Part 6

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.”

On returning to England Miss Thurstan was engaged for a time in organising and secretarial work for the National Union of Trained Nurses. She was then asked to accept the post of Matron at the Hôpital de l’Océan at La Panne in Belgium, where she is still on duty. This hospital has over 1000 beds occupied by patients of Belgian, French, English, German, and even Russian nationality. It is established five miles from the front, so the work is far more acute than is usual in a base hospital, the severest cases being dealt with straight from the trenches.

Miss Thurstan presides over a staff of Belgian and English sisters and V.A.Ds. under Belgian doctors.

Such, then, has been Miss Thurstan’s war service--as fine a record of achievement in the cause of suffering humanity as any woman can show. Not the least wonderful fact about her is that Miss Thurstan is very frail, and has always been delicate. Only her spirit and pluck have carried her through and enabled her to do the hardest work under the roughest of conditions.

Writing of her, a friend says: “There is no doubt that Violetta Thurstan is a woman with a touch of genius and with, as well, a great devotion to work--not an every-day combination. She has determination and courage in an unusual degree, and is gifted with imagination and a deep sense of beauty--nevertheless, she can drudge.” Miss Thurstan was recently decorated by the King, in recognition of her devoted services.

XVII

H.R.H. PRINCESS BEATRICE, THE HON. LADY LAWLEY. G.B.E., AND THE COUNTESS OF GOSFORD

Women’s share has indeed been magnificent in the work of equipping the hospitals with bandages, garments, stores, and comforts of all descriptions. In the first week of war it is no exaggeration to say that there was hardly a woman in the kingdom who was not making something for the sick and wounded. But organisation stepped in at once to direct and systematise their efforts, and the main work has been carried on under the auspices of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild, and the Joint Societies of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John.

Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild was inaugurated the day after war was declared, and, in response to an appeal by Her Majesty the Queen to the women of England, consignments of garments and comforts soon began to flow in. The headquarters of the Guild were established at Friary Court, St. James’s Palace, under the direction of the Hon. Lady Lawley, who has acted as honorary organising secretary throughout. In the rooms of the old Palace, which formerly glittered with all the splendour of the King’s State levées, mountains of garments and hospital necessaries were soon piled up. The organisation has developed until now it stretches round the world, and the stream of supplies has continued with an ever-increasing volume. In the United Kingdom 470 branches have been formed since the work of the Guild was initiated. From overseas the response to Her Majesty’s appeal has been even more remarkable. Seventy branches and many sub-branches have been established even in the remotest corners of the earth, and the work which they have done, and the number of garments which they have sent in to Friary Court, have been no less even than the vast quantities which have been supplied by the workers in the United Kingdom. The number of garments received at headquarters is now approaching five and a half millions, of which over five and a quarter millions have been despatched. A record was established when, in one specially busy week, a quarter of a million garments were sent off. These figures do not include the enormous consignments received at and despatched from many of the branches working on independent lines.

Hospitals at home and abroad, convalescent homes, British military and medical units in Europe, Africa, and Mesopotamia, the Navy, the Allied forces, the Belgian refugees, the Prisoners of War, are some of the recipients of gifts from this great distributing centre at Friary Court, for the sympathies of the Guild are as catholic as its friends and supporters are widespread.

Daily reports of the work are submitted to Her Majesty the Queen, who has thus kept in close touch with all the details of the organisation. Lady Lawley and a large staff of voluntary workers have laboured unsparingly throughout, and are responsible in a great measure for the ready help which has been granted on so many sides. The following extract from a letter from a high authority in France is a typical tribute: “In this past fortnight the demand has been unprecedented, and I have been able to meet every requirement. I can never be grateful enough to the Guild.... I don’t think any of us can ever thank the work parties half enough for their very useful help.”

The largest surgical branch of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild is at the Central War Hospital Supply Depôt, where truly inspiring work is being done in the making of hospital requirements. The depôt was founded in April, 1915, by Miss Ethel M’Caul, R.R.C., who originated and developed the system of work. When at the end of that year Miss M’Caul resigned, H.R.H. Princess Beatrice graciously undertook to carry on the work of the depôt, and appointed Mrs. E. H. Gibson as her general manager.

The workers attached to this depôt number 3500, and their service is entirely voluntary. There is no obligation to work for any stated time, but each worker is free to come for as long and as often as possible. Though the majority are part-time workers, there is a nucleus of “steady plodders” who come all day and every day. With woman’s infallible instinct of dressing for her part, an optional but universally adopted uniform is worn in the depôt--a white linen overall and a flowing white coif, which give the workrooms a charming and picturesque aspect. Each worker pays a subscription of 1s. a week, which, besides covering the house expenses of the depôt, makes a considerable contribution towards the cost of materials and packing. Apart from this maintenance fund, money for the work has been entirely provided by voluntary gifts.

This Central Depôt has been the parent of a great organisation, which has spread throughout the country till now 220 branches have been established in the United Kingdom. Thus the work has grown and extended till there is hardly a town of importance where the host of women who have too many home ties to give themselves entirely to war work may yet devote whatever time they can to making hospital requisites under skilled instruction. The Central Depôt issues patterns to its branches, and only work up to a high standard is passed for the hospitals. Marvels of ingenuity have been evolved in the way of bandages; the modern bandage is constructed with a view to making dressings as easy and painless as possible, and it can be put on with the minimum of movement for the patient. Sterilisation of dressings is a great feature, and all sterilised goods are carefully packed in paper, afterwards hermetically sealed in waterproof cases actually in the sterilising room, thus rendering them ready for immediate use on being unpacked. Visitors cannot help being struck by the professional aspect of the work, whether they are looking at the complicated and beautifully sewn bandages, the well-made garments, or the perfectly packed parcels. Though the workers are volunteers, there is none of that amateur aspect which is apt to be associated with voluntary work.

Altogether many hundred hospitals have been supplied, most of which are in receipt of regular consignments. The branch depôts are encouraged to send their products to local hospitals, but they also forward a certain amount to the Central Depôt. The output from this depôt last year reached over three million articles, such as bandages, surgical dressings, splints, clothing, and slippers.

Such a successful and invaluable organisation is one of which all the women concerned may be justly proud. The practical assistance of H.R.H. Princess Beatrice, which entails her almost daily presence at the depôt, and actual work in the bandage department, has added greatly to the satisfactory results. The general manager has given silent proof of her own capacity in the achievements of the entire organisation; such work can only be carried on if it is managed with infinite tact, foresight, and energy.

At Mulberry Walk, Chelsea, another depôt is doing particularly helpful work. The special feature of this branch is the department for light splints and supports, made in papier-mâché, to fit exactly the casts of individual patients’ limbs, taken by the workers. Some of these women are sculptresses, whose experience in their own profession has accustomed them to the handling of plaster for the casts and the subsequent modelling of the splints. The lightness and perfect fit of these splints make them of the greatest comfort to the wearers, and their beneficial effect has been remarkable.

Under the Joint Societies of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John another great organisation has been established which has its headquarters at the Central Workrooms at Burlington House, where work is carried on under the presidency of the Countess of Gosford. The organisation is divided into four main branches, which include the work carried on actually at the Central Workrooms, the work of the branch depôts and working parties, the home workers, and the department for supplying patterns.

At the Central Workrooms nearly a thousand voluntary workers have been enrolled, who have produced a total of over 350,000 articles, which include a large proportion of bandages, besides hospital garments. In addition to this, a large number of garments and bandages have been made and supplied as patterns to the working parties; the pattern department has also issued thousands of paper patterns, books, and directions.

Asked to register at the Central Workrooms, and so to form a part of this great national organisation, these working parties, which number over 2000, have established a truly wonderful record. It is impossible to give even an approximate idea of the total of the vast supplies of hospital necessaries which they have produced, but recent returns from only 975 of the working parties over a period of about eighteen months show the astonishing output of nearly five and a half millions of articles for hospital use. Such figures show that women of the country, to whom more conspicuous service has been denied, have indeed achieved miracles of devoted industry. In recognition of their work, the Central Workrooms issues special certificates, and also distributes Government badges, on application by the responsible heads, to members of these working parties who have produced a specified output, and there are to-day close on 40,000 workers who may be justified in showing with pride these tributes of recognition. The scope of these registered working parties is world-wide, and stretches from Portugal to the West Indies, from Sierra Leone to California, from New Zealand to Panama.

Other contributors to the supplies of the Central Workrooms are the registered home workers, who have produced a great output of needlework, besides innumerable contributions for hospital use of games, books, stationery, musical instruments, etc. Lady Gosford is controlling a department of which she and her helpers may well feel proud, and it is largely owing to the fine stimulus from headquarters that the total records have been so satisfactory.

In a great department in the British Red Cross Society’s buildings, weekly deliveries of all the work made and collected by the Central Workrooms are received, together with countless other gifts of hospital comforts from all over the world. Here the miscellaneous collection is sorted and despatched according to the requests from the hospitals by a voluntary staff who have been working under Lady Sophie Scott for nearly three years. The goods are packed and sent not only to the hospitals in Britain and in France, but to all the remoter theatres of war--Malta, Egypt, Salonika, Mesopotamia, Palestine. Besides sending to British hospitals, large gifts have been made to the sick and wounded of the Allies.

At a similar depôt for the receiving and despatch of hospital equipment and comforts, another devoted group of workers under Lady Jekyll has worked at this labour of love since the earliest days of the war, near the ancient buildings of St. John’s Gate. Here the St. John workers of the country send their contributions, and goods of all sorts are despatched to hospitals at home and abroad. The neat shelves and cupboards contain everything that the sick soldiers may want, from warm bed-jackets and sleeping-suits to tooth-brushes and soap, while extras such as writing materials and games are frequently among the gifts. The Red Cross and St. John Depôts each supply a separate group of hospitals, and it is indeed a proud achievement that they have been able throughout the war to keep pace with requirements on such an enormous scale.

If the complete history ever comes to be written of the work of women with their needles during the war, it will reveal an astounding record of patient, loyal, skilful achievement, and an output of which the figures can only be described as phenomenal.

XVIII

MISS EDITH HOLDEN, R.R.C.

“I wonder if patients entering the receiving-hall of this hospital realise how much they owe to the Lady of the Lamp, whose statue has been lent us for the war?” Colonel Bruce Porter, in command of the Third London General Hospital, Territorial Forces, wrote the above recently in an appreciation of Florence Nightingale and the great sisterhood of nurses which she founded. From the original 125 nurses--the total under her control by the end of the Crimean War--has sprung the wonderful organisation which is nobly carrying on the noblest of all woman’s work.

To see one of our great military hospitals to-day is indeed an inspiring sight. To walk through the bright, airy wards, to glance into the spotless theatres, to watch the preparation of appetising meals in the big kitchens, and to examine some of the modern scientific developments, induce a sense of deep interest, in which emotions of pity and sympathy are overwhelmed in the predominant atmosphere of thankfulness and hope. But it is not till a visitor has been privileged to enter Matron’s office and to be shown, in the beautifully kept ledgers, the system of organisation, that a true understanding can be reached of how it is that the work of this great hospital seems to run so smoothly, and with none of the restlessness and bustle which are associated with undertakings on a large scale.

Miss Edith Holden has been Matron of the Third London General Hospital since August, 1914. One of the biggest military hospitals in the country, it contains over 2000 beds, of which 550 are for officers. It is certainly the largest collection of beds controlled by one matron, for in other of the larger military hospitals the patients are in different buildings, each containing several hundred beds, and having its own matron, though all under one commanding officer. The original building was the Royal Victoria Patriotic School for Soldiers’ Orphans, but as the hospital has increased a town of wooden huts has sprung up around the central stone edifice. Miss Holden had had considerable hospital experience in peace time, having been matron at the Richmond Hospital, Dublin, and assistant matron at Chelsea Infirmary. To her skill and power of organisation much of the success of the hospital is due. She presides over a staff of women numbering 520, which includes fully trained nurses, V.A.D. probationers, women orderlies, clerks, cooks, and scrubbers; and if she had no other duties, the control of this department alone would be a fair day’s work. The standard of nursing expected at the base hospitals in England is considerably higher than abroad, where the patient often feels he is merely resting on his way home. “Bed-sores are not always avoidable abroad,” writes a well-known Army doctor, “but they must never occur in a hospital in England.” The shortage of trained nurses makes the maintenance of this high standard no easy matter. “We have only two-fifths of the number of trained nurses laid down in the establishment as authorised by the War Office Schedule before the war,” Miss Holden stated recently, and even this nucleus is liable to be drawn upon for foreign service. This involves considerable strain on the Matron and her assistants.

There remains as supplementary staff the great band of untrained V.A.D. workers, from amongst whom the more experienced probationers are constantly transferred abroad. Miss Holden was one of the first matrons to welcome V.A.D. helpers at the beginning of the war, and the care which she has bestowed on rendering them efficient and skilful nurses has been one of the most helpful factors in the smooth working of the hospital.

Another of Miss Holden’s multifarious duties is the responsibility of catering for the officer patients and the women’s staff. The management of this branch of the work demands brains as well as imagination. While the soldiers must receive the dainty diet which sick men need, food supplies must be closely watched, wastage avoided, and expenditure controlled. The happy and human atmosphere of the hospital speaks volumes for the personality of those in authority. Every aspect gives evidence of deep thought, sympathy, and understanding for the welfare of the sick soldiers. The spirit of progress is felt on all sides. To give only one instance: several of the masseurs in attendance are soldiers blinded in the war, who have been trained for this work, “and,” says the commanding officer, “after the war no one must employ any other masseurs but blind soldiers.” A wonderful new branch of work is the facial department. Lieut. Derwent-Wood by the use of metal plates has achieved miracles of restoration for those most unhappy of all maimed soldiers who suffer from apparently hopeless disfiguring facial wounds. He uses his skill as a sculptor to model these masks for cases in which surgery cannot restore the missing part.

Yet a further and very human branch of the Matron’s special, though unofficial, activities is the care of the relatives who are sent for by the medical officers to see the dangerously ill cases. These unfortunate people arrive, many from remote parts of the country, never having been in London before; and the Matron has made it her duty to find accommodation near the hospital to which they can be sent.