Monday, 20 June 2011
Friday, 17 June 2011
Not nurses, but ...
I've recently been adding some transcripts of Great War articles to my web site - not nursing, but either connected round the edges to hospitals, or to women's war work in general. I've tried to find some areas that are poorly understood, but which add background information to other more popular wartime subjects. One of them, which must have been written by a rather patronising man, concerns women's work at the War Office, and contains some alarming lines such as:
... whether they are capable of seeing through complex problems it is difficult to judge ...
... As a whole, women's work is inferior to that of men, but against this has to be put the fact that at present they are in their infancy as far as public and office life is concerned ...
But at least interesting to find some mention of these women in print! The full article is here:
Women in the War Office
... whether they are capable of seeing through complex problems it is difficult to judge ...
... As a whole, women's work is inferior to that of men, but against this has to be put the fact that at present they are in their infancy as far as public and office life is concerned ...
But at least interesting to find some mention of these women in print! The full article is here:
Women in the War Office
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Nurses in India
There's a very useful page on the FIBIS website (Families in British India Society) on nurses and nurses in India, both civil and military. It gives exact references for many of the relevant documents both at The National Archives (Kew) and the British Library, as well as trails to follow in other libraries and archives. It's a subject that is very under-researched, probably because of a lack of source material, but this page is a great help to family historians and others trying to find nurses in India.
Nurses in India
Nurses in India
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Queen and Matrons
The Daily Telegraph, 11 May 1918
In the 'Court Circular' a few days ago the announcement was made that the Queen had received Miss Margaret MacDonald, R.R.C., Matron-in-Chief of the Canadian Army Nursing Service, Miss Evelyn Conyers, R.R.C., Matron-in-Chief of the Australian Nursing Service, and Miss Mabel Thurstan, R.R.C., Matron-in-Chief of the Nurses of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. It was a gracious and spontaneous thought on the part of her Majesty, and it has behind it a significance far greater than might at first sight appear. All the nursing of the war has been carried out with a quiet reticence that has concealed the magnitude of the task performed with such splendid efficiency; and if those at home know little indeed of the actual work of our own Army Service and that of the Territorial Force Nursing Service, with the Reserves that they have built up, still less are they aware of the noble help that the daughters of the Dominions have brought to the wounded. For this recognition, truly queenly as it was, of the mercy of womanhood throughout the Empire has afforded to every nurse from overseas a sense of personal distinction. Canada, the first of the younger nations to send its highly-trained nurses, has contributed no fewer than 1,900 members to the service of the Allies. The contingents from Australia have numbered 1,500, and none will have forgotten the devoted services that they rendered at the time that the wounded from Gallipoli were needing all the care that gentleness and love could give them. From New Zealand have come 500, these being the round figures, which represents a fine response in relation to the population of the Southern Dominion. The Matrons-in-Chief have shown themselves to be women of high powers of organisation and control, and have insisted throughout upon a lofty standard of qualifications on the part of those who they have accepted for service.
Her Majesty accorded to the ladies the rare distinction of receiving them in her private apartments at Windsor Castle, and Princess Mary was also present. Specially in attendance was the Countess of Minto, whose knowledge of and sympathy with all that pertains to nursing has been so forcibly show in the service which bears her name in India. The Queen was not only extremely interested in the details that each matron could give in regard to the contingent for which she was responsible, but asked for any suggestions that might be desirable in improving the conditions and status of the nurses' important labours. Before the ladies left, the Queen showed them some of the specially notable and valuable things that she had acquired in the course of her travels, and delighted each of her guests with some of her reminiscences of their own homelands. It was indeed the intimate and homelike character of the reception that has made so strong an appeal to the nurses generally as a proof of the Queen's comprehension of the attitude of mind and the love of things domestic among the women of the daughter-lands. This is the point that is being emphasised in the hundreds of letters dwelling on the reception that are going to family circles, whether in Australia or Saskatchewan, New Zealand or Newfoundland.
In the 'Court Circular' a few days ago the announcement was made that the Queen had received Miss Margaret MacDonald, R.R.C., Matron-in-Chief of the Canadian Army Nursing Service, Miss Evelyn Conyers, R.R.C., Matron-in-Chief of the Australian Nursing Service, and Miss Mabel Thurstan, R.R.C., Matron-in-Chief of the Nurses of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. It was a gracious and spontaneous thought on the part of her Majesty, and it has behind it a significance far greater than might at first sight appear. All the nursing of the war has been carried out with a quiet reticence that has concealed the magnitude of the task performed with such splendid efficiency; and if those at home know little indeed of the actual work of our own Army Service and that of the Territorial Force Nursing Service, with the Reserves that they have built up, still less are they aware of the noble help that the daughters of the Dominions have brought to the wounded. For this recognition, truly queenly as it was, of the mercy of womanhood throughout the Empire has afforded to every nurse from overseas a sense of personal distinction. Canada, the first of the younger nations to send its highly-trained nurses, has contributed no fewer than 1,900 members to the service of the Allies. The contingents from Australia have numbered 1,500, and none will have forgotten the devoted services that they rendered at the time that the wounded from Gallipoli were needing all the care that gentleness and love could give them. From New Zealand have come 500, these being the round figures, which represents a fine response in relation to the population of the Southern Dominion. The Matrons-in-Chief have shown themselves to be women of high powers of organisation and control, and have insisted throughout upon a lofty standard of qualifications on the part of those who they have accepted for service.
Her Majesty accorded to the ladies the rare distinction of receiving them in her private apartments at Windsor Castle, and Princess Mary was also present. Specially in attendance was the Countess of Minto, whose knowledge of and sympathy with all that pertains to nursing has been so forcibly show in the service which bears her name in India. The Queen was not only extremely interested in the details that each matron could give in regard to the contingent for which she was responsible, but asked for any suggestions that might be desirable in improving the conditions and status of the nurses' important labours. Before the ladies left, the Queen showed them some of the specially notable and valuable things that she had acquired in the course of her travels, and delighted each of her guests with some of her reminiscences of their own homelands. It was indeed the intimate and homelike character of the reception that has made so strong an appeal to the nurses generally as a proof of the Queen's comprehension of the attitude of mind and the love of things domestic among the women of the daughter-lands. This is the point that is being emphasised in the hundreds of letters dwelling on the reception that are going to family circles, whether in Australia or Saskatchewan, New Zealand or Newfoundland.
Monday, 25 April 2011
V.A.D. Wisdom
From the 'Daily Sketch' 14 April, 1919
The Importance of a Length of Cretonne
They had just been demobilised, the three V.A.D.s in the railway compartment, and were congratulating one another on the approaching farewells to their regulation bundles.
"I felt all the time that we had taken out the wrong things," said the girl with the three chevrons. "Those canvas baths, for instance, what a bore they've been and how little use except when you had lots of hot water and a batman to empty them - which we had about twice. Do you remember how Jones always spilled hers over everything? And those candle-lamps we were made to get. No use, except to drop grease all over the place. In every camp I went to they were strictly barred after one trial."
"I think those white coats and skirts we had out East were the most impractical things," said the girl with the R.R.C. ribbon. "It was always too hot to wear both a blouse and a drill coat, and it was impossible to get the coats properly done up. Smith and I made ourselves coat-frocks out of sheets when we got out of red-tape reach, and they were far better in every way. The St. John's black and the Red Cross blue are both wrong, too. It's hard enough to keep black and blue costumes in good order in town with a maid. In the wind and dust on active service it's impossible. We ought to have had grey or khaki."
"I thought much more about the things we should have been told to take, rather than the things we took that were no use," said the third V.A.D. "If I were going again I'd take a dozen yards of chintz or cretonne. It wouldn't take much room, and yet would make all the difference between comfort and misery in some places. You could screen off a corner of a tent when you were quartered with girls you didn't know or care about, and you could cover up your trunk and kit-bag when you were settled anywhere.
"Other things that ought to be in regulations are a small mat to stand on while dressing, and a fancy-dress costume. Why not? Dressing-up was the only relief we had from uniform, and it was difficult to contrive anything really amusing out of the few things we had. Costumes needn't take much room, and they might have saved a few cases of Balkan top. And a tea basket would be a good idea, too, instead of the regulation kettle and cup and saucer. Every V.A.D. made tea out somewhere when she could, and a basket simplifies things so."
The Importance of a Length of Cretonne
They had just been demobilised, the three V.A.D.s in the railway compartment, and were congratulating one another on the approaching farewells to their regulation bundles.
"I felt all the time that we had taken out the wrong things," said the girl with the three chevrons. "Those canvas baths, for instance, what a bore they've been and how little use except when you had lots of hot water and a batman to empty them - which we had about twice. Do you remember how Jones always spilled hers over everything? And those candle-lamps we were made to get. No use, except to drop grease all over the place. In every camp I went to they were strictly barred after one trial."
"I think those white coats and skirts we had out East were the most impractical things," said the girl with the R.R.C. ribbon. "It was always too hot to wear both a blouse and a drill coat, and it was impossible to get the coats properly done up. Smith and I made ourselves coat-frocks out of sheets when we got out of red-tape reach, and they were far better in every way. The St. John's black and the Red Cross blue are both wrong, too. It's hard enough to keep black and blue costumes in good order in town with a maid. In the wind and dust on active service it's impossible. We ought to have had grey or khaki."
"I thought much more about the things we should have been told to take, rather than the things we took that were no use," said the third V.A.D. "If I were going again I'd take a dozen yards of chintz or cretonne. It wouldn't take much room, and yet would make all the difference between comfort and misery in some places. You could screen off a corner of a tent when you were quartered with girls you didn't know or care about, and you could cover up your trunk and kit-bag when you were settled anywhere.
"Other things that ought to be in regulations are a small mat to stand on while dressing, and a fancy-dress costume. Why not? Dressing-up was the only relief we had from uniform, and it was difficult to contrive anything really amusing out of the few things we had. Costumes needn't take much room, and they might have saved a few cases of Balkan top. And a tea basket would be a good idea, too, instead of the regulation kettle and cup and saucer. Every V.A.D. made tea out somewhere when she could, and a basket simplifies things so."
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Could you repeat that please?
Thanks to a link on another nursing site I came across a new word:
Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a historical group, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable, by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line analysis. Prosopographical research has the aim of learning about patterns of relationships and activities through the study of collective biography, and proceeds by collecting and analysing statistically relevant quantities of biographical data about a well-defined group of individuals. This makes it a valuable technique for studying many pre-modern societies. Prosopography is an increasingly important approach within.
I'm not sure I understand it, but have a sneaking feeling that it's what I'm doing!
Prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a historical group, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable, by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line analysis. Prosopographical research has the aim of learning about patterns of relationships and activities through the study of collective biography, and proceeds by collecting and analysing statistically relevant quantities of biographical data about a well-defined group of individuals. This makes it a valuable technique for studying many pre-modern societies. Prosopography is an increasingly important approach within.
I'm not sure I understand it, but have a sneaking feeling that it's what I'm doing!
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
The Last Veteran?
There has been a fair bit of publicity this week for Florence Green, who on reaching her 110th birthday has been named as both a 'super-centenarian' and also the last surviving female 'veteran' of the Great War. As time goes by, the definition of 'last veteran' seems to have changed. Once it was used solely for those men who had met the Germans or other adversaries on the battlefield, but as they disappeared, it was broadened to include anyone who was in military service at any time during the Great War. Florence Green joined the Women's Royal Air Force in 1918, and served for a short time before the Armistice as a waitress at an R.A.F. station. Her position entitled her and her colleagues to both military status, and also, if unfortunate enough to die during service, commemoration by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
However, there were great numbers of other women working for their country at that time, many of whom were involved in direct contact with victims of war, but whose work did not offer them the same entitlements as Florence Green and her colleagues. More than 70,000 women worked during the Great War as nursing 'VADs' - members of Voluntary Aid Detachments. The vast majority of these women came under the auspices of the British Red Cross Society, and served in the United Kingdom only, and their status as civilians excluded them from being classed as military workers. They worked long hours to ensure that wounded and sick soldiers received the best possible care; they scrubbed and polished, made beds, lit fires and cooked meals; they helped with dressings and treatments, and faced, on a daily basis, sights and smells unimaginable today. For this, the vast majority were unpaid - they were indeed 'voluntary.' For the many who died during the course of their service, there is no official commemoration - as far as the Ministry of Defence and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are concerned they are the civilian nameless, unworthy of national recognition.
There are a number of women in the UK at present who are older than Florence Green. I wonder if any of them worked as young VADs during the Great War? If so, they will not be recognised. They were civilians. They are of little interest to the veteran-hunters. Oh that they might have spent their working lives during the Great War as waitresses in an officers' mess.
Florence Green - the last female veteran
However, there were great numbers of other women working for their country at that time, many of whom were involved in direct contact with victims of war, but whose work did not offer them the same entitlements as Florence Green and her colleagues. More than 70,000 women worked during the Great War as nursing 'VADs' - members of Voluntary Aid Detachments. The vast majority of these women came under the auspices of the British Red Cross Society, and served in the United Kingdom only, and their status as civilians excluded them from being classed as military workers. They worked long hours to ensure that wounded and sick soldiers received the best possible care; they scrubbed and polished, made beds, lit fires and cooked meals; they helped with dressings and treatments, and faced, on a daily basis, sights and smells unimaginable today. For this, the vast majority were unpaid - they were indeed 'voluntary.' For the many who died during the course of their service, there is no official commemoration - as far as the Ministry of Defence and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are concerned they are the civilian nameless, unworthy of national recognition.
There are a number of women in the UK at present who are older than Florence Green. I wonder if any of them worked as young VADs during the Great War? If so, they will not be recognised. They were civilians. They are of little interest to the veteran-hunters. Oh that they might have spent their working lives during the Great War as waitresses in an officers' mess.
Florence Green - the last female veteran
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