Flora Murray

“ Women who had been trained in medicine and in surgery knew instinctively that the time had come when great and novel demands would be made upon them, and that a hitherto unlooked-for occasion for service was at their feet. It was inconceivable that in a war of such magnitude women doctors should not join in the care of the sick and wounded, but it was obvious that prejudice would stand in their way. Their training and their sympathies fitted them for such work ”

“ Older men were harassed and worn by anxiety, and distressed by the difficulty and precarious position of the allied Armies. The younger ones spoke of how ‘the British were hanging on with their eyelids’; or how the French were supposed to be ‘making a flank attack and were lost.’ Some in their depression feared defeat; others broke down with exhaustion and reaction.
To all of them, officers and men alike, hospital was a haven of peace and security. It was heavenly to lie in clean beds, to be cared for by Englishwomen, to be rid of regimental discipline and for the moment of responsibility too. ”

“ They showed no surprise, but were wont to develop amazing confidence in the ward doctors and to discuss the merits of the various surgeons in the square. Each man thought his ward the best ward in the hospital, and his doctor the best doctor on the staff; and many boasted to visitors and at tea-parties that the worst cases in the hospital were in their ward and under their doctor. The dental surgeon, whose skill in extraction was considered marvellous, never failed to thrill the men, and she was eagerly pointed out to friends or visitors. ”

“ The uniform of the Women’s Hospital Corps31 soon became known, and secured a cordial reception for its members in the bureaux and offices which they had to visit, as well as on the boulevards. Strangers would offer them gifts of socks and mittens. Old ladies, with tears running down their cheeks, would lift their outer skirts and rummage in the poche intérieur to bestow a few francs with a blessing upon them. An Englishman, choking with emotion, put two sovereigns into a doctor’s hand as she passed him on the stairs of the Hôtel. ”

“ In a women’s unit, internal difficulties like these did not arise; but the officer-in-charge of a military hospital is required to deal with small offences; and when the Doctor-in-Charge ‘admonished’ defaulters, she was conscious that her authority would have been greatly strengthened if she had been wearing the badges of a lieut.-colonel. In the casualty room, where men might not recognise a woman as an officer, the doctors were sometimes placed at a disadvantage; but the good feeling of the N.C.O.’s and the support which they gave to their medical staff avoided any real trouble. ”

“ THE WOMEN ORDERLIES The mention of the staff of the hospital calls up a picture of that splendid band of young women who responded to the call of patriotism and who, laying aside their habits of ease and pleasure, gave themselves up to the strenuous toil and restricted life of those who serve in hospitals. It is true that the staff included doctors, matron, and trained nurses; but they were professional people, carrying out their professional work ”

“ During 1916 and 1917 one staff officer called periodically to see whether every possible man had been replaced by a woman. His time was spent in inspecting hospitals and trying to persuade those in authority to replace their men; and naturally Endell Street was his example. Again and again he came to say that he was assured that it was impossible to use women for certain services, and to ask how it was done. Amongst other things, he had been told that to use women in the X-ray room was ‘indelicate.’ The Doctor-in-Charge reminded him that skiagrams were made through clothing and in a dark room. ”

“ There seems to me to be great force in your contention that where a woman doctor has to perform the duties of a colonel, in authority over a large number of different sorts of troops in a general military hospital, she should have the advantage which military rank would give in maintaining discipline among them. ”

“ They came from all over France, these men—from north and south, from the Pyrénées and the Vosges: Zouaves, Moroccans, Bretons, Alsatians—with their various types and uniforms, and, what was more embarrassing, with their various patois. The nurses learnt their tastes in food and in wine; they studied the difference in their temperaments; prepared tisanes and special dishes, and made them all happy and at home. A simple Poilu could not sleep at night for wonder and delight at being in a marble hall. ”

“ It was strange how the kindest of parents thought it proper to control the actions of women well over age, and how younger brothers, uncles, brothers-in-law and the family doctor would think that they had a right to interfere in her business, and would invite the Doctor-in-Charge or the Matron to conspire with them. ”

“ At the entrance of the Hôtel when ambulances were unloading, elderly men in silk hats and black kid gloves would crowd round and offer to carry the stretchers, or would follow the bearers inside, with the kit—often a very dirty kit—in their arms. The sight of the suffering moved them so that they turned aside and wept. They brought violets and roses and cigarettes for the men. They stood outside the doors to listen to them singing, and they wrung the hands of the doctors silently and went out. ”

“ THOSE WHO MADE THE WHEELS GO ROUND In such a community, one of the most difficult offices to fill successfully was that of chaplain; for it is not always possible to combine a vocation for the sick with a sympathetic understanding of young men and women. The chaplain’s work was solitary and lacked the stimulus of companionship, which was so helpful to the doctors; and it cannot be denied that a large proportion of the patients were more interested in the quality of the surgeons than of the parsons. ”

“ The work in the medical wards was perhaps less dramatic than on the surgical side, but it was not less severe. Many cases of rheumatism, gastric ulcer and cardiac disease spent weeks in the hospital, and pleurisy and empyema were constantly admitted. There were painful cases of gas poisoning and malaria, and others of mental disturbance; but pneumonia dominated the wards in numbers and in severity. They were anxious cases, occurring constantly among New Zealand and Australian men, whose distance from their homes made a further claim on the sympathies of the staff. ”

“ Stories216 of the piety of men in the trenches or other hospitals were given and letters from men to the chaplain were often quoted. One preacher was fond of inventing allegories, and conversations between himself and imaginary soldiers, which mystified the men very much. And another who was in favour of Women’s Suffrage, preached on the ‘New Womanhood,’ and exhorted his hearers not to regard those in charge of the hospital as ‘playthings,’ but as ‘their own equals in every respect’; the women being for the time in the position of the men’s superior officers! ”

“ The ward officers acted as orderly officer in rotation—that is, they took casualties and night work for twenty-four hours in rotation—and had the supervision of the wards on their nights on duty. In civil hospitals members of the staff may not meet for weeks at a time; but in a military hospital surgeons and physicians attended daily, and at the morning meeting the orderly officer’s report for the previous night was read, and it was possible to talk over the various cases. A great deal of good team work was done, the surgeons, physician and pathologist concentrating on the worst cases. ”

“ On the way to keep their appointment, they stepped inside the gate and surveyed with a rapid glance the lie of the buildings and the piles of rubbish and dirt massed among the iron railings in the square. They saw enough to enable them to say that it would do, before the gate-keeper turned them out as being unauthorised persons upon government premises.
The feeling of the Army Medical Department towards women doctors could be gauged by the atmosphere in the various offices with which business had to be done. In one there was disapproval; in another curiosity and amusement ”

“ When the hospital opened, Privates Bishop, Price, and Hedges, who had been in France with the Corps, and who had enlisted in February 1915, were transferred to the 35th Company R.A.M.C., and included in the Endell Street detachment. The help of such experienced nurses in the first year was invaluable and their places were always in the serious wards, where the heaviest cases and the greatest need of skill were to be found. Later, when all men of class ‘A’ were sent abroad, they found wider fields of usefulness and more thrilling experiences in France and in the East. ”

“ He said they wanted to know whether the Women’s Hospital Corps could increase its beds, and whether it could move its hospital forward if needed. The astonished organisers were given to understand that if any auxiliary hospitals were moved forward, Claridge’s would be the first to be invited to move, and that the British Army would not hesitate to make use of it, supposing that the matter could be arranged with the French Red Cross. The ‘unconverted one’ still seemed, however, to be tormented with uncertainty as to the attitude of men when called upon to accept treatment from women doctors. ”

“ The Army’s need of women’s service grew greater every day, and the War Office was forced to consider the necessity of introducing them widely into hospitals and camps, as dispensers, storekeepers, cooks, and motor-drivers. In November 1916, a deputation of Red Cross ladies, headed by Dame Katherine Furse, visited the Doctor-in-Charge, to inquire into the work done by women who had replaced men at Endell Street, and to discuss the formation of a new section of V.A.D.’s for general service. ”

“ New-comers might look doubtful when they heard that their wounds would be left alone for ten days, and would murmur that in the last hospital they were dressed every day; but their neighbours had learnt to comment on old-fashioned ways, and laughed them out of their fears. ‘Bipp’ metamorphosed the work of the hospital. The surgeons relied on it so confidently that they never hesitated to operate on septic fractures or joints ”

“ The tone and manner of men transferred from other hospitals, where discipline was slack, were unpopular with the staff; but after a few days, the civilising influences of the nurses triumphed and the men adopted more gentle ways. There were times when eighty or a hundred men arrived with the intention of giving trouble, and those in charge found it necessary to exert their authority and take a firm stand. It was especially during these latter months that the work of the doctors would have been much easier if they had been wearing badges of rank. ”

“ Experience in France had shown that though visitors in the wards were a great help and pleasure, the number and the kind of visitor might easily be harmful, and a decision was taken to regulate the visiting, so as to reserve certain days and hours when quietness might prevail in the wards and when the nurses might be able to give extra care and attention to those who needed it. These regulations were found to be fully justified; for the many very sick men constantly distributed through the hospital would have suffered more than was right if unlimited visiting had been allowed. ”

“ The hospital was overwhelmed by visitors of all sorts and conditions, who came at all hours for any purpose and who were all determined to ‘speak one word of kindness to the poor fellows,’ or, as one lady wrote, ‘to bring one ray of pleasure into the lives of the poor mutilated darlings.’ There were scores of people representing regimental associations and other societies, who were sure that no one except themselves would say ‘a kind word’ or convey ‘a little brightness’ into the wards. ”

“ ORGANISATION OF THE WOMEN’S HOSPITAL CORPS In August 1914 it was a popular idea that war was man’s business and that everything and every one else should stand aside and let men act. But there were many persons who failed to endorse this view and who held that, though men may have been responsible for the war, the business of it concerned men and women equally. ”

“ M. le Maire and M. Bataille were unable to write more than their own names, and the agreement had to be composed and written by the doctors themselves. With much concentration and deep breathing the gentlemen affixed their signatures. The document being completed, they beamed on the ladies, and promised to have workmen and cleaners in the house by sunrise next day.
By ten o’clock in the morning the sweep, the plumber and the gas-fitter had not arrived; the women who were to do the cleaning were still absent, and the maire himself was invisible. ”

“ Two Paris friends, Mlle Block and Miss Grey, gave the hospital very real assistance by providing two ambulances and placing them at the disposal of the medical staff. They were both of them splendid drivers, and they did many a hard day’s work, and thought no pains too great, no journey too long, that gave some wounded man a chance of recovery. ”

“ She leaves in our hearts a fine memory of one who gave generous and tender service to those who suffered, of one whom we admired and trusted because she responded with courage and devotion to the call of her country. ”

“ A picket of soldiers and a detachment of police accompanied the hearse, and the undertaker in evening dress, with cocked hat and blue and red scarf of office, led the way. The police laid palms on the coffin, tied with a broad ribbon, on which was inscribed: ‘Pour les Défenseurs de notre Patrie’ ”

“ They told him stories of the men and of their contentment, of surgical results, of the approval of high officials and of the work which other women doctors were doing during the war, until lifelong opinions began to give way.
‘There are men who are extraordinarily prejudiced about women,’ he would say. ‘You may not have met them. But for myself I think it is a pity the R.A.M.C. should be so pig-headed.’
* * * * *
‘Has Sloggett been to see you?’ asked one Brass-hat, referring to the Director of Medical Services for the British Armies in France. ”

“ In the summer of 1919, an Education officer was added to the staff of the hospital, and a few of the men were persuaded to take classes. The first of these officers was unfortunate in having a hesitating, uncertain manner and a bad delivery, which made the men call him ‘Mr. Er-er.’ The second was very deaf. As a rule, the patients showed little desire to study anything, and only about two per cent. welcomed the scheme, on which the country was spending such enormous sums of money. Teachers in every branch of knowledge were produced. ”

“ The hospital in the Hôtel Claridge was the first effort of the Women’s Hospital Corps. It brought help to the wounded at a time when such help was greatly needed. It gave women doctors an opportunity of showing their capacity for surgery under war conditions. It was one of the outstanding pieces of work done by women in those first months of war, and it was a great success. ”

“ One afternoon, Madame Paul Boyer brought a number of them to ‘Claridge’s,’ when a free discussion took place over the coffee cups.
Although the Paris University had opened its degree to women many years before the Universities of the United Kingdom, the number of women on the register fell far below the number in England. Educational facilities were equal in Paris for men and women, but after qualification the resident posts and staff appointments were still given to men, and women could only secure very subordinate work. They were not combined in any society, as the British women are. ”

“ The hospital owed a great deal to the many artistes who so generously came again and again to amuse and interest the patients.
In the wards reserved for serious cases there were always men whose beds could not be moved to the recreation room, and these found pleasure and amusement through the electrophone installed beside their beds. Every evening men who were still suffering greatly forgot their pain for a time as they lay with the receivers fastened over their ears, listening to ‘The Bing Boys’ or other plays. ”

“ At first a little room on the Women’s floor was adapted for these ladies; but an order was shortly received to make room for women requiring to be segregated, and the little room was no longer available for general use. Small rooms on other floors were very seldom empty, and in these circumstances the only beds which could be offered to officials were those in curtained cubicles in the general ward, which were used in sickness by the Sisters of the hospital. The ladies objected to this accommodation even temporarily, and they were certainly entitled to better quarters ”

“ On the following day, the 6th of November, the hospital was ready for occupation; the plumber and gas-fitter were ejected, the pantry became an operating theatre, the greenhouse was converted into a linen room and packstore. In the evening the ambulances met the trains, and the large ward on the ground floor filled up. Before very long all the beds were occupied, and the Chief Surgeon and her two assistants were kept busy with severe cases and heavy surgery. The pressure of work continued until January; and both doctors and nurses had their hands full. ”

“ THE POSITION OF WOMEN UNDER THE WAR OFFICE In the Spring of 1916, Sir Alfred Keogh called for forty women doctors to replace men in the hospitals of Malta. It was already a well-known fact that the soldier and the woman doctor were compatibles, and the outcry which had greeted the establishment of the Military Hospital, Endell Street, was not repeated. ”

“ The French Red Cross had other hospitals in Paris, and many of these had not yet been opened. They were unwilling to close ‘Claridge’s,’ which had been very useful to both French and British troops; but they were helpless over the matter of fuel, and during the winter months the pressure of work was not very great. They regarded the hospital as their ‘meilleure installation.’ It had been a great interest and a great revelation not111 only to the officials of the Red Cross but to many people outside it, and they were reluctant to part with it. ”

“ Troops of both nations used the hospital as long as it was open, and there was no difficulty in serving both masters. Inspection by highly placed officials of both Armies was constant; and these visits were often a source of amusement to the medical staff.
Senior officers of the British Army seldom came to Paris without including the Women’s Hospital in their round of inspection. Especial care was taken to receive these gentlemen with ceremony. The Médecin-en-Chef always took them round herself, and whenever possible the Chief Surgeon assisted too. ”

“ Eventually, the hospital became one of those to which New Zealand soldiers were sent, and the wards—especially the medical wards—had many serious cases among them. In the spring of 1917, and again in 1918, a great many cases of pneumonia occurred among New Zealanders, and some of them made marvellous recoveries. These troops were very much liked in the hospital; for they had gentle, refined manners and a wide outlook, especially where women were concerned. The organisation of the New Zealand Headquarters was one of the most efficient. ”

“ They trusted the women as they would have trusted men—passing the bullets which had been extracted from their persons from bed to bed and pronouncing the surgeon to be ‘wonderfully clever!’ The more convalescent patients visited the men40 who had undergone serious operations in the wards and cheered them with reminders that they were not ‘in the hands of the R.A.M.C.’ Their enthusiasm for the hospital was delightful and encouraging. ”