Perhaps our C.O. will forgive me for being personal enough to refer to one of her characteristics which was greatly appreciated by all—the trust she reposed in those working under her. You were given your task, your opportunity, your department, and you went ahead with it. It was yours—your own. If you could not do it, you went. If you could, you stayed. She interfered with no details, and harassed you with no unnecessary restrictions. She took it for granted that you were carrying on in the right way and in the right spirit—and judged by results whether it were desirable that you should continue to carry on. In this way you became and remained a living part of the administration. Work and personality alike were benefited, and the young received a baptism of responsibility, destined to influence them favourably for the rest of their lives.
This is surely a great characteristic—and rare.
It is not to be wondered at that the success of this Military Hospital, officered, staffed, and run entirely by women, became a source of immense satisfaction and pride to all women, but more especially to those who had taken an active part in the struggle for the Suffrage, and had shared, with Dr. Flora Murray and Dr. Garrett Anderson, the ups and downs, the hopes and fears, the disappointments, disillusions, and encouragements, and all the stress and strain of a long-drawn-out political campaign. To these, Endell Street represented work for the country and work for the woman movement combined, and to the members of the Women’s Hospital Corps itself it meant, in addition, a double chance of service, a double devotion, a double inspiration, a double reason for carrying on with undiminished enthusiasm and faithfulness to the end.
BEATRICE HARRADEN.
4th August 1920.
CONTENTS
| PART I | |
| THE WOMEN’S HOSPITAL CORPS IN PARIS AND WIMEREUX | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| PAGE | |
| ORGANISATION OF THE WOMEN’S HOSPITAL CORPS, | [3] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| ARRIVAL IN PARIS, | [13] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| THE HOSPITAL IN THE HÔTEL CLARIDGE IS OPENED, | [24] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| FIRST DAYS IN PARIS, | [30] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| A VISIT TO BRAISNE, AND AN INSPECTION, | [43] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| THE HOSPITAL AND ITS VISITORS, | [60] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| LES DÉFENSEURS DE NOTRE PATRIE, | [74] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| THE UNIT EXPANDS, | [78] |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| THE HOSPITAL AT WIMEREUX UNDER THE R.A.M.C. IS OPENED, | [90] |
| CHAPTER X | |
| CLOSURE OF THE HOSPITAL IN THE HÔTEL CLARIDGE, | [102] |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| THE CORPS IS OFFERED A HOSPITAL IN LONDON, | [113] |
| PART II | |
| THE WOMEN’S HOSPITAL CORPS IN LONDON | |
| CHAPTER I | |
| ORGANISATION OF THE MILITARY HOSPITAL, ENDELL STREET, | [123] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| FIRST DAYS OF THE MILITARY HOSPITAL, ENDELL STREET, | [137] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| MEDICAL AND SURGICAL WORK, | [160] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| THE VISITORS—THE ENTERTAINMENTS—THE LIBRARY, | [178] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| THE WOMEN ORDERLIES, | [198] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| THOSE WHO MADE THE WHEELS GO ROUND, | [213] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| THE POSITION OF WOMEN UNDER THE WAR OFFICE, | [230] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| CLOSURE OF THE MILITARY HOSPITAL, ENDELL STREET, | [246] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| THE STAFF OF THE MILITARY HOSPITAL, ENDELL STREET, | |
| [Frontispiece] | |
| PAGE | |
| ORDERLY HODGSON IN THE UNIFORM OF THE WOMEN’S HOSPITAL CORPS, | [8] |
| A WARD IN THE HÔTEL CLARIDGE, | [9] |
| THE MORTUARY IN THE HÔTEL CLARIDGE, | [72] |
| THE MATRON OF THE MILITARY HOSPITAL, ENDELL STREET, | [73] |
| THE GATE OF THE MILITARY HOSPITAL, ENDELL STREET, AND THE TRANSPORT OFFICER—MISS M. E. HODGSON, | [120] |
| AN AUGUST BANK HOLIDAY, | [121] |
| THE OPHTHALMIC SURGEON—DR. AMY SHEPPARD, O.B.E., | [128] |
| A SURGEON—DR. WINIFRED BUCKLEY, O.B.E., | [129] |
| THE PATHOLOGIST—DR. HELEN CHAMBERS, C.B.E., | [136] |
| SEARCHING FOR PROTOZOA IN THE LABORATORY, | [137] |
| THE CHIEF SURGEON WITH GARRETT AND WILLIAM, | [144] |
| THE DOCTOR-IN-CHARGE SEES MEN IN HER OFFICE, | [145] |
| IN THE OPERATING THEATRE, | [168] |
| AN INSPECTION IN THE DENTAL ROOM, | [169] |
| IN THE LIBRARY, | [192] |
| ORDERLIES IN PROCESSION GOING TO BUCKINGHAM PALACE, | [193] |
| STRETCHER BEARERS AND SERGEANT-MAJOR HARRIS, | [216] |
| QUARTERMASTER CAMPBELL AND ORDERLY COOK MAKE PLASTER PYLONS, | [217] |
| THE CHIEF COMPOUNDER IN THE DISPENSARY, | [232] |
| THE CHIEF CLERK IN THE OFFICE, | [233] |
| AIRING LINEN, | [248] |
| HOSING THE SQUARE, | [249] |