Women's Part in the War

From The Times, 15th December 1915.

BEHIND THE WAR.

THE ENGLISH GIRL'S PART.

The market-place of the village of —, not very far from the front in Picardy, is crowded.  Pine boards, placed on low saw-horses, serve as counters of the canvas-roofed booths.  They groan under the weight of the wares piled upon them.  Picture post-cards and woollen mittens, socks and mufflers, leather purses, old books, torn sheet-music, spectacles, and pince-nez, which range in price from 4d. to ls., fresh vegetables and butter, fish and meat, cut flowers and chocolate, fowl and game (live and dead) are being sold to eager buyers.  Not the usual clientele of peasant women, but bronzed- faced, steel-helmeted French troopers, turned housemaids, are busy buying the week's supply for the messes of the hundreds of battalions quartered in the neighbourhood.....

A PAIR OF FAT DUCKS.

One corner of the market-place has become the centre of interest.  Out beyond the line of booths an old, wrinkle-faced peasant woman stands, holding a pair of fat ducks by the feet, one in each hand.  The birds wriggle and squawk, but she pays no attention to this: grasping them the more securely, she holds first one and then the other on high, that her customer, as well as the group of soldiers that has gathered, may inspect and admire the fine birds.  And the customer?  She is a khaki-clad, slim, young English girl.  Her skirt is short, her boots heavy and well-worn.  She has shoulder-straps on her Red Cross uniform, and her broad-brimmed felt hat shades a face tanned and burned by months of out-of-door life.  She is utterly unconscious of the crowd, and merely keeps on repeating to the duck woman, “Trop cher, trop cher.”  The woman bursts forth in an elegy of her ducks, in a French patois that sounds interesting, but is unintelligible.  “Trop cher” is the only reward she gets for her pains.  The young girl pulls a memorandum book out of her pocket, consults it, and then looks fixedly at the market-woman.  She evidently wants the ducks.  The woman remains obdurate.  Then the girl snaps close her notebook, and turns to go.  But the victory has been won.  The ducks are hers at her own price.  There is a murmur of admiration as the wriggling birds are borne off to the Red Cross motor-ambulance that stands waiting at the kerb.  The girl steps to the front of the car, cranks the heavy engine, jumps into her seat and in a moment is off, piloting her big motor ambulance through the confused traffic, across a narrow insecure temporary bridge.  “C’est chic, les Anglaises.” a bearded young veteran murmurs to a comrade, as the khaki-coloured car passes out of sight.

DOING MEN’S TASKS.

The participation of women in war tasks has in all countries been admirable.  The devotion of Frenchwomen in caring for the sick and wounded under the most difficult circumstances, even under heavy shell fire, has called forth justly merited praise.  But of all the belligerents Englishwomen alone have had an active share in the fighting, in that in so many cases they are doing a man’s work.  Hundreds of young Englishwomen have, for more than a year, been living close up to the front, working at men's tasks, with a skill and untiring cheerfulness that are astounding.

I was standing at the railway station of a village somewhere back of the French lines.  A trainload of wounded arrived.  A certain number of the wounded were allotted to the town.  They were removed from the train into a temporary waiting-room, and then to the ambulances.  I noticed that more than half of the stretcher bearers were women—Englishwomen— and the ambulances were driven by the same women.  The admiration of the French trooper for the amazon-like achievements of the Englishwomen knows no bounds.  Their own women are devoted, tender, and sympathetic nurses, but Les Anglaises are heroic.  A man who has been wounded three times during the war told me that the difference between a man and a woman driver of an ambulance was all to the credit of the latter.  “I would a thousand times rather be driven by a woman,” he said to me.  “They’ll look out for every pebble in the road, avoid every jolt, and it makes a difference, I can tell you, when you have got a bad pain in your body.”  As far as I can ascertain, Englishwomen are the only women in this war who have driven motor ambulances.  These services have been performed not only at British bases, but more particularly among the French.  Clad in fighting clothes, wherever there are fighting men there the Englishwoman is to be found.

Stretching across the rolling sand dunes of the north-east corner of France there are vast tent colonies, where for a year British women have been living under canvas, in all kinds of weather, nursing British wounded.  It is one thing to nurse the wounded in well-heated, comfortable hospitals, and another to live in a cramped, ill-heated, draughty tent, where one is obliged often to wade ankle-deep in mud to reach one's patients.

A Red Cross Nurse

From Woman’s Own, October 22nd 1915.

The Diary of a Red Cross Nurse

A sprightly series of articles by Emily B. Forster, which gives insight into and real information about the duties of a nurse in wartime. 

THE RED CROSS HOSPITAL
DEAREST FLO,—Well, here I am at last.  The dream of my life has come true.  I am a Red Cross nurse, in a ward full of wounded soldiers.  I know you are all eagerly waiting for a letter from me to tell you my first experiences as a nurse.
I was quite afraid Sister would hear my heart beating, I was so nervous when she took me into a ward filled with "heroes," saying "This is your ward."
Most of the men were in bed; only three were up.  All eyes turned upon me at once, and I heard a whisper, "A new pro."  Just at that moment Sister, hearing a low moan proceeding from a bed at the end of the ward, left me and disappeared behind the screen that was round the bed (a bad case).  I was left standing alone just inside the door.
Ah, I did feel so shy and nervous!  I felt so "new"; quite a "pro"  [probationer]. I was wondering what to do, when a feeble voice near me said, "So you have come to look after us poor chaps for a bit, miss, and it's uncommon good of you.  My missus says they may talk about angels at Mons, but there ain't no doubt about the angels in the hospitals.  I knows as how what she says is true—this is my second go invalided home."
...
Before I tell you any more about the patients I must remember my promise to the girls to let them hear all about my uniform.
Can you picture me—neat hair, stiff collar, full skirt—everything just unlike what your frivolous little Betty wears at home, from the low-heeled shoe, tipped with rubber, to the demure cap that will not keep straight on my rebellious hair?
I mean to have my photograph taken soon, to send to you; but Sister says I look so stiff at present, so I am waiting until I feel more comfy in my standup collar.  My frock is just a plain cotton —very plain—and it is what the committee call a "sensible width."  I feel as if I were walking about in volumes of skirts.
A large white apron almost covers the dress, and when shall I ever get used to it—the linen collar?
But the crowning point of all is the Red Cross.
.....
I know you all want to hear about everything I do.  Well, I am just a "pro," and that means, to give a full explanation, that I am a probationer, here to learn.  And as I want to get on, I keep my eyes and ears open to learn all I can. At first it seemed so hopeless—everybody seemed to know everything except me, and I knew nothing, and as the ward was short-handed (one nurse was ill), no one seemed to have time to pay much attention to me.  There was certain work portioned out; only as I have never swept or dusted or done any real work in my life, it wanted a lot of courage to start.
Of course, I made a wrong start, but my "angel friend," as I always call him in my own mind, came to my rescue: "You’re sweeping against the grain; go the way of the board, nurse."  Now, that was a tip worth knowing.
I got into dire disgrace over my dusting.  I had often noticed the maids shake their dusters, so when I finished my dusting I shook mine.  Oh dear, Sister was so angry!  She said I should be shaking carpets over the wounded next.  Somehow I think she feels it a duty to be severe to me, because I know nothing; but then, as I tell her, that is why I have come, for her to teach me.  She said you do not want a room full of sick men to learn to dust, but how else could I learn?  Why, if I took to dusting at home, all the servants would give notice, Sister said "No wonder!"
...
Well, I must get back to the ward now; it is time to give the medicines.
...
 —Your loving BETTY.

Women’s Part in the History of the War

 From The Times, 9th July 1915. 

Women concerned with or interested in war work should instruct their newsagent to secure Part 46 of The Times History at once, as an exceptionally heavy demand for this Number has arisen since attention was drawn to its contents in the debate of July 6 in the HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The mere enumeration of the subjects treated in Part 46 of

The Times

Illustrated

HISTORY OF THE WAR

affords an indication of the exceptional interest of this Number to women generally, and in particular to those who are taking up any share of war work.  The wide scope of its brightly written and delightfully illustrated pages will be gathered from the following Table of Contents :—

Women's Anxiety to Help on Outbreak of War ;
Mobilization of the Nursing Services ;
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, Territorial Nursing Service, Naval Nursing Service, and the British Red Cross Society ;
Women Doctors at the Front ;
Women's Military Hospital in London ;
Queen's "Work for Women" Fund ;
Scheme for Central Committee on Women's Employment ;
Queen Mary's Needlework Guild ;
How the Suffragists and Anti-Suffragists Helped ;
Formation of War-Register of Women by the Board of Trade ;
Replacement of Men by Women. 

Part 46

THE WOMEN'S NUMBER

Now on Sale. 7d.

With numerous appropriate portraits and photographs.

Written by one having a wide knowledge of, and a deep sympathy with, all questions affecting women, the Current Number of The Times History constitutes a complete justification of the present-day claim of women to be regarded as co-workers with men in numerous spheres of activity hitherto closed to their sex, whilst it fully recognizes their supremacy in the organization, administration, and actual performance of the Nursing Services and in everything appertaining to the Care and Relief of women and children in distress or out of employment.

[With hindsight, 1915 seems a bit early to be publishing a history of the war.]

Women at the Front

From the Illustrated London News, 15th May 1915.

LADIES’ PAGE

"Here is a recruiting sergeant," I said to the young woman who was walking with me; "see the little bunch of ribbons on his cap."  To which she replied, with a heavy, longing sigh, "He should recruit me if he might."  Thousands of girls, beyond a doubt, are in a similar frame of mind.  It is hard indeed for them to realise that they may be filling a niche where their work is as important as going to the front.  Yet any sort of chance to render self-devotion to the Motherland would be gladly grasped by a great number of strong, energetic young women, and possibly they might be employed in active war service of more than one kind in far greater numbers than has yet been thought of.  They might be stretcher-bearers at the front, and orderlies, for instance, to set free many of the thousands of men now engaged in such perilous but non-combatant work.  The happy chance has, in fact, come to a few women, and has been splendidly met, apparently, by all to whom it has been fortunately allowed by fate.  Major Gordon, who acts continuously as King's Messenger between our King and the Belgian hero-King, told the St. John's Ambulance Association recently of the good work being done at the front by Lady Dorothie Feilding and many others.  One incident, he said, had filled him with admiration and amazement.  In one of the towns still held by the Belgian Army, and constantly shelled, so that the streets are most unsafe, Major Gordon saw an ambulance-wagon coolly driven in by an English girl; inside it were only two other British women.  As calm as if on a tennis-court, these three picked up as many as the vehicle could take of wounded men, and drove off with their sad load to hospital.  Thousands of girls' hearts will leap with longing to go and do likewise as they read of this quiet heroism of their unnamed sisters, and they will feel damped and depressed if good housewifery be offered to them in exchange.....

...There is likely to be a shortage of dyed woollen materials in the autumn, and fine dyed cloths are already more than twice as dear as the same materials were last summer.  But of charming cottons and muslins there is no lack, and they make dainty frocks at the minimum of expense.  The style for such little morning and quiet afternoon gowns is of the simplest.  The one-piece cut is much affected.  A Raglan sleeve, a full skirt and corsage all in one gathered on to a plain yoke, a deep belt of soft silk, and a tiny hem of the same silk showing under the scalloped or plain edge of the skirt of the fancy material—what can be more simple, and yet so pretty and girlish?  The designs of the muslins and cotton voiles are usually rather large and somewhat vivid, on white or delicate plain-coloured grounds.  It is the usual absurdity of fashion that dictates high collars for summer wear, after open throats all the winter; but as the collars are of the softest materials—lawn, and tucked muslin, and so on—they are not really oppressive.  Many of the little frocks, too, are provided only with collars rising high at the back of the throat, cut low or even with a tiny V-shaped opening under the chin; and the Raglan sleeve often rolls on from the shoulder line into such deep back collars.  In fact, one can select precisely what is most becoming, and be in the fashion all the same, in the matter of the throat finish; and what more can we ask?

"An original afternoon frock with a chemisette and high frilled collar of white tulle and a flounced skirt of the same material, the flounces being hemmed with bands of dark brown ninon."

[I was surprised to read that the writer of this article advocated allowing women to take roles on the front line, and put themselves in mortal danger, as long as they weren't actually fighting.  The discussion of the latest fashions later in the same article seems a very jarring contrast.]  

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

From the Brecon County Times, 4th February 1915.

WOMEN'S WORK IN WAR TIME. 

National Union W.S.S. Meeting at Brecon. 

On Thursday night a fairly well attended public meeting was held at the Town Hall, Brecon, under the auspices of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, with the object of setting forth the work which the Union is carrying on during the war. ....

The purpose of their gathering was chiefly to collect money for hospital work, which was run by the Union in France, and that was a very worthy object.  Women could not take their place in the fighting line, and therefore they were trying to make up for it by collecting money to maintain hospitals for the wounded at the Front.  They were endeavouring to alleviate the sufferings of our gallant soldiers as much as possible. (Applause.) Unfortunately, only a small number of women were sufficiently qualified to take posts as nurses, and she was far from being in favour of unqualified nurses rushing out to the Front from the mere excitement of the thing. (Hear, hear.)  In the case of those who were not qualified to go out as nurses, but were anxious to give personal service, the Union tried to train them to become efficient nurses.  Others could help by assisting the wives and dependants of soldiers at home. This was a time when there was special need for care to be taken of those left at home. Mrs Devereux concluded by saying that the work carried out by the Union might safely be recommended to the public, and deserved their support. (Applause.)
.....
Mrs Whalley, who was well received, spoke at some length on “Women's Work in War Time.”  While reading a book against the Women's Suffrage Movement some time ago, she came across the phrase, “You don't get public spirit in our women.”  She was really astonished by the phrase... Since the outbreak of the war she bad been working in London, and there she had been amazed at the volume of public spirit that was in women.  The Women's Suffrage Movement started about 50 years ago, and their Union was now a very large and wealthy society but when the war broke out they at once changed from a political society to a relief society.  They placed all trained women at the disposed of the country to do relief work, and now they had a great many more trained nurses than they had money to equip them ready to send them to the Front and their object in holding that meeting was to secure more help.  Proceeding, Mrs Whalley dealt in a clear manner with the excellent work which the Union was carrying out amongst the women at home, their successful efforts in establishing women's patrol police in London, and the Girls' Cadet Corps.  They were also working in co-operation with the Co-operative Guild to check infantile mortality, and that in itself was excellent.  In conclusion she asked them to remember both those who had gone out to fight our battle, and those left at home, and the least they could do was to give something to alleviate the sufferings of our brave soldiers. (Applause.)