Work in a base hospital is perhaps the most unselfish of all hospital work to-day. There is none of the excitement and constant change of the work nearer to the front; day by day the routine of the wards goes on, unceasing in its calls on body and mind, unending in its responsibility, demanding and receiving in its fulfilment the best that women know how to give.
Colonel Bruce Porter paid his women workers a well-earned compliment when he reported recently: “Since the early days of the war the standard of nursing and care of the wards has been maintained by means of the loyalty of the reduced staff to their chiefs, and the whole of the women here have been and are magnificent. To keep this big crowd of women workers at their best could only be done by a woman of exceptional ability, and I am fortunate in having that type of woman as my matron.”
MRS. GASKELL, C.B.E.
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XIX
MRS. GASKELL, C.B.E., AND THE HON. MRS. ANSTRUTHER
The supply of literature to our soldiers has been an undertaking of gigantic proportions. It was a woman who in the first few days of war had the insight and imagination to realise the part that books would play in the soldiers’ lives, and the organisations for their supply which have grown up to keep pace with the ever-increasing demand have been carried on almost entirely by women workers. The collection and distribution of books to the troops is now undertaken mainly by four organisations. The Camps Library works under the War Office to supply the troops quartered both at home and in every theatre of war abroad. The War Library of the Joint Societies of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John supplies the sick and wounded soldiers in hospitals, hospital trains, and hospital ships. The Chamber of Commerce supplies the Grand Fleet, and the British and Foreign Sailors’ Society sends to the merchant ships and smaller ships.
The need for books in hospitals speaks for itself, while for our fighting men reading is often the only form of recreation. In the various theatres of war abroad they are entirely dependent for reading matter on what may be sent to them from home. The need for light literature and fiction is endless, to turn their thoughts from the horror or the monotony of war.
The ways in which the books are obtained are many and varied. After some months of war, the question of keeping up the supply for distribution by the libraries became a momentous one. At first the newspaper appeals brought in many thousands of volumes, financial contributions for buying books were sent, and generous gifts were received from publishers. But these supplies could not continue indefinitely on a sufficiently large scale. A wonderful solution to the problem came in August, 1915.