The women were supported by the British Medical Association. The matter had been brought before the Naval and Military Sub-Committee, and its members had been unanimously in favour of commissioning medical women.

Although the first point was not conceded, the second was, and the new Income Tax gave women doctors relief under the Service Rate, and allowed them to claim to be refunded, as from the year 1915–16. The staff at Endell Street had learnt to look upon Surveyors and Commissioners as ‘oppressors of the poor,’ and it was with genuine satisfaction that they forwarded to these sympathetic gentlemen claims for abatement and refund.

In the autumn of 1919, an official circular letter invited the commanding officers of all units and formations to suggest ‘amendments’ to the Army Act. This gave the Doctor-in-Charge a last opportunity of pleading for equality for women and men, whether as medical officers, nursing orderlies, general service orderlies, clerks, or storekeepers. And it enabled her to propose the formation of a reserve of women organised on territorial lines and available in future emergencies.

Whether her draft ever reached the War Office, or whether it was buried in some waste-paper basket on the way, is not known.

CHAPTER VIII
CLOSURE OF THE MILITARY HOSPITAL ENDELL STREET

Government Departments tend to economise by keeping a careful watch over the salaries of their subordinate staff, and a great deal of correspondence and effort were directed to improve the conditions of pay for various groups of the women employed.

A strenuous attempt was made to obtain better terms for clerks, for the pay given to them in 1915 was not a living wage. Twenty-five shillings a week was considered enough for shorthand typists; and a colonel who was interviewed on the subject refused assistance on the ground that ‘the girls in his office got no more, and they looked alright.’ After weeks of letter writing, the pay was raised to twenty-six shillings, with overtime at ninepence an hour; and gradually it was pushed up for all grades of Government clerks. When a bonus for clerks was introduced, the men received four shillings a week and the women two shillings, although they were doing the same work. The weekly salary finally reached thirty-nine shillings and forty-five shillings, but the rate was always below that paid by civilian employers, and the Government was in the position of exploiting the patriotism and generous feeling of the women who worked for it.

The Quartermaster was graded and paid as a sergeant-major and the storekeepers as sergeants. When these officials had given two years’ service, it was requested that the Quartermaster might be promoted to a higher grade, and as this was refused because she was a ‘civilian,’ a claim was made for authority to draw the bonus for her and the sergeants to which civilian employees were entitled. After many weeks of waiting, the Doctor-in-Charge was informed that these members of the staff were not civilians. Since they were paid under Royal Warrant, they were N.C.O.’s, R.A.M.C., and were entitled to draw an additional penny a day for each year of service. Thus, instead of a bonus amounting to some shillings weekly, the Quartermaster was allowed to draw an additional 1s. 2d. per week; and a similar economy was made in respect of other members of her staff. Many months later, when the army bonus and new rates of pay were introduced, the authorities would fain have designated these officials as ‘civilians.’ But the letter calling them N.C.O.’s, R.A.M.C., was very definite, and both they and the medical officers benefited by the new rates.

The files were full of letters about inadequate pay or insufficient allowances, or requests that the staff of Endell Street might come under new rates announced in Army Council Instructions which did not specially mention that hospital. In most cases the requests were granted after long delay, and the arrears which accumulated during the period of negotiation were drawn in a lump sum, and made a pleasant impression of wealth.

A notable instance of procrastination occurred over the cooks’ pay, correspondence concerning which spread over eleven months! The cooks all had three or four years of continuous service to their credit; during that period they had not received any increment, and the bonus granted to ‘civilian subordinates’ had been refused to them. Then the rate of pay for women engaged in cleaning and in the kitchen work was raised; and the vegetable women and kitchen maids began to draw higher pay than the cooks under whom they worked. It speaks volumes for the good-feeling and loyalty of the cooks that no unpleasantness occurred over this situation; and that although readjustment was delayed month after month, everything continued to go smoothly and well. A few weeks before the hospital closed the new rate of pay was settled, and a substantial sum in arrears was available for each one.