Our perception of 'correctness' and 'incorrectness' today is certainly at odds with society a hundred years ago (which we all know very well!). Another entry in the Royal Red Cross Register to a Sister Cecilia, a religious nursing sister attached to the Italian Mission in East Africa states:
For continuous good work. The entire effacement of self on the part of this lady, which enables her to nurse in all stages of tropical sickness the almost primitive savages of the Carrier Corps is beyond all praise
And what a pity that these religious sisters who did so much good work during the Great War, and whose birth names remain unknown, will probably never be recognised by current day members of their families.
Monday, 7 November 2011
Friday, 4 November 2011
WO399 nurses' service records
The National Archives have today added the WO399 class of records to DocumentsOnline. The series comprises almost 16,000 service records of members of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, the Reserve and the Territorial Force Nursing Service who served during the Great War. And it looks as though a pretty thorough job has been made of producing them for the online service. Over the years I've looked at many hundreds of these files in an effort to pick up all the tiny pieces of the organisation and administration of the military nursing services, and will be sad that it's no longer possible to actually handle the original paperwork. But that's progress I guess, and it will be a big boon for researchers and family members worldwide to have such easy access to these records.
About 22,000 nurses served as trained military nurses, so many of these women are missing from the series of files. Quite a few went on to serve during the Second World War, and their files are still held by the Ministry of Defence, and records of women who had died, or were over age for further service at the time of the 1930s weeding process were destroyed. But still a very good chance that records exist either in these WO399 files, or at MOD, for any individual woman. I'll find it strange not to order original files next time I'm at TNA, but certainly won't miss the long wait for delivery as they were trundled from their far-flung corner. Now, a couple of clicks and I'll be away.
About 22,000 nurses served as trained military nurses, so many of these women are missing from the series of files. Quite a few went on to serve during the Second World War, and their files are still held by the Ministry of Defence, and records of women who had died, or were over age for further service at the time of the 1930s weeding process were destroyed. But still a very good chance that records exist either in these WO399 files, or at MOD, for any individual woman. I'll find it strange not to order original files next time I'm at TNA, but certainly won't miss the long wait for delivery as they were trundled from their far-flung corner. Now, a couple of clicks and I'll be away.
Monday, 10 October 2011
My Wish
Is it time for New Year Resolutions yet? Never mind. May I offer up a prayer that at some future time there will be more awareness about military nurses. There seems to be a common misconception that their story starts and ends with Florence Nightingale, Edith Cavell and Vera Brittain, none of whom were military nurses of course. Those three have a lot to answer for!
Monday, 3 October 2011
Downton Abbey - More Tales of the Unexpected
Julian Fellowes was rather upset last year about criticisms pointing out inaccuracies in the first series of Downton Abbey:
"There was also an assumption in the media that the complainant was automatically correct and we were wrong, which was frustrating... When there was a television aerial in shot, as there was once, I was happy to hold my hands up. But I expended a lot of energy getting agitated about accusations that such-and-such piece of music wasn't released until 1922, when in fact it was being played in 1910. Or the butler should have been in uniform when they came out of uniform in the Regency period - I mean, just shut up!"
Fellowes added: "This year I think it might be nice to have a column called 'This Week's Downton Blunders', where I have the right of reply and can say either, 'It's a fair cop' or, 'No, we got it right, they did wear bathing costumes in 1761' or whatever. That might be a much better way of handling all the excitement."
In the absence of such a column, I once again feel the need to comment on one or two of the latest blunders. Now the Abbey itself has opened as a convalescent home for officers there’s no improvement in the sardine-tin formation of the beds, and still no room for lockers or anywhere to keep personal items. Mrs. Crawley seems to be conducting affairs at Downton, and with Major Clarkson and Lady Sybil spending every waking minute there as well, it makes me wonder what’s happening down at Downton village cottage hospital. It was chaos there last week, and with 50% of the staff gone, things must be reaching a critical point. I say 50%, but with Thomas moving down the road as well, more like 75%.
Thomas Barrow. In the first series he was exposed at Downton as a thief. With war on the horizon he decided to jump before he was dismissed and joined the Territorial branch of the Royal Army Medical Corps. This ensured (so he thought) that he would get a cushy number when the wartime chips were down. Somehow he ended up in the thick of the fighting, having a few fags in a trench under constant bombardment. I can’t quite work out what he was actually doing in that trench. Was he attached to a Regimental Aid Post, or attached to a Field Ambulance perhaps? If it was ever explained, I missed it. Apologies. He intentionally exposed himself to sniper fire and after recovering from his self-inflicted injury, and by the miracles of modern television script-writing, he ends up in charge of the convalescent home at Downton Abbey.
Thomas Barrow. Thief, liar, manipulator, coward. Just the man for the job. Well, not exactly, as no UK convalescent home had RAMC staff. There was absolutely no way a RAMC corporal (sorry, Acting-Sergeant) would work in that type of unit or give orders to sick officers. Complete drivel and tosh. There should at least have been a trained nurse, but unfortunately no provision has been made for even one in this series.
The surprise of the week (errors no longer being surprises) came when Lady Mary announced that a friend of the family wanted to come to Downton from Middlesbrough to convalesce, and both Mrs. Crawley and Major Clarkson were up in arms.
‘Middlesbrough General will have their own arrangements about where their officers convalesce’ declared Mrs. C. And Major C. agreed:
‘Downton must function as part of the official system or it can’t function at all.’
So Lord Fellowes KNOWS there was an official system – that rather took my breath away. Is it better to know about something and choose to ignore it, or make errors because you failed to do the research and never knew about it at all? (Vote NOW). And I must just add here (pedant that I am) that there was only one military hospital in Middlesbrough, not the General Hospital, and no officer beds in the town at all.
However I did notice one bit of light flickering in the drawing-room when the near-exploding Carson exclaimed:
‘So we just make it up as we go along?’
Spot on, Carson.
"There was also an assumption in the media that the complainant was automatically correct and we were wrong, which was frustrating... When there was a television aerial in shot, as there was once, I was happy to hold my hands up. But I expended a lot of energy getting agitated about accusations that such-and-such piece of music wasn't released until 1922, when in fact it was being played in 1910. Or the butler should have been in uniform when they came out of uniform in the Regency period - I mean, just shut up!"
Fellowes added: "This year I think it might be nice to have a column called 'This Week's Downton Blunders', where I have the right of reply and can say either, 'It's a fair cop' or, 'No, we got it right, they did wear bathing costumes in 1761' or whatever. That might be a much better way of handling all the excitement."
In the absence of such a column, I once again feel the need to comment on one or two of the latest blunders. Now the Abbey itself has opened as a convalescent home for officers there’s no improvement in the sardine-tin formation of the beds, and still no room for lockers or anywhere to keep personal items. Mrs. Crawley seems to be conducting affairs at Downton, and with Major Clarkson and Lady Sybil spending every waking minute there as well, it makes me wonder what’s happening down at Downton village cottage hospital. It was chaos there last week, and with 50% of the staff gone, things must be reaching a critical point. I say 50%, but with Thomas moving down the road as well, more like 75%.
Thomas Barrow. In the first series he was exposed at Downton as a thief. With war on the horizon he decided to jump before he was dismissed and joined the Territorial branch of the Royal Army Medical Corps. This ensured (so he thought) that he would get a cushy number when the wartime chips were down. Somehow he ended up in the thick of the fighting, having a few fags in a trench under constant bombardment. I can’t quite work out what he was actually doing in that trench. Was he attached to a Regimental Aid Post, or attached to a Field Ambulance perhaps? If it was ever explained, I missed it. Apologies. He intentionally exposed himself to sniper fire and after recovering from his self-inflicted injury, and by the miracles of modern television script-writing, he ends up in charge of the convalescent home at Downton Abbey.
Thomas Barrow. Thief, liar, manipulator, coward. Just the man for the job. Well, not exactly, as no UK convalescent home had RAMC staff. There was absolutely no way a RAMC corporal (sorry, Acting-Sergeant) would work in that type of unit or give orders to sick officers. Complete drivel and tosh. There should at least have been a trained nurse, but unfortunately no provision has been made for even one in this series.
The surprise of the week (errors no longer being surprises) came when Lady Mary announced that a friend of the family wanted to come to Downton from Middlesbrough to convalesce, and both Mrs. Crawley and Major Clarkson were up in arms.
‘Middlesbrough General will have their own arrangements about where their officers convalesce’ declared Mrs. C. And Major C. agreed:
‘Downton must function as part of the official system or it can’t function at all.’
So Lord Fellowes KNOWS there was an official system – that rather took my breath away. Is it better to know about something and choose to ignore it, or make errors because you failed to do the research and never knew about it at all? (Vote NOW). And I must just add here (pedant that I am) that there was only one military hospital in Middlesbrough, not the General Hospital, and no officer beds in the town at all.
However I did notice one bit of light flickering in the drawing-room when the near-exploding Carson exclaimed:
‘So we just make it up as we go along?’
Spot on, Carson.
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Downton Abbey - Hospital or Bedlam?
I was a keen follower of the first series of Downton Abbey. As someone from a working-class background I’ve never been too keen on toffs, but I’ve been persuaded over the past few years that as a researcher of Great War nurses, a basic knowledge of upper-class whims, desires and inter-marrying might be useful background. And so it has been. When I heard that the second series was going to see the Abbey as a hospital I was very aware that it would be too easy for the writer(s) to get it wrong. But I was unprepared for just how wrong it could be. I’ve read that the first series cost approximately £1 million an episode, so presumably this second series is no cheaper, and with that budget it might be hoped that a few pounds would be spent on decent research into the formation, organisation and administration of military hospitals during the Great War.
Not a bit of it. The portrayal falters at every step. I can see only too clearly that there are not a lot of sources out there to punch a writer in the face, and it might need a bit more digging to uncover the real story, but come Lord Fellowes, with a million an episode this is poor stuff.
During the Great War military ‘hospitals’ were divided into two types, central hospitals and auxiliary hospitals. The former were the larger units run under the auspices of the War Office. They were staffed in the main by officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps and nurses of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service and the Territorial Force Nursing Service. Men were admitted to a central hospital, assessed and treated, and when appropriate (days, weeks or months) transferred out to one of the many satellite auxiliary units for which each central hospital had responsibility. The auxiliaries came under the control of the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John, and were staffed by nurses under contract to them. Downton village cottage hospital could be nothing but an auxiliary hospital. And as a small, local, auxiliary hospital, it would still have conformed to the very high standards set by the Joint War Committee. So where does it fail?
Auxiliary hospitals did not employ Royal Army Medical Corps orderlies. Thomas could never have worked there. But then, the whole tale of Thomas’ return is pure fantasy.
Auxiliary hospitals did not, except in the rarest of circumstances, admit men direct from disembarkation. Their patients would already have been treated and cared for at a local central hospital. The raggle-taggle stream of wounded officers, shirts hanging out, blood oozing from their dressings, arms in slings bandaged over their uniforms was less likely than Haig riding in on his horse. Are these supposed to be men ‘straight from Arras.’ Quite ridiculous.
So many beds would never been crammed into such a small space. How does the writer imagine that nurses would have walked between the beds? Washed the patients and dressed their wounds? Fed them? Cleaned the floors? The ward looked worse than the worst of the casualty clearing stations on the Western Front in 1914. Far worse than Bedlam. Is Lord Fellowes aware that officers were treated rather differently from other ranks? His ‘ward’ is barely fit for pigs, let alone soldiers, and never officers.
Why is there no uniformed trained nurse? I’m afraid Mrs. Crawley, for all her wise words and ‘experience’ simply won’t do. She might act in an administrative role as Commandant, but wouldn’t be allowed to take part in giving out drugs or patient care. Mrs Crawley and the Major moving patients on stretchers was laughable (if it wasn’t so tear-inducing). And rookie VAD Miss Sybil doing a medicine round – complete poppycock. She’d have been lucky if she’d been allowed to wash the lockers or set trays.
The VADs were in the wrong uniform. They wore the grey dresses of St. John’s Ambulance Brigade VADs, but with the armlets of the British Red Cross. If they were supposed to be BRCS VADs, then they should have been in blue dresses, if St. John VADs, they should have been wearing the appropriate armlets. But of course, nobody ever gets the uniform right – only nurses so it’s hardly important.
It was fun to see Thomas being asked by Mrs. Crawley to stand in for Lady Sybil and do her VAD duties so she could go home for dinner. Fun? Nonsense.
And finally (for now), a blind officer would never, not in a million years, wash up in a tin-pot cottage hospital in Yorkshire. From fairly early in the war all blind officers were treated at No.2 London General Hospital (Territorial Force), Chelsea, where they received the most up to date and experienced care available, later almost certainly being transferred to one of the London hostels of St. Dunstans.
I suppose there’s always next week. I wonder what a ward in Downton Abbey itself will add to the hospital picture? I feel sure that it has to be better – I pray it couldn’t be any worse. And to exit where I entered, there are so few sources on Great War hospitals, and so much inaccuracy and misinformation spread around, both in books and on the web, that there is a great need for intelligent research. This Downton portrayal will now whip around the world and be used as a model of the truth by one and all, especially those who misguidedly believe it’s a fly-on-the-wall documentary. It will leave a legacy of falsehoods. Julian Fellowes has the background, he has the money, but unfortunately he lacks the knowledge.
Not a bit of it. The portrayal falters at every step. I can see only too clearly that there are not a lot of sources out there to punch a writer in the face, and it might need a bit more digging to uncover the real story, but come Lord Fellowes, with a million an episode this is poor stuff.
During the Great War military ‘hospitals’ were divided into two types, central hospitals and auxiliary hospitals. The former were the larger units run under the auspices of the War Office. They were staffed in the main by officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps and nurses of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service and the Territorial Force Nursing Service. Men were admitted to a central hospital, assessed and treated, and when appropriate (days, weeks or months) transferred out to one of the many satellite auxiliary units for which each central hospital had responsibility. The auxiliaries came under the control of the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John, and were staffed by nurses under contract to them. Downton village cottage hospital could be nothing but an auxiliary hospital. And as a small, local, auxiliary hospital, it would still have conformed to the very high standards set by the Joint War Committee. So where does it fail?
Auxiliary hospitals did not employ Royal Army Medical Corps orderlies. Thomas could never have worked there. But then, the whole tale of Thomas’ return is pure fantasy.
Auxiliary hospitals did not, except in the rarest of circumstances, admit men direct from disembarkation. Their patients would already have been treated and cared for at a local central hospital. The raggle-taggle stream of wounded officers, shirts hanging out, blood oozing from their dressings, arms in slings bandaged over their uniforms was less likely than Haig riding in on his horse. Are these supposed to be men ‘straight from Arras.’ Quite ridiculous.
So many beds would never been crammed into such a small space. How does the writer imagine that nurses would have walked between the beds? Washed the patients and dressed their wounds? Fed them? Cleaned the floors? The ward looked worse than the worst of the casualty clearing stations on the Western Front in 1914. Far worse than Bedlam. Is Lord Fellowes aware that officers were treated rather differently from other ranks? His ‘ward’ is barely fit for pigs, let alone soldiers, and never officers.
Why is there no uniformed trained nurse? I’m afraid Mrs. Crawley, for all her wise words and ‘experience’ simply won’t do. She might act in an administrative role as Commandant, but wouldn’t be allowed to take part in giving out drugs or patient care. Mrs Crawley and the Major moving patients on stretchers was laughable (if it wasn’t so tear-inducing). And rookie VAD Miss Sybil doing a medicine round – complete poppycock. She’d have been lucky if she’d been allowed to wash the lockers or set trays.
The VADs were in the wrong uniform. They wore the grey dresses of St. John’s Ambulance Brigade VADs, but with the armlets of the British Red Cross. If they were supposed to be BRCS VADs, then they should have been in blue dresses, if St. John VADs, they should have been wearing the appropriate armlets. But of course, nobody ever gets the uniform right – only nurses so it’s hardly important.
It was fun to see Thomas being asked by Mrs. Crawley to stand in for Lady Sybil and do her VAD duties so she could go home for dinner. Fun? Nonsense.
And finally (for now), a blind officer would never, not in a million years, wash up in a tin-pot cottage hospital in Yorkshire. From fairly early in the war all blind officers were treated at No.2 London General Hospital (Territorial Force), Chelsea, where they received the most up to date and experienced care available, later almost certainly being transferred to one of the London hostels of St. Dunstans.
I suppose there’s always next week. I wonder what a ward in Downton Abbey itself will add to the hospital picture? I feel sure that it has to be better – I pray it couldn’t be any worse. And to exit where I entered, there are so few sources on Great War hospitals, and so much inaccuracy and misinformation spread around, both in books and on the web, that there is a great need for intelligent research. This Downton portrayal will now whip around the world and be used as a model of the truth by one and all, especially those who misguidedly believe it’s a fly-on-the-wall documentary. It will leave a legacy of falsehoods. Julian Fellowes has the background, he has the money, but unfortunately he lacks the knowledge.
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Not a good day ...
While doing some work on my transcription of the official war diary of Maud McCarthy, Matron-in-Chief with the British Expeditionary Force, I stopped at this entry. It must have been a very trying day, among a whole war-ful of trying days, but somehow it always makes me smile and give thanks for today's quiet life:
17 December 1914
After many delays left for Abbeville at 10.30am. Endless punctures and delays and after dark ran into 2 French carts at separate intervals, on the wrong side of the road on each occasion – not supplied with lights of any kind. Both sides of the car were knocked about, and in the end when starting for the 3rd time, the steering gear was out of action and on the brow of the hill just escaped a serious accident, the car being brought to a stand still by coming into contact with a tree. Got out. Walked back to office and reported the matter.
Found many official letters awaiting me; received news that one of the Nursing Sisters at No.8 had gone mad.
17 December 1914
After many delays left for Abbeville at 10.30am. Endless punctures and delays and after dark ran into 2 French carts at separate intervals, on the wrong side of the road on each occasion – not supplied with lights of any kind. Both sides of the car were knocked about, and in the end when starting for the 3rd time, the steering gear was out of action and on the brow of the hill just escaped a serious accident, the car being brought to a stand still by coming into contact with a tree. Got out. Walked back to office and reported the matter.
Found many official letters awaiting me; received news that one of the Nursing Sisters at No.8 had gone mad.
Thursday, 25 August 2011
Some new names from Edith Appleton's Diary
A bit of nosing around in service files at The National Archives yesterday has resulted in some more surnames in the diary being confirmed. There is varying information associated with each one, but hopefully enough to give a good idea of their identity:
CHARLESWORTH, Annie; strong family connections with Wombwell, Yorkshire, and her address given towards the end of the war was The Hall, Wombwell, Yorkshire. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
CONSTABLE, Nora; born in Ireland circa 1875, and her family were living in Charlbury, Oxfordshire during the Great War. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
COULTER Susanna; born in Ireland; trained as a nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary 1908-1911; home address throughout the war was Westland House, Londonderry, Ireland. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
DENTON, Annie Blackley; born 26 November 1868 in Birkenhead, Liverpool, and died in 1957 in Worthing, West Sussex; Matron, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve, and had previous service during the Boer War
GREGSON, Mabel Mary; born 24 April 1874 in Bradford, and during the Great War home address and that of her mother was in the Finchley area of North London. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
HUTCHINSON Ethel; born circa 1875 in Nottingham, daughter of John and Mary Hutchinson. Sisters Gertrude and Annie and brothers John, Ben and Thomas. Permanent address for most of war 300 Bluebell Hill Road, Nottingham. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. Awarded the Military Medal in 1916 while working at No.33 Casualty Clearing Station, Bethune.
LATHAM Kathleen Mary; born in Richmond-upon-Thames in early 1880, the daughter of Thomas Latham, a barrister, and his wife Mary Harriet, née Doveton. Mary Latham died within three months of her daughter's birth, her death was registered in the June quarter of the same year. Kathleen had one elder brother, Fenton Henry Latham, born in 1877. She trained as a nurse at St. Bartholomew's Hospital between 1906 and 1909. Nursing Sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. Her home address during the Great War was 'Stillingflete, Folkestone, Kent.'
MAIR Jean Dixon; born 25 February 1887, daughter of W. Mair, joiner and cartwright. Family home at Rose Cottage, Whauphill, Wigtownshire, Scotland. Trained as a nurse in Manchester 1909-1912. Staff Nurse, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service. Known to have married after her demobilisation in 1919, though married name unknown
RAPER, Olive Louise; born circa 1887 in Great Wakering, Essex; Nursing Sister, Territorial Force Nursing Service
RITCHIE-THOMSON, Mary Lamont; born 21 August 1870 in Tobermory, Isle of Mull. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
TILNEY, Constance; born circa 1887. During the Great War her mother was living in Ashburnham Road, Bedford, and post-war Miss Tilney had connections in South Africa
TULLY, Elizabeth; Born in Scotland, and family connections during the Great War with Morebattle, Kelso
CHARLESWORTH, Annie; strong family connections with Wombwell, Yorkshire, and her address given towards the end of the war was The Hall, Wombwell, Yorkshire. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
CONSTABLE, Nora; born in Ireland circa 1875, and her family were living in Charlbury, Oxfordshire during the Great War. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
COULTER Susanna; born in Ireland; trained as a nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary 1908-1911; home address throughout the war was Westland House, Londonderry, Ireland. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
DENTON, Annie Blackley; born 26 November 1868 in Birkenhead, Liverpool, and died in 1957 in Worthing, West Sussex; Matron, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve, and had previous service during the Boer War
GREGSON, Mabel Mary; born 24 April 1874 in Bradford, and during the Great War home address and that of her mother was in the Finchley area of North London. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
HUTCHINSON Ethel; born circa 1875 in Nottingham, daughter of John and Mary Hutchinson. Sisters Gertrude and Annie and brothers John, Ben and Thomas. Permanent address for most of war 300 Bluebell Hill Road, Nottingham. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. Awarded the Military Medal in 1916 while working at No.33 Casualty Clearing Station, Bethune.
LATHAM Kathleen Mary; born in Richmond-upon-Thames in early 1880, the daughter of Thomas Latham, a barrister, and his wife Mary Harriet, née Doveton. Mary Latham died within three months of her daughter's birth, her death was registered in the June quarter of the same year. Kathleen had one elder brother, Fenton Henry Latham, born in 1877. She trained as a nurse at St. Bartholomew's Hospital between 1906 and 1909. Nursing Sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. Her home address during the Great War was 'Stillingflete, Folkestone, Kent.'
MAIR Jean Dixon; born 25 February 1887, daughter of W. Mair, joiner and cartwright. Family home at Rose Cottage, Whauphill, Wigtownshire, Scotland. Trained as a nurse in Manchester 1909-1912. Staff Nurse, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service. Known to have married after her demobilisation in 1919, though married name unknown
RAPER, Olive Louise; born circa 1887 in Great Wakering, Essex; Nursing Sister, Territorial Force Nursing Service
RITCHIE-THOMSON, Mary Lamont; born 21 August 1870 in Tobermory, Isle of Mull. Nursing sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
TILNEY, Constance; born circa 1887. During the Great War her mother was living in Ashburnham Road, Bedford, and post-war Miss Tilney had connections in South Africa
TULLY, Elizabeth; Born in Scotland, and family connections during the Great War with Morebattle, Kelso
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