Netley 1927

Paul Reed has recently put an image of some wounded soldiers taken during wartime on his wonderful 'Great War Photos' site here:

Great War Photos

It reminded me a series of images I found that are part of a photo album of a nursing sister who was a member of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service post-war, dated circa 1927. In all probability these soldiers were men wounded during the war who needed on-going care on either a permanent or temporary basis, of whom there were still many thousands nation-wide. I only wish I knew the identity of the nurses, who must figure in my database somewhere, but unfortunately must remain anonymous.

Devonshire House

Devonshire House in London's Piccadilly was the London home of the Dukes of Devonshire, and in 1914 part of the house was taken over by the British Red Cross Society and used as its Headquarters throughout the war. During the first year of the war it was still used by the family, but after 1919 it remained empty and was demolished in 1924. It was a busy place in wartime. Its palatial rooms became a myriad of offices that dealt with recruiting, training and managing the staff of hundreds of auxiliary hospitals at home, and sending staff to hospitals overseas. Many new recruits to the service would have trodden the corridors there, to be interviewed, measured and kitted out ready to be added to the ever-growing ranks. I recently came across this painting by Clare Atwood of the inside of Devonshire House while in use as VAD Headquarters. The chandeliers have been safely tucked away and more practical lighting installed - it certainly looks to be a hive of industry. On the desks are the card indexes which were a fundamental part of keeping track of more than 1,800 hospitals and 100,000 VADs who served in wartime - all the surviving cards are now kept at the British Red Cross Society Archives in Moorfields, London. If only they could have looked into the future and seen this magical thing called a computer!

Branching Out

I do quite a few talks now on nurses both to military interest groups and increasingly to family history societies, U3A and private 'clubs.' I often have to adapt the same talk to fit in with the different requirements on time allocation, and to suit varied audiences, some of whom have no knowledge of things military (or things nursing for that matter). I find I can do the same talk to the same type of group with vastly different outcomes. Sometimes I am loved and feted, sometimes I walk quickly away, with a backward glance at a dazed audience, many of whom are soundly snoring, oblivious to the fact that I'd finished (or perhaps started).

My main theme has always been military nurses of the Great War period, including VADs and hospital life. Last year I was asked by a private group if I would extend that to talk on the formation of the army's nursing services from the Crimean War right up to the end of the Great War. I wasn't keen, as my knowledge of what went on in the Crimea can be written on a stamp (large letter). But as I worked my way through preparing the talk and the presentation, I found it going pretty well, although I was also asked for 'lots of images, preferably coloured' which is a bit of a BIG ask for the period. So the time has arrived, and next Thursday sees the first outing of the new talk. I hope that there won't be too many people with glazed expressions, or too high a percentage fast asleep. I have a feeling though that my biggest problem might be Southern's snow-bound trains getting me there on time. Time will tell.

Florence Nightingale receiving wounded at Scutari (Jerry Barrett)

See no Evil ...

Twice during the past two weeks I've seen links on my blog stats pointing to discussion boards. Obviously I'm being talked about. However, trying to access these groups has proved elusive - it seems that 'they' can talk about 'me' but 'I' am unable to see 'them.' In both cases I've attempted to join the said group, but so far without success. Perhaps if I do succeed I shall find that the members are having a whale of a time slagging me off. I do hope not. Maybe in future, anyone wishing to talk about me behind my back might be polite enough to invite me to visit as a guest to see what's being said, and have the right of reply if necessary.
On the other hand, maybe it's better not to find out ... ever.

A fun place for women in wartime?

This looks quite a good place for a woman to hang out in wartime if she had any intentions of finding a husband. These two images show the British Army and Navy Club, Paris, which was housed in the Hotel Moderne, Place de la Republique. The first is a postcard of the main staircase, which looks a bit like a 1918 venue for speed-dating, and the second a fine art reproduction of the same place by Josephe-Félix Bouchor.

The Old School

Nothing to do with military nurses, but I thought rather interesting. I bought a copy of this image recently, originally published as an appendix to 'The Medical History of the Meath Hospital' in 1892. It shows four members of the nursing staff of Meath Hospital, Dublin, in 1872, and is an outstanding example of a reputable group of nurses of that time. I use the word 'reputable' as many nurses were known to be drunken, illiterate and untrustworthy, often incapable of earning a living elsewhere. Meath Hospital was Ireland's most firmly established civil hospital, being founded in 1753, and I think it has to be assumed that these four were chosen to represent the best of its staff in 1872. With the organised training of nurses in its infancy at that time, there were enormous changes over the next twenty years, which meant similar group of the 1890s looked very different indeed.

It's often extremely difficult to stretch our minds away from the crisp, uniformed nurses that have been familiar in our hospitals since the beginning of the twentieth century. Luckily, the survival of images such as these are a reminder that hospital life wasn't always so! The four women are named, from left to right as:

Fever nurse Hodgens
Night nurse Spring
Surgical nurse Murray
Accident nurse Brazil

A toast to the old school, fading fast.

Something to be learnt ...

My fingers need to be typing ... preferably lists. Lists of anything really. I thought lists might become boring after a while, but with the radio on and my brain detached, typing lists is really very relaxing. After toying with a few medal roll bits and pieces, I've decided to transcribe some medal rolls in full. I discovered that quite a few of the medal rolls at The National Archives cover 'miscellaneous' medical units, which seem to be useful as they not only give full names, but also state which unit a person was attached - information not easily found elsewhere. So I've started with the British Red Cross Society 1914 Star roll (WO329/2505), and it's proving rather interesting. I've already typed my way through W. Somerset Maugham working as a volunteer driver, artist C. R. Nevinson slogging away (I hope) with the Friends' Ambulance Unit, and a few of the great and the good such as Fabian Ware and Lord Robert Cecil.

I've now reached a part of the roll devoted to the rank and file British Red Cross orderlies who went to France between August and November 1914. As a few of them have rather unusual names, it's been possible to check their occupations with the help of the 1911 census. Rather surprisingly (to me, anyway) most of those I've been able to find so far were pre-war coal miners from County Durham, or from Wales, and it seems likely that they were recruited as a group early on in the war. I wonder who initiated 'coal miners as hospital orderlies' and why the men found it so appealing at the time? But it proves that however boring lists might seem, there's always something to be learnt ...