct is seen, for
instance, in the soldiers’ touching desire to make gardens wherever
they are quartered, and however unpromising the conditions. From Miss
Ashwell’s tentative effort there has grown up a great organisation, in
response to the ever-increasing request from every base, from every
camp, from every hospital, and even from the firing-lines, for more
and more concerts. In little more than two years over 5000 concerts
have been given in France alone, apart from what has been done in
Malta, in Egypt, and in the ships of the Adriatic Fleet. The audiences
have been known to number as many as 5000 men, and thus hundreds of
thousands are reached every month, and millions during the year.
What are called “permanent” concert parties have been established at
five of the bases in France. Each party stays for about six weeks,
giving on an average three concerts a day. In the afternoons they
usually perform in the hospitals. In the evenings they motor sometimes
twenty-five or thirty miles to outlying camps and stations, performing
in tents, huts, barns, sheds, railway sidings, or even by the roadside,
to all sorts and conditions of men in all branches of the Army.
[Illustration:
A MUSICAL ENTENTE BEHIND THE LINES
_To face page 81_ ]
The request for the concert parties to go up to the trenches and
firing-lines soon followed, and this fresh branch of work was
undertaken. Only men are allowed to go in the firing-line parties, and
the Y.M.C.A. cars convey them on these tours. Concerts have frequently
been given under shell fire--sometimes to an audience fully armed and
liable to be ordered into the trenches at any moment. Some of the most
successful concerts are those for men just leaving the trenches after
days of fighting, and here perhaps the music has had its most wonderful
effect. It seems to act like magic on the exhausted men, strained
almost beyond endurance by the ordeals they have had to face. The spell
of horror is broken and their minds are turned away from all they have
suffered to thoughts of beauty and happiness. The existence of
the firing-line concert parties is in itself a proof of how much the
military authorities appreciate the concerts and their effects. They
have been quick to realise that the British Army can stand anything
better than being bored. The keenness with which the concerts are
anticipated, the touching patience of the men, who will wait for hours
in bitter wind and rain--they would rather miss their principal meal
than miss a performance,--the discussion for weeks afterwards, all
prove how much the music means to them.
At the outset Miss Ashwell determined that the concerts should be up
to a high standard. The programmes are varied as much as possible.
Classical music, selections from operas, glees, trios, and concertos,
the old ballads and folk-songs, are all given, as well as popular
rag-times and modern chorus songs. A “concert party” generally consists
of a soprano, contralto, bass, tenor, violinist or ’cellist, pianist
and accompanist, and often a ventriloquist, conjurer or reciter. “The
entertainment given is a mixture of a ballad concert, a recital, and a
children’s party,” writes a member of one audience.
Sometimes plays are arranged, and in the autumn of 1916 Miss Ashwell
herself took out a small dramatic company and acted in _Macbeth_, _The
School for Scandal_, and some short modern plays. Writing of these
performances, Miss Ashwell says: “We gave _The School for Scandal_
in a wood, with half our audience on the grass, the other half
dangerously overcrowding the branches of the nearest trees. _Macbeth_
was given in a great hangar, with Army blankets for the walls of the
banqueting-hall, and a sugar-box for the throne. _Macbeth_ was an
enormous success. Its reception was wonderful. We gave it to vast
audiences; they listened breathlessly in absolute silence, and then
cheered and cheered and cheered.... There were never such audiences in
the world before--so keen, so appreciative, so grateful.”
Nothing can be more touching than the appreciation of the concerts in
hospital. Here again the spell of the music seems to relax the strain
on the men’s nerves, and the badly wounded and even dying soldiers
beg to hear it, and find comfort in the midst of their suffering. The
following is an extract from a letter written by a nurse: “The concert
party gave a concert in the orderly room here, and afterwards those
kind people came into each ward and sang softly with no accompaniment
to the men who were well enough to listen, and the little Canadian
story-teller told stories to each man in turn as he was having his
dressings done. The result was that instead of being a suffering mass
of humanity, the men were happy and amused through the whole of the
time that is usually so awful.”
Concerts are also given for the medical service and the nurses, for
whom these occasional evenings are the only relaxation in a life of
strict discipline and unending work.
In January, 1916, in response to urgent requests, arrangements were
made to extend the work to Malta, and in October, 1916, to Egypt;
and, as in France, the success has been wonderful. Lord Methuen, the
Governor of Malta, wrote to Miss Ashwell recently: “I cannot tell you
the value that your concert parties have been to Malta. They have kept
the men in hospital cheerful, and I am sure that a great deal of the
excellent discipline that has been maintained here is owing to the
interest the men have taken in attending your performances.”
From Egypt comes another appreciation from General Dobell, who writes:
“The Lena Ashwell concert party has given concerts at all posts where
it was in any way possible to allow them to go, and the fact that
the ordinary rules were waived and special permission granted them
to travel where no civilian in any circumstances had previously been
allowed to go will make it clear to you how high a value we attach to
their entertainments.” A touching account was recently given of an
incident at a concert in the Sinai Desert. Some soldiers in a camp
ten miles away, unable to obtain leave, were so much disappointed
that they induced the Royal Engineers to lay some telephones wires,
by which means these men in the distant camp were able to listen to
the concert. Innumerable letters and testimonies to the success of
her work have reached Miss Ashwell from all ranks and all branches
of the Army--generals, commanding officers, doctors, chaplains of
all denominations unite in saying that the concert parties are
accomplishing work of real military value. Countless have been the
letters of appreciation from the soldiers themselves. In spite of its
rapid and enormous increase, Miss Ashwell has continued to organise
the work in a personal and vital way. Not only has she frequently been
abroad giving performances herself, but she has personally engaged
all the artistes for the parties and has supervised their complicated
travelling arrangements. Moreover, she has raised the entire funds
to maintain the scheme by addressing meetings and by making known
the work, which has thus been carried on entirely by voluntary
contributions.
Miss Ashwell has her thanks in the delight of the thousands who have
been cheered and helped by the efforts of the organisation which she
has truly made her own. The great message that the music has brought to
the soldiers is well expressed by a medical officer who wrote to her
recently:
“You do help us by heartening the men up and sending them back to the
firing-line happy, and with the feeling that those at home do care, are
with them and are trying to help.”
[Illustration:
MISS VIOLETTA THURSTAN
_To face page 85_ ]
XVI
MISS VIOLETTA THURSTAN
Miss Violetta Thurstan has had a career as varied and adventurous as
any nurse during the war, and she has certainly used to full advantage
the great opportunities which have come to her.
Trained at the London Hospital, Miss Thurstan was fully qualified to
take up responsible work when war broke out, and in August, 1914, she
was sent to Brussels in charge of a contingent of nurses from the St.
John Ambulance Association. Arriving just before the capture of the
city, she witnessed the historical entry into Brussels of the German
army. Some days later, when the German authorities asked for volunteers
to nurse at a little town called Marcelline, near Charleroi, Miss
Thurstan offered to go, and took two nurses with her, leaving the
remainder of her contingent in Brussels hospitals.
At Marcelline Miss Thurstan was in charge of a hospital under the
German military command, where she nursed Belgian, French, and German
wounded for some weeks under very trying conditions, aggravated by the
brutality of the German system of discipline even as regards her own
wounded. After a period of work, Miss Thurstan was granted leave of
absence from the Marcelline hospital in order to look after the nurses
she had left in and near Brussels. She had some exciting adventures,
particularly when trying to find a nurse in an outlying village, where
she actually got into the German lines and became involved in an
outpost action. By this time the Germans had decided that no English
nurses were to be allowed to continue nursing in Belgium; so instead
of returning, as she had expected, to the hospital at Marcelline,
Miss Thurstan was obliged to spend some weeks of painful and anxious
suspense waiting in Brussels, not knowing what fate was in store for
her nurses and herself. Finally, together with about one hundred other
nurses from different contingents, and some medical men, she was taken
by train through Germany to the Danish frontier. During the journey
the nurses were subjected to constant insult and humiliation. At
Copenhagen, however, these unpleasant experiences were made up for by a
cordial reception.
Miss Thurstan was about to return to England when she heard of
the great need for trained nurses in Russia, and, after obtaining
permission from England to offer her services to the Russian Red Cross,
she travelled on from Copenhagen to Petrograd. Miss Thurstan started
work at once. After nursing for a time in base hospitals and learning
some Russian, she joined a flying ambulance column of motor cars, which
moved from place to place at the front. One of the base hospitals in
which she was quartered was at Warsaw, where, in spite of the great
difference between Russian and English hospital methods, Miss Thurstan
managed to adapt herself to the conditions. She was then sent on to
Lodz, where she had many adventures in the bombardment. Some idea of
the work may be gathered from the fact that in the Russian retreat
from Lodz over 18,000 wounded were evacuated in four days, during which
time the nurses worked practically without rest and under terrible
conditions.
Miss Thurstan’s life with the workers of the motor ambulance unit was
remarkable. They were always on the move, and only just behind the
front trenches, using any available building as a hospital. At one
place they worked in a theatre attached to a hunting-box belonging to
the ex-Tsar, and of the work there Miss Thurstan wrote: “The scenery
had never been taken down after the last dramatic performance, and
wounded men lay everywhere between the wings and drop-scenes. The
auditorium was packed so closely that you could hardly get between the
men as they lay on the floor.” At another dressing station, established
near the trenches, 750 patients passed through the hands of the small
unit in little over twenty-four hours.
Miss Thurstan was shortly afterwards wounded when attending to soldiers
in the trenches; and as pleurisy developed later she had to give up
work for a time and come home to England. Before leaving Russia she was
awarded the medal of St. George “for courage and devotion.”
In 1915 Miss Thurstan returned to Russia on work of a different
character--to assist in organising the hospital units which were being
sent from England to work among the refugees. For three months she
travelled all through the country, inspecting the arrangements which
had been made in Petrograd, Moscow, Kiev, Kazan, Nijni, and the remote
districts to cope with the bewildering influx of over five million
dazed and terrified people who fled from their homes before the great
German advance into Russia. As a result of Miss Thurstan’s inquiries
and the information which she was able to obtain, several units with
doctors, nurses, and supplies were sent out to Russia, and have done
fine work for the refugees. Help for these unfortunate victims of war
was badly needed, for their numbers were so overwhelming and their
condition so appalling, that, in spite of the noble effort made by
the Russian authorities to cope with such an immense problem, many
difficulties connected with the welfare of the refugees continued
to arise. Writing of them, Miss Thurstan said: “Verily the English
language lacks words to express the suffering that these people
underwent, and nothing that we can imagine could be worse than the
reality.”