Privately sponsored medical facilities led by women on Western Front W

[catfishmo]

Were there private medical facilities on the Western Front that worked in conjunction with British War Office/RAMC and served British soldiers?

One of the first accounts I read of a medical facility on the Front was a riveting tale told by a young British reporter at a convent-turned voluntary hospital in Belgium early in the war. A young Belgian Lieutenant as commander, an Italian lady 'quartermaster', an American journalist "named Gleeson, who had put aside his pen for a while to do manual work in fields of agony...", a good-natured young doctor "who told preposterous jokes", and the author were part of the colorful crew.

[The account I read was an except from the free downloadable book Soul of War.]

I am researching WW1 in preparation to write a Pride & Prejudice spin off novel set during The Great War. This sort of rag-tag setting was perfect for what I had in mind. Little did I know then that this was not a typical British medical facility close to the trenches.

One of my next books was The Little Grey Partidge about a woman who accompanied Dr. Elsie Inglis to Serbia as a cook. Funded by the women's suffrage movement with the express aim of providing all female staffed relief hospitals for the Allied war effort, the female team went to Serbia because the Serbian government welcomed them with open arms. Apparently a British War Office Official had this to say when Dr. Elsie Inglis proposed sending a field hospital totally staffed by women to the battle front: "My good lady, go home and sit still." {citation} No doubt his reply was in response to her being a female, but this disdain for non-military care seemed to be the order of the day.

I recently finished Nurses on the Front. Mary Bordon was an American married to a Brit and living in London. She left her young children in England to help at a typhoid hospital near Dunkirk. She soon wanted to create and fund a surgical hospital of her own at the Front. Her dream for a 100 bed facility became a reality by partnering with the French, who provided the chief medical officer, surgeons, NCO's and orderlies. She brought in American and British nurses.[pg xvi] It strikes me as odd that she, a 'Brit' partnered with the French. Perhaps another hint that this sort of philanthropic undertaking was unwelcomed by the British.

In fact, as I've read more and more, I haven't seen a single account of a private medical facility on the Western Front dedicated to serving British soldiers. However, today I came across an account which though at first the RAMC scorned her, later, though it doesn't say the British partnered with her, at least they were a bit more warm-hearted towards her, and Brits were served.

Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland, a British lady, partnered with the French Red Cross and Belgians. This is the quote that caught my attention:

"Pausing briefly to write Six Weeks at the War, a vivid, fund-raising account published both by The Times and, significantly, in the U.S.A, and to enrol Winston Churchill’s support in overcoming entrenched Royal Army Medical Corps opposition to her plans,..." Looks pretty clear that the old British guard wanted nothing to do with these kinds of private endeavors. But then I read this:

"Following the closure of the tented hospital on 22nd September the Millicent Sutherland Ambulance was moved to wooden huts among the sand dunes at Calais. From 15th October it became ‘No.9 Red Cross Hospital (Millicent Sutherland Ambulance)’. There it nursed British rather than French or Belgian soldiers. Sutherland’s Red Cross status and the excellent work she had done for the French enabled them [not sure who 'them' is] to agree the British request that she should transfer her services to the British troops in the area. Despite the increasing presence of the British, Calais was not yet recognised by the French as a British Military base and no official British army hospitals could be established there."

Not sure if that means she transferred the equipment and management to British or whether she kept a degree of managerial control. In any case, hunting around a bit more for info, I came across a post from none other than expert Sue Light regarding the Millicent Sutherland Ambulance on this very forum:

"Following the nursing fiasco in South Africa, the British Government had decided that, in case of another war, they would never allow a situation to develop whereby well off and titled 'society' women were allowed to use their wealth and influence to give half-baked nursing care to British soldiers.

The Duchess of Sutherland dressed herself up as a Red Cross nurse, titled herself 'Sister Millicent', and sailed for France during the first few days of the War with a group of nurses [unpaid] whose training would not have secured them jobs with the British military nursing services. The French didn't want her, the Belgians didn't know what to do with her, and luckily the Germans managed to push her back to England via Holland. When she returned to France it was under the tight control and organisation of the British Red Cross Society, supervising a hospital staffed by properly trained medical and nursing personnel. Rumour has it that she used her organising talents to good effect for the remainder of the war, but never as a nurse."

So there you have it. It seems there were no privately run British medical facilities on the Front. A bad past experience makes it understandable why the RAMC was in such opposition. However, a Wikipedia article hinted at why these ladies so often partnered with the French. The French had..."a catastrophic shortage of military hospital beds and trained nurses."

I had hoped this thread would spark an interesting discussion with perhaps someone unearthing evidence that indeed there were private Casualty Clearing Station type hospitals on the Front with a cast of interesting characters managed by a mad-hatter society hostess, but I see now it is not to be. At least now the mystery for me is solved.

[BJanman]

So there you have it. It seems there were no privately run British medical facilities on the Front. A bad past experience makes it understandable why the RAMC was in such opposition.

The RAMC were under a lot of pressure at the start of the war. The medical units had mobilized but in an effort to get the troops to the front a vast number of the medical units had to step aside to let the troops through. This meant that some of the brigades were without medical cover during the Battle of Mons and the field ambulances who were there had to split into sections, with one section doing the work of three sections. During the Retreat there wasn’t many places the wounded who were too ill to travel could be left and so small sections of RAMC personnel were staying behind and being taken prisoner, meaning the personnel was gradually being thinned out. Not all the clearing hospitals hadn’t fully formed and the base hospitals were being moved from pillar to post in order to try and keep them in line with the front line troops who were on the march in retreat. It was no wonder that those at the top were uninterested in voluntary aid being sent up to the front lines - they were having a bad enough time keeping track of their own units.

The Medical Official History advises about voluntary aid being sent over at the time, and these were with the approval of the War Officer. The BRCS wanted to set up hospitals but at the time it was felt that they would be helping more if they set up stores for supplies, which they did. On 28th August the War Office informed that Mrs Depew would be arriving to set up a voluntary hospital at a chateau, near Compiegne - I haven’t looked into this further so do not know if this hospital treated the French or the British.

There were private hospitals set up later, which were officially recognised after the war. I have a list but no further details. They were not all on the Western Front but I can name two - Lady Guernsey at Fecamp and Lady Fionne’s Hospital, Dunkirk.

I can understand why the RAMC would not want voluntary aid close to the front lines. It would be a bit like you and me turning up with our mates from the shooting club offering to shot Germans - we would get in the way!

Regards

Barbara

[kjharris]

Dear Catfishmo

I wonder whether the Australian Voluntary Hospital would qualify for your purposes?

Fully trained doctors and nurses, nearly all Australians (who were actually British subjects) went out to France from the UK in August 1914. The hospital was sponsored by Lady Dudley.

Lady Dudley decide to raise a voluntary hospital to be staffed by Australian medical officers and nurses visiting or resident in England, and William Eames was appointed to command it, with the temporary rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps. The matron was Ida Greaves. By 29 August the Australian Voluntary Hospital was in France and on 5 September it opened at St Nazaire, near Boulogne, where it soon had a capacity of over 1000 beds, and at a later stage, 2000. Admirable pioneering medical work was done by this unit which was well equipped and maintained a high standard of efficiency.

Two newspaper excerpts for you:

In October [1914] the British Expeditionary Army moved northward, and Boulogne replaced St. Nazaire as a base. The site allotted there to the Australian Hospital was at Wimereux, where it established itself in a large hotel overlooking the sea, flanked by a tented annexe. The staff and personnel were accommodated in two adjoining buildings and the golf club house. Within twenty-four hours of the arrival of the unit at this new base every bed was full, and for weeks following the work was heavy and continuous during the desperate fighting maintained round Ypres and along the Yaer through October and November.[1]

This hospital, which began its active work during the second week of the war, is the only Australian unit attached to the British army in France.[2]

Neil Smith has written a booklet about the hospital

http://mostlyunsung.com.au/?page_id=75

Photos of the hospital here:

http://huntervalleygreatwarnurses.com/2013/09/17/a-matrons-smile-ida-greaves-of-the-australian-voluntary-hospital/

cheers

Kirsty

[1] Lady Dudley, ‘Australian Hospital’ in The Argus, 23 Sep 1915, p 5.

[2] Lady Dudley, ‘Australian Hospital’ in The Argus, 23 Sep 1915, p 5.

[catfishmo]

Someone else on another thread had mentioned Lady Dudley but from what I could tell, it appeared it was a hospital chiefly for Australians. I also noticed that these type private hospitals, whomever they served, seemed to be at the beginning of the war and were often swallowed up later by the RAMC.

[kjharris]

Hi again,

There were no Australian troops in France in 1914 or 1915 so it definitely wasn't opened for them! It was opened to care for British soldiers.

You are correct, the hospital was eventually taken over by the British Army and in 1916 became 32BSH.

cheers Kirsty

[catfishmo]

Hi again,

There were no Australian troops in France in 1914 or 1915 so it definitely wasn't opened for them! It was opened to care for British soldiers.

You are correct, the hospital was eventually taken over by the British Army and in 1916 became 32BSH.

cheers Kirsty

Very interesting. Yes, that does shed a new light on things! I dug around a bit here (see quote below) and found that it appears they did serve the British Tommies! That doesn't seem to jive with the RAMC's policy of not allowing private hospitals. Perhaps this one was excluded from the ban and it clearly was staffed with medical professionals.

"First of all tlie hospital staff feed them, then their wounds are attended to, and afterwards, as soon as possible, they are taken to a hospital ship for conveyance to England. Their pleasure and gratitude for tlie care bestowed on them is, says Miss Dow, most touching. The soldier who is refreshed with food, given a clean pair of socks and soft slippers, after not having his heavy boots off for perhaps a fortnight, almost forgets his injuries in the delight of being washed again and for a moment at his ease.

The more the nurses and doctors see of the British Army, officers and privatcs alike, The more proud do they feel of them and the more happy in the privilege of being able to serve them. Wherever the Tomniies go they are singing." Apparently this is from British Journal of Nursing Vo 3, 3rd Oct 1914 (p264) Australian Nurses at the Front.

[MaureenE]

There was a book mentioned in another Forum thread

Washington Post book review

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/10/AR2010061004990.html

Cheers

Maureen

 

[SiegeGunner]

Apparently a British War Office Official had this to say when Dr. Elsie Inglis proposed sending a field hospital totally staffed by women to the battle front: "My good lady, go home and sit still." {citation} No doubt his reply was in response to her being a female, but this disdain for non-military care seemed to be the order of the day.

I have recently been translating material relating to the international relief effort during the Serbian typhus epidemic, and in documents I have translated and others in English that I have read as background, all written by senior military medical personnel 'in the field' (Colonel Hunter, for example), Dr Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Womens Hospitals mission and Dr Alice Hutchinson and her unit are spoken of as professional equals and valued and trusted members of the international 'team'.

The British military medical mission was charged initially with assessing the situation and developing a strategy for containing and controlling the spread of the disease, rather than providing hospital services per se. During one inspection visit to a small hospital, a group of senior military medics encountered a tiny Russian woman doctor, who had been working entirely alone, under appalling conditions, for several months, and recounted how they felt admiration and shame in equal measures, and promptly rolled up their sleeves and pitched in to help her. Later, she herself contracted typhus and the same military medical colleagues recorded with evident pride that they had fought for the life of this remarkable little woman 'and won'.

[catfishmo]

... Dr Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Womens Hospitals mission and Dr Alice Hutchinson and her unit are spoken of as professional equals and valued and trusted members of the international 'team'.

Do you have an approximate date for this? I would guess it was at least 1916 or later--if so, that would make sense to me. In all my reading, it seemed that whenever women were suggested to lend a hand (nurses overseas, ambulance drivers, etc), the knee-jerk response was a guffaw followed by words to the effect that, "that's a man's job." But when the men had no choice but to accept the help of women and got used to it, they were overall pleased with the job the ladies did. In researching telegraph, I saw some quote to the effect that a man in leadership of some telegraph office thought it would take two women to do the job of one man. Later he confessed a woman could do the work of two men : )

[SiegeGunner]

1915.

[CarylW]

On 07/04/2014 at 09:41, BJay said:

The RAMC were under a lot of pressure at the start of the war. The medical units had mobilized but in an effort to get the troops to the front a vast number ....... On 28th August the War Office informed that Mrs Depew would be arriving to set up a voluntary hospital at a chateau, near Compiegne - I havent looked into this further so do not know if this hospital treated the French or the British.

......

Funnily enough, I came across a mention of this hospital in a book I was reading, so looked it up a bit just out of interest.

Mr and Mrs C Mitchell Depew Allied hospital at their Chateau D'Annel Longueil- Annel fourteen kilometres from Compeigne

Mrs Depew, an American citizen and a close friend of General Joffre raised some money for the hospital with appeals published in the New York Times. There are a couple of interesting articles about the hospital that were published in the New York Times and downloadable from the links below as PDF files

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1061EFE3A5A12738FDDAD0A94D9405B858DF1D3

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F6081FFD3B55157A93CBAB178FD85F438185F9

There is also a large interesting article with photos that was published in the New York Herald. It's online as a PDF but I can't copy the link but if you Google Mrs Depew chateau, it'll come up in the results.

There's only one thread on the forum that mentions the hospital here:

 

Norman Gooding posted the following:

'Longeuil-Annel. Departement de l'Oise.

Allies Anglo-French Hospital. Founded August 1914 by Mr. & Mrs. Chauncey Mitchell Depew. American and British subscribers and staff. 110 beds.

This was in a chateau owned by the Americans just north of Compiegne. Staff obtained through the British Red Cross.

Source: For Dauntless France by Laurence Binyon '

There are also a few photos in the IWM archive.

[BJanman]

Thanks CarylW for posting the links above. I agree they are interesting articles. I hadn't come across anything other than what was in the Medical Official History so am really interested to read a little about the work they did.

Cheers

Barbara