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.