WAR WORK & ITS LESSONS

BY DAME KATHARINE FURSE, G.B.E., DIRECTOR W.R.N.S.

My war work began in 1910 when I joined the V.A.D.'s. A great many of my friends laughed at me for being so enthusiastic and wasting so much time preparing for an improbable war. I worked with a very keen set of V.A.D.'s in London, and we devoted the whole of our time in learning all we could, not only of the theory of nursing, but also to hygiene, sanitation, cooking, and laundry work, as well as to drill, camp life, and army organisation. We also studied Red Cross organisation in Italy and France, and we read all we could about the International Red Cross Society and Red Cross works in countries such as Switzerland, Japan and Germany.

Those four years of serious training before the war prepared us for the real thing when war broke out, and on the 4th August, 1914, I went to the Central Red Cross office and helped to cope with the immense flood of willing and impetuous but untrained people who offered their services. There was no work for the untrained at the beginning of the war, and all we could do was to urge women to train in some subject, it did not matter what. The chief thing seemed to be to induce people to calm down and to prevent the sort of hysterical excitement which was spreading rapidly.

When war broke out there were some 54,000 V.A.D.'s already organised, but the Government saw no way of using them. We waited patiently, and in September, 1914, I was sent over to France to see Sir Alfred Keogh, then Commissioner to the Joint Committee of the Red Cross and St. John.

He held out hopes of V.A.D. 's being used to form rest stations on the lines of communication, and instructed me to prepare a scheme, which I did. In October the order suddenly came to take some twenty V.A.D. 's to Paris. By the time we got there, the battlefront had moved, and we were ordered to Boulogne. It was a strange journey from Paris to Boulogne through the "back of the front." When we reached Boulogne the wounded were beginning to come, but the hospitals with their staffs had not yet been completely set up. The V.A.D.'s were seized upon to help, and worked hard for three days doing anything which tended to alleviate the suffering and to assist the few nurses available.

Then as the hospital staffs arrived, the V.A.D.'s were sent to their own job. My orders were to find accommodation at the Central Station, and then set up a rest station. Not a room could we find within reach of the trains, but at last a kindly railway transport officer offered us three trucks on a siding. These we accepted and eagerly set to work to fit them up. Before we had really settled in, the wounded were pouring down from those early battles at and around Ypres.

One day alone some 3,000 seriously wounded men passed through our hands, two trains full having wandered in unexpectedly on their way to a hospital base further south. Their wounds had not been dressed since they left the front, and they were dripping with blood and in a most pitiable condition.

Luxurious hospital trains did not exist in those days and the men were thankful to get to the base lying on straw in cattle trucks, or any other wagon available. Our V.A.D. rest station really filled a gap, and the fact that the V.A.D.'s had been trained to improvise things and to make the best use of whatever came to hand, really saved the situation.

We had no proper stoves fitted, and I shall never forget the difficulty of inducing two or three primus stoves to boil sufficient water to keep three trained nurses going with lotions and to provide cocoa, tea, or whatever was wanted to feed these 3,000 men during the whole day. Our cooks achieved the impossible, however, and many a limb and even life was saved. Another great difficulty was destroying the soiled dressings. Great wads of soaked cotton wool which needed a bonfire to consume them. Willing hands helped and French engine-drivers allowed us to "souvenir" coal, and the bonfire was made in the station yard. War teaches us that all possible sources of infections must be got rid of at once, and a knowledge of sanitation and hygiene is the most important, if one wishes to be helpful near the front.

After that awful day the military authorities realised the use of the V.A.D.'s in France, and everything was done to make the rest station a success. We were given five more trucks and a party of men orderlies, and stores of coca and condensed milk, disinfectants, and dressings of all sorts. Stoves were fitted in the trucks, and a row of boilers set up in the station yard, and we settled down to routine work, meeting all ambulance trains, and providing whatever was necessary, not only for the sick and wounded, but also for the surgeons, nurses, and orderlies, who staffed the trains and hospitals.

The V.A.D. tradition had always been to prepare to help wherever help was needed. It had been impressed upon us that we were in no way trained. Our object was to fill gaps for which trained and expert people could not be spared. It was our duty therefore to make things easier for the trained people, and the rest station gained the reputation for giving a welcome to all who needed it.

Sisters and medical officers would leave their luggage with us, or ask us to get their washing done for them. The local French people would bring their small ailments to us. Even their donkeys would come for treatment.

The relatives of men who were dangerously ill would put in their lonely dreary hours with us, helping to cut bread and butter for the trains. At Christmas time we gave thousands of small presents to the sick and wounded passing through - men who had missed Christmas at the front, and were too late for festivities at the hospitals. These Christmas presents went along the trains in carts with little Christmas tress to decorate them and many a smile greeted us.

At Easter time the V.A.D.'s lined the grave trenches with daffodils, and they tended the filled in graves and laid flowers on them sent by relatives who knew they could trust the V.A.D. 's. No one was ever refused a helping hand, and if there was an accident on the railway, the V.A.D.'s would be first on the spot. Day and night they were always on duty, and their rest station became known as a bit of home "over there." Many a trivial but tiresome bit of work was saved to the hospitals. For instance, the V.A.D. ambulance would go out to the sand dunes and bring in tubs of sand, which had to be dried carefully, and was then poured into sand bags for hospital use. Sisters would come round during those busy days, and leave bits of work for the V.A.D.'s to do, and though we pretended to grumble, we were really very proud that every one should take for granted that the V.A.D. 's enjoyed doing all the odd jobs.

In January, 1915, I was asked to go home to set up the V.A.D. department, which eventually had headquarters at Devonshire House. Dame Rachel Crowdy took over the V.A.D. 's at Boulogne, where they had so nobly kept up the V.A.D. reputation for being "willing to do anything" that their help was asked for throughout France. They not only staffed rest stations, but under Dame Rachel Crowdy their sphere of work extended to hospitals, motor convoys, clubs for nurses, and every other type of work where keen, enthusiastic and unselfish women could be helpful.

Meanwhile at Devonshire House we were very busy selecting and appointing V.A.D.'s to assist the trained nurses in naval and military hospitals.

Later we were asked to provide cooks, clerks, and other V.A.D. 's who could replace men in any suitable form of employment.

The V.A.D. 's never failed. They gave their ungrudging help in every direction under any sort of conditions. It was difficult to induce the authorities to provide all one knew to be necessary for their well-being and content, and in 1917 the responsibility became more than we could face conscientiously, and after much sorrow a large number of the staff resigned.

During the four days following my resignation, I was offered four other appointments by four separate Government departments. Needless to say, the Admiralty offer, which included most of the devoted staff who had worked with me at Devonshire House, attracted me most, and the Women's Royal Naval Service quickly became a living organisation. A few days after I had accepted this appointment, I was offered the organisation of women to work with the Royal Air Force, but having no wish to transfer, even though a big motor-car to be attached for my own use was held out to me as a bribe (!) I refused.

The "Wrens" know the rest. You know what a wonderful chance the Admiralty gave us and the generous way in which the Navy accepted us. You all realise as well as I do the tremendous honour afforded to us in being allowed to serve with the Navy. It will be one of the greatest regrets of my life that we may not continue in the W.R.N.S., but there is no room for women in the Navy in peace time. We hope to maintain some form of Reserve and will publish particulars of this in the future, so that all demobilised members may join up again if they like to.

Before stopping, I want to impress two facts on you all. Firstly, the value of preparation, and, secondly, our responsibility. If some of us had not been ready when war broke out, women would not have had such a real chance of helping to win the war.

I have written fully about the early V.A.D. days, because the W.R.N.S., as well as other Women's Services, has gained tremendously by having drawn many of its members from that organisation. The traditions of the V.A.D. 's helped the new Services to start, and the knowledge and experience gained before and during the first three years of the war, tended to promptness and more efficient organisation than would have been possible had we had no foundation to build upon.

And now our responsibility is to the future. Those of us who have helped to win the war must not rest on our laurels. We must go on and help tidy up the world, and we must teach our children to keep it tidy. A serious time is ahead, and we women must keep level heads, and fight the dangers of restlessness, discontent, and irresponsibility, and we must help all those around us to settle down.

It will need a lot of unselfishness, good humour, and self-control – qualities we have learnt to respect and appreciate during our war work. Remember that though we may have won the war against Germany, we have still to win it against what may prove to be very real dangers to our country in the future.

I can never be grateful enough to every member of the W.R.N.S., who has so loyally endeavoured  to build up what we can proudly look back upon as one of the finest women’s organisations in existence. The gratitude of the Admiralty has been expressed to us in words, and we may all feel happy in the knowledge that we have done our best under the best possible conditions, to help the Navy to help the Navy to win the war, and that our help has been appreciated, and will never be forgotten.   

KATHARINE FURSE.