Part 9

In January, 1917, Mrs. Harley turned her energies to helping the population of Serbian civilian refugees at Monastir, who were in dire need of food and medical assistance. She also established an orphanage at Monastir, where she collected more than eighty children, and looked after them at her own expense. It was when engaged on her errand of mercy that Mrs. Harley met her death. She was wounded in the head by a shell splinter, during one of the periodical Bulgarian bombardments of Monastir--an open town--at the moment when she was actually distributing food to starving Serbians in front of her house.

The touching scenes at Mrs. Harley’s funeral are evidence of the esteem and gratitude with which she was regarded in Serbia. She was buried at Salonika with full military honours, and her coffin, covered with the Union Jack, was followed by a great concourse, which included a large proportion of Serbians. In the funeral oration pronounced over her grave, the Serbian Minister of the Interior said: “Noble daughter of a great nation, though not a sister of ours by birth, still dear to us as a true sister, your tender soul is followed and ever will be followed by our fervent prayers, and by the everlasting gratitude of the Serbian nation. Thanks and glory be to you.” That her spirit and courage live on is manifest in the declaration by one of her two daughters, both engaged in hospital work in Serbia, that after her mother’s funeral it was her intention to return to Monastir to carry on Mrs. Harley’s work.

As a recognition of her services to the French, Mrs. Harley was decorated by General Sarrail with the “Croix de Guerre with palm leaves”--one of the highest of French decorations.

XXVII

MISS ETHEL ROLFE AND THE WOMEN ACETYLENE WELDERS

In the autumn of 1915 the organisers of the Women’s Service Bureau, anxious to assist women who applied to them for help and advice in obtaining posts under the newly constituted Ministry of Munitions, immediately sought openings in which educated women with a natural bent towards machinery and mechanical work could receive instruction in a skilled process. After consideration, it was decided to arrange a training in the process of oxy-acetylene welding, a work which seemed to combine various advantages. It was a skilled process comparatively new in England, and one which women had hitherto had no opportunity of learning, and should they be successful in taking up the work, there would be plenty of scope for them, as the process was being increasingly used in aeroplane manufacture. For this reason there was a good chance of its being continued after the war, and not proving a blind alley like so much present-day work. Accordingly, a small school was established under an able and experienced metal-worker, Miss F. C. Woodward.

The process taught is almost entirely used in aeroplane construction, namely, the welding of sockets and joints, struts, levers, and the parts of the frame-work.

Even before the war there had been a shortage of trained welders, and, with the enormous increase in aeroplane work and the enlistment of so many skilled mechanics, the demand for such workers was enormously increased.

The school was opened in September, 1915, and by December the first girls were sufficiently trained to take posts in a factory, the controller of which had been interested in the project, and had helped the school at its start in setting up the necessary plant. The pioneer women welders have been followed by a steady stream; and such has been the success of the training that no welder has any difficulty in obtaining employment as soon as she leaves the school. From this small training centre alone over 150 welders have already passed into various works.

The process is generally recognised as the speediest and most effective way of securing a perfect weld without any deleterious effect upon the metal, and consists in employing the flame produced by the combustion, in a suitable blow-pipe, of oxygen and acetylene. The temperature of the flame at the apex is about 6300 degrees Fahrenheit, and it is by this means that the metals to be welded together are brought to a suitable heat. The worker’s eyes have to be protected from the powerful light by special goggles, and they also have to wear caps over their hair, and leather aprons. The work is fascinating, even to the onlooker, and absorbing to anyone with craftsman’s instincts. It involves considerable responsibility, and the welder needs to be conscientious and careful in the extreme, as upon the efficiency of her work, if used for aircraft construction, depends the stability of the machine and, consequently, the life of the airman.

The women welders have not established their position without difficulty, faced as they were from the start with the fact that men engaged on precisely the same work, with no greater output, were yet receiving considerably higher wages. By first banding themselves together in a Trade Union, and by bringing the question up for arbitration as to whether their work was skilled or unskilled--the decision being given in their favour,--the women welders have achieved equal recognition with men, and that without having recourse to strikes and dislocation of national work in war-time.

A typical worker among the learners of this new craft for women is Miss Ethel Rolfe. One of the first women to enter the school, after a short course of training she took a post in an aircraft factory, where she was the only woman welder. She worked with one man welder, and sometimes when work was slack, owing to the supply of parts being hung up, she did brazing, which she learnt from the men with whom she worked. She also did fitting, rather than stand idle; and as much overtime was being worked, she could help on all three processes when occasion required.

In December, 1916, after a good deal of practical experience, Miss Rolfe accepted a post in a Government department. In this capacity she visited aeroplane works all over the country, spending from three to ten days in the shops, studying the work done by women, and that done by men which women might take over. She reported to her department on the detailed organisation of women’s work, on the methods of training, and the possibility of further dilution of men’s work in each firm by the employment of more female labour. To do this she had to inquire into technical processes, machines, and workshop arrangements. She specially urged the increased employment of women in fitting and sheet-metal work, wood-work, and welding, and in some cases on the erection of aeroplanes and the installation of the engine.

After continuing this work for some months, she was promoted and transferred to the Production Department. She now inspects aeroplane firms and reports to her department with a view to an ever-increasing output, chiefly obtainable by greater efficiency in the labour of women, improved arrangements in the shops and in the methods of teaching and supervision. This unique opportunity of studying the types of machines and methods of construction, coupled with the help of resident inspecting engineers, has given her an amount of technical knowledge which, with her personal experience of factory conditions, has helped her in the work of selecting suitable operations for female labour.

Before the war, Miss Rolfe had no previous mechanical or scientific training; she had always regretted the lack of opportunity which women found in the industrial world, and especially in engineering trades.

Another pupil of the welding school, Miss Margaret Godsall, who became charge-hand at an aircraft factory, has recently died from inflammatory rheumatism. She contracted this illness as a result of staying on at the factory during a rush of urgent work, though she was suffering from influenza. This is a pathetic example of the keenness and the self-sacrifice with which girls are throwing themselves into their tasks, and their service to the country will always be remembered as one of the finest records of the war.

XXVIII

LADY LUGARD AND THE WAR REFUGEES COMMITTEE

In her work for the great population of Belgian refugees, who came over to England in the first months of war, Lady Lugard has helped to carry out one of the highest missions to suffering humanity. Quick to grasp the significance of the German advance through Belgium, Lady Lugard, in the first week of war, turned her thoughts to the plight of the unfortunate women and children driven from their ruined homes with nothing left to them save life itself. Where were they to go, and what was to become of them? Obviously England offered the only safe refuge.

Lady Lugard knew of the complete and detailed arrangements which had been worked out during the summer of 1914 for the reception of refugees from Ulster, in the event of the anticipation of civil war being realised. Understanding the importance of rapid action and the value of a good organisation, Lady Lugard asked the help of the Ulster leaders, who willingly placed their machinery at the disposal of workers in such a worthy cause. After enlisting the support of Cardinal Bourne and the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, and having obtained the consent and advice both of the Foreign Office and of the Belgian authorities, Lady Lugard, with the help of Mrs. Alfred Lyttelton, formed a committee. But there was little time for deliberation or arrangement before she and her helpers were rushed into action. Warned on one day that a shipload of possibly a thousand refugees might be with them on the next, they had immediately to arrange offices, raise funds, and prepare accommodation. Mr. Norrie-Miller, the manager of the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation, placed offices at the committee’s disposal free of charge, and secured the nucleus of a clerical staff. The organisation decided to be known as the War Refugees Committee. Its non-political and non-sectarian character was marked by the fact that Lord Hugh Cecil became chairman and Lord Gladstone treasurer, while the Roman Catholic and Jewish Churches were represented among its members. Lady Lugard and Mrs. Lyttelton at once proceeded to issue an appeal through the newspapers. The response was overwhelming. All England was burning with admiration and pride at the great part which Belgium was playing. Throughout the country, from homes humble and great, rich and poor, money and offers of help flowed in on such a scale that, even with the best endeavours, it took many days before they could be acknowledged and classified. Eagerness to help the victims whose suffering was part of the price Belgium had to pay in her fight for honour was England’s tribute of admiration.

The next question was the momentous one of temporary accommodation for the refugees on arrival. With the assistance of an ever-increasing group of willing volunteer workers, the War Refugees Committee soon arranged for beds and food to be prepared in the buildings placed at their disposal. These were hastily improvised as hostels, with the help of generous loans of linen and crockery. If the accommodation at first was sketchy, there were at least beds and food for all who came, and eager sympathy and welcome.

They needed all the help and comfort which could be given to them, these dazed and terrified people, with the haunted look of horror on their faces. They had endured experiences which our civilisation could have ascribed only to a bygone age, and which we little thought could pollute the earth again.

During the next weeks the stream of refugees flowed into London in ever greater numbers. The work of the War Refugees Committee soon classified itself automatically into departments. The clerical department had to cope with correspondence which, within a fortnight, had mounted to many thousands of letters a day containing money contributions and placing accommodation for 100,000 people at the disposal of the committee. Refugees had to be received on arrival and temporarily housed. The question then arose of their allocation to more permanent quarters and of arranging that offers of hospitality from all over the country should be responded to by suitable allotment of refugees. From the first it was found advisable to decentralise as much as possible and to allow the local committees formed throughout the country to make most of the detailed arrangements for allocation. These committees numbered before long between two and three thousand. Questions of transport and clothing were in the hands of other rapidly organised departments.

Every day the number of refugees increased, and members of the committee worked almost without rest day and night. In the first week of September a Government invitation was published offering refuge in England to the Belgian civilian population. The magnitude of the task thus became beyond the management of a group of private individuals, and the committee was relieved of a certain amount of anxiety by the provision of refuges on a big scale in London at Government expense. Though the work was now extended and receiving Government assistance, it was to the War Refugees Committee, which about this time was placed by mutual consent under the general direction of Lord Gladstone, that the authorities turned to carry on the great task. The committee has continued to work throughout in close co-operation with the Government Departments, particularly the Local Government Board. Large buildings, such as the Alexandra Palace and the Earl’s Court Exhibition Buildings, were taken over and prepared for the reception of the refugees, serving as clearing-houses whence they could be sent on to the provinces, where arrangements for hospitality were made both by local communities and by private individuals. The staff of voluntary helpers in London soon reached 500, who threw themselves with undaunted energy and devotion into the task which Lady Lugard herself has described as “the consolation of a nation by a nation.”

In all her personal intercourse with the Belgian refugees, especially of the working class, Lady Lugard has said that what struck her most was their pathetic fortitude and the way in which in their hour of desperate need they clung to their religion. Chapels and oratories were rapidly established wherever Belgians were received, and the Roman Catholic Church and community worked unremittingly to comfort and console them. “I don’t know how many thousand rosaries I distributed in those days,” said Lady Lugard afterwards; “wherever I went the Belgians seemed to clamour for them above everything.” It should also be mentioned that the Jewish community in London took a very active part in helping their co-religionists among the refugees.

From September till Christmas, 1914, the flow of refugees continued--the fall of Antwerp in October bringing a tremendous rush of work amid surging crowds. On one day in October the number of refugees handled by the Committee amounted to 6621. By February, 1915, their arrival in anything like large numbers had practically ceased; but other problems sprang up. It became obvious that the war was to last longer than the few months which optimists of the early days prophesied. It was therefore decided, after considerable hesitation, that it was better, both in their own interests and in those of the community at large, that the Belgians, who had lived almost entirely as guests, should be allowed to work and to become gradually self-supporting.

In the two years which have elapsed, the working-class people who formed the bulk of the refugees, while giving still some occasion for pre-occupation and expense to their own and to the British Governments, have become practically absorbed. In the ever-increasing demand for labour, the Belgians, who are known to be among the best craftsmen and labourers in Europe, have found a ready market for their work.

There has remained the comparatively small number of refugees of a different class, unaccustomed to earn their own living, but rendered destitute as the poorest artisans by the devastation of their country. The great initial work accomplished, Lady Lugard and the many others who had by this time become absorbed in the work of consolation turned to making suitable provision for this group, which included families of high social position, artists and professionals in many spheres of work, men and women suddenly snatched from circumstances of prosperity and ease and confronted with the problems of bare existence. To assist these unfortunate people Lady Lugard organised a small hospitality committee. She and her helpers proceeded to arrange a system in London, and similar arrangements have been evolved on private initiative in the great centres in the provinces. In London large houses were placed one by one at the committee’s disposal, and social groups of Belgian families were established in them. In these hostels, family life is as far as possible reproduced, questions of education, health, and clothing receive special care and attention, and the attempt has been made to classify the houses in such a way as to bring friends and potential friends into the same circles. The results have been most satisfactory. The domestic management is undertaken in each house by a competent manager, sometimes Belgian, sometimes English, appointed by Lady Lugard’s committee. Many of the managers are lady volunteers, who give the whole of their time to the promotion of happiness and comfort in what one of the guests has described as “ces petits coins de Belgique.” The one rule of the committee is to try and make the Belgians happy. If their lives are necessarily restricted and limited by circumstances, these Belgian guests are at any rate living in quiet resting-places, recovering, it is hoped, from the shock of their experiences, educating their children, and meanwhile possessing their souls in patience till the day of their country’s liberation.

The numbers in which the Belgian population took refuge in England from first to last have been so great, and the rush in the beginning so bewildering, that it would have been impossible to carry out a work of necessity hastily improvised without mistakes and difficulties. Lady Lugard is the first to admit how far the schemes fell short of the perfection which she had hoped to achieve. But when the story of this flight of a nation is told, history will remember, not the misunderstandings, the mistakes in detail, or the want of foresight, which seem inevitable in all human undertakings, but the way in which the English people opened their arms in welcome to the Belgians, and their desire to comfort and to heal. To Lady Lugard personally must be ascribed full recognition for a truly great service. By her promptitude, her imagination and her unsparing gifts of energy and devotion she stands out amongst the throng of splendid volunteers in the service of Belgium.

XXIX

MISS CHRISTOBEL ELLIS

Since the early days of the war, the aspect of our streets has undergone many changes; but there is no more certain sign of the times than the sight of women in khaki uniforms and military badges driving Army motors and lorries. Though these enterprising women excited surprise some months ago, they are fast becoming as numerous as men drivers.

The women drivers of the Army are under the management of a department of the Women’s Legion, and form a part of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. At the head of the motor branch is Miss Christobel Ellis, who has in her hands the development of a great new scope of activity and usefulness for women workers. Miss Ellis, already an experienced motorist, offered her services to the French Red Cross in September, 1914, and for some months she drove for them, and also for the British Red Cross Society, in France. During the days of the battle of the Marne and the heavy fighting near Paris, the shortage of ambulances and drivers was so great that Miss Ellis sometimes drove for twenty hours at a stretch. At the end of 1914 she went to Serbia, where she managed the commissariat, storekeeping, and military returns for a group of five Red Cross hospitals for over a year, till the final torrent of invasion swept over that unhappy country.

On Miss Ellis’s return to England she found that the demand for trained motor-drivers and mechanics was fast outpacing the supply. Her own successful experience of motor work under the roughest conditions had taught her how well the services of women might be used to supplement men, especially in England, with the advantages of good roads and help in difficulties usually to be had close at hand. Miss Ellis discussed her ideas with Lady Londonderry, who had organised the Women’s Legion for war service, and as a result of their representations they were given permission to supply twenty women drivers as an experiment, to take up work under the War Office in May, 1916.

The great value of women’s employment in motor work lies in the fact that the men whom they are releasing are precisely the most valuable class of workers--namely, trained mechanics, of whom there is an all too limited supply, which can only be augmented by the slow process of training others. Much of the work which the women drivers are undertaking is work upon which highly skilled men were wasted; driving cars, for instance, for staff officers involves many empty hours simply spent in waiting. The women’s reception by the men whose work they are taking over has been generous in the extreme. No trouble has been spared to help the girls in every possible way, and to assist them to maintain the high standard of Army efficiency.

The girl drivers work long hours, for they have to be on duty by 8 a.m. and often do not put their cars away till late at night; but they stand the strain of the life wonderfully well, and in spite of the bitter cold of last winter there were few who dropped from the ranks.

It cannot, of course, be maintained that the women’s mechanical knowledge equals that of some of the men they are replacing, but the standard of care of their engines and cars increases with their experience, and their capacity and skill in driving are undoubted.

Besides motor-driving there are other branches of women’s work under the same department. There are corps of women despatch-riders--motor-bicyclists whose services are proving most valuable. Women are also taking over the charge of Army mechanical stores. This is responsible work which requires great accuracy, for if incorrect supplies are handed out, endless delay may be caused to the convoys. In the delicate and intricate work of assembling aeroplane engines, women also working under this department are proving more and more efficient. The numbers of women employed in this dilution of men’s labour will soon reach many thousands, and the way in which they have succeeded in overcoming considerable prejudice against their employment in the Army is in itself testimony to their efficiency.

To Miss Ellis belongs the recognition due to a woman who has been able to give personal proof of women’s capacity in a comparatively new field.

XXX

MADAME BRUNOT AND MISS MARION MOLE