British VAD Photo Album

[Antonia G]

Bob Cleary's fantastic photographs have inspired me to get on with a project I've been sitting on for far too long.

My great-aunt, Helena R Galloway, served as a VAD with the British Red Cross during WWI, mostly at Lady Murray's hospital in Le Treport. She was born in 1875, so no spring chicken at the outbreak of war, and died a few months short of her 100th birthday. I hardly remember her, but was lucky enough to inherit her photograph album from that period which I'm hoping will be of interest to this forum. The photos range from official group shots to her own trusty Box Brownie (or whatever), and fortunately she was pretty good at noting who was who. There are also poems (showing a typically black sense of humour!), cartoons and a few other items such as menus and price lists.

I have started uploading scans of the album onto my "Antonia G1" photostream at www.flickr.com . The page images are numbered in the order they appear in the album, and begin with (I assume) her training at The Warren convalescent hospital in Leamington Spa before moving on to Lady Murray's hospital at Le Treport.

Please bear with me - the album is bigger than my scanner so most pages have to be scanned twice and then 'stitched' together. This is a rather delicate operation as the album itself is beginning to fall apart and I don't want to risk further damage. There are about 28 pages to go but I'll work through them and refresh this post as I add new ones. I haven't done any enhancement or retouching as yet, just thought it was high time I put my contribution on here as I have gained so much information (and entertainment) from this site myself. The files on flickr have been reduced to be suitable for online viewing but I do have the higher res. files and will be happy to share (in some way - not very familiar with this area of technology) if you see something you're particularly interested in.

I do hope this is of interest & use, all comments will be very welcome.

Antonia

[Simon Jones]

Hi Antonia

Are you able to post a link to the album itself?

thanks

Simon

[Antonia G]

Hi Simon

That might be challenging my technical abilities a bit too far, but I'll try: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52365582@N07/sets/72157624578369208/

Otherwise search for Antonia G1 on People, on the flickr site.

Antonia

[Simon Jones]

Many thanks Antonia

The link worked. Wonderful photos!

Simon

[Jim Strawbridge]

The group photo shows a name which jumped out at me - Ida K. Whitehead. She is one of my casualty ladies - Order of St.John/British Red Cross Society. I know nothing about her other than her name is on the York Minster panels. If Sue Light drops in here I should like her to let me know whether there is any way to identify which of the ladies shown is Ida. I assume that the women with a red cross on their bibs are BRCS and the others will be regular or civilian nurses. Would Lady Murray be the BRCS lady centre front? If so, then Ida would be one of the two nurses back row right. Yes?

later. Thinking that she was at Le Treport I did a search of the MICs as she should have received medals. What comes up is 48449 Worker Ida K. Whitehead, QMAAC. Not a common name but QMAAC is not BRCS. I haven't pulled the full MIC down and if anyone has access to front and back of MICs I should like to know if anything shows that helps sort this one out.

[Antonia G]

Hallo Jim - On looking at that group photo again (yes, Lady Murray is centre front row), I'm not sure Ida Whitehead is actually in it (unless she's the one hiding behind the dog) although her signature is one of those around the picture. Ida appears in several other photos (in at least one is clearly labelled as Sister Whitehead): attached quick scan may help?

Antonia

[Jim Strawbridge]

Different dog but I think that you may be right. Cannot see the bib clearly to see if there is a Red Cross. Or I may be wrong and BRCD personel did not necessarily get differentiated in this way. Where is Sue Light when we need her? Or Norman. Only joking, Sue. But I am out of my depth.

[Sue Light]

Hallo Antonia (and Jim)

Thank you for posting the photos - it's been a lucky time recently with so many great images on show. I will contact you off-list as there is one image that I would love a copy of, though I'm sure the very last one you'd imagine.

When I first read Jim's email this morning, wondering if I was going to 'drop in,' I was walking over the cliffs at Seaford Head, 250ft up, looking out to Seven Sisters and Beachy Head, so 'dropping in' was something I was trying hard to avoid.

The photo shows a mixed group mainly made up of British Red Cross Society trained nurses and VADs. The trained nurses are the ones in the slightly darker dresses, large 'army-style' hats and dark belts and buckles; the VADs in lighter dresses with handerkerchief-style hats tied at the back. The presence/absence of a red cross on the VAD aprons is not necessarily of any importance. As the war progressed red material was in rather short supply, so maybe less of them later in the war. The photo must have been taken after June 1916 as prior to that Lady Murray's Hospital was privately funded and caring for the French; when the French left the area in May '16 she asked for the hospital to be taken over by the BRCS, and it continued until December 1918 as No.10 BRCS Hospital.

So Ida Kate Whitehead was a BRCS Nursing Sister, and this is borne out by her entry in the British Red Cross Register of Overseas Volunteers. I suspect from the hair colour and style that she is the nurse half-hidden by the dog. I'm sure the medal index card is hers, but wrongly indexed. I've come across quite a few that give trained nurses as QMAAC or something odd, and when you look at the card itself, it's entirely different. The BRCS Archives should have a service card for her.

Regards --- Sue

[Antonia G]

6 more scans added: a mix of off-duty moments (including tennis and some sort of fancy dress!) and the first of the identifiable patients. As before, to be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52365582@N07/sets/72157624578369208/

Sue, Jim - apologies, I have not been able to get my emails to get through to you tonight, will try to send again as soon as possible!

Antonia

[Jim Strawbridge]

So Ida Kate Whitehead was a BRCS Nursing Sister, and this is borne out by her entry in the British Red Cross Register of Overseas Volunteers. I suspect from the hair colour and style that she is the nurse half-hidden by the dog. I'm sure the medal index card is hers, but wrongly indexed. I've come across quite a few that give trained nurses as QMAAC or something odd, and when you look at the card itself, it's entirely different. The BRCS Archives should have a service card for her.

I cannot see how the MIC can have wrong information as VADs did not have service numbers or rank for the medals. The rank of Worker and a service number is totally correct for a QMAAC. Curioser and curioser.

[Carmania]

Ida K Whitehead's name does not appear amongst those listed in a Nominal Roll of Deceased Officials and Members of QMAAC, neither does anyone with the number 48449.

Aled

[Sue Light]

I cannot see how the MIC can have wrong information as VADs did not have service numbers or rank for the medals. The rank of Worker and a service number is totally correct for a QMAAC. Curioser and curioser.

I will try to be clearer in future! I'm sure the card is fine, with the correct details. It's the online indexing that's wrong - it's showing one name, and someone else's details against the entry. Those details probably relate to someone else on the same sheet.

Sue

[Jim Strawbridge]

Sorry, Sue. I think that I understand what you are saying. Sight of the MIC will show that the index has tagged someone else. Now need to have sight of the MIC.

[apwright]

Jim,

Ancestry doesn't have ladies' MICs (only MiD cards for females, as far as I can see), so your only option is to fork out for the one-sided TNA scan.

Adrian

[Sue Light]

I was interested to notice on the 'Lennie's Leaving' page that Lady Amy Gordon-Lennox was the one responsible not for nursing or any administrative duties, but for the shopping and cleaning. Born in 1894 I bet she didn't know much about either before the war. It certainly says something about the calibre of the VADs at the hospital - not an unusual circumstance, but a good example of the service of aristorcratic young women of the time. There were a number of Gordon-Lennox women in France, notably Lady Blanche Gordon-Lennox and her daughter Ivy, who managed the chain of Princess Victoria Clubs for Nurses on behalf of HRH Princess Victoria. They must have been cousins removed to Amy as descended from the 6th Duke of Richmond.

Sue

[Terry_Reeves]

There is a MID card for her on Ancestry: London Gazette 24.12.17 page 13488

TR

[Sue Light]

I had a look at the medal index card for Ida Whitehead yesterday. As suspected her card is correct but the indexing is wrong. She is given as 'Sister' (i.e. a trained nurse) with the French Red Cross/British Red Cross Society and a date of entry of 31/7/15. The details that come up on accessing the card details on DocumentsOnline relate to the card above hers on the sheet, a Helen Whitehead, QMAAC.

Sue

[Jim Strawbridge]

I had a look at the medal index card for Ida Whitehead yesterday. As suspected her card is correct but the indexing is wrong. She is given as 'Sister' (i.e. a trained nurse) with the French Red Cross/British Red Cross Society and a date of entry of 31/7/15. The details that come up on accessing the card details on DocumentsOnline relate to the card above hers on the sheet, a Helen Whitehead, QMAAC.

Sue

I, for one, am very grateful to you for going to the bother of looking to solve this anomoly.

[Antonia G]

Sue, many thanks for taking the trouble to look up Ida Whitehead - it's fascinating to put some background to the faces and amazing how much we can find out after so much time.

I've added another six pages, with notes of those named, to . The album is of more general interest from here on, I think, as there are more names noted (but with a few inconsistencies - although I think my great-aunt could have had it with her during the war as several pages have been autographed, it's possible some of the names were added some time later). There's a mix of private and offical photos, the latter particularly of ambulances and, sadly, funerals.

There's also 10 Wounded Officers - a very black humour poem! I'm hoping that at least some of the officers' fates were supposed to be a joke ... the text is here: https://docs.google....uthkey=CMve_ccF.

[Guest]

I will try to be clearer in future! I'm sure the card is fine, with the correct details. It's the online indexing that's wrong - it's showing one name, and someone else's details against the entry. Those details probably relate to someone else on the same sheet.

Sue

I have seen Helen M. Whiteheads medals, they are still in their original box. The medals and box are clearly marked 48449 WKR. H.M.WHITEHEAD Q.M.A.A.C. so on line indexing incorrect.

Mick.

[Sue Light]

No, the indexing is not right - the query was about the medal index card of Ida Whitehead - the online index gives her details as WKR. 48449 QMAAC, which I believe refer to Helen Whitehead, and Helen M. Whitehead is given online as Forewoman 21893 QMAAC, so there do seem to be substantial problems with that sheet.

Sue

[keithmroberts]

I have only just seen this thread. What a fantastic set of photographs.

Keith

[petestarling]

What a fantstic album. How many more of them are hidden away out there??

Pete

[Kate Wills]

Wonderful album Antonia. An album relating to the Warren Hospital is held in the Warwickshire archives:

Date: 1916 - 1920 (c.)

Description:

A green hard cover photograph album

165mm x 145 mm

The album contains black and white photographs, some of them relating to 'The Warren' Hospital, Leamington Spa. The word 'PHOTOGRAPHS' is printed in gold lettering on the front cover.

This album belonged to Dorothy Burbury who worked at 'The Warren' as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse during World War One. The photographs are mounted on brown card pages and are dated between 1916 and 1920. They depict nurses in uniform, patients, soldiers and warships.

Windows on Warwickshire

[Guest]

What a lovely and fascinating album which I have only just come across. I am especially interested in it as my great uncle Ralph Kite ("RBK") died in Lady Murray's hospital on 10 December 1916 having been mortally wounded in the battle of Beaumont Hamel on 13 November 1916. Although there is no photo of him his is one of two obituaries pasted in to the album. It is also possibly a photo of his burial shown immediately above the obituary. Perhaps Antonia will be able to clarify this. Certainly he is buried against the wall roughly where the burial appears to be taking place. His parents attended the funeral although his mother did not enter the cemetry. We have photos of the funeral cortège coming down the road from the hospital and the burial itself. His parents had crossed the Channel to the hospital when they thought he was recovering but shortly after they left he haemorrhaged due to shell shard which had not been spotted under his arm there being no X-rays in the hospital. We have several letters from Lady Murray and other nurses including Marion Streatfield,Florence Jones,Alice Batt and Agnes  Midgely as well as from fellow officer casualties including Major Lyell ( with whom RBK shared a room) and Captain Burdon Evans. RBK seems to have had a soft spot for Marion  Streatfield to whom he gave flowers and there is a touching thank you letter. Marion went on to marry one of her patients in 1921 Sydney Middleton DSO OBE who was a Aussie hero who had played rugby union and rowed for Australia as well as getting a gold medal for rugby in the 1908 Olympics and a silver for rowing in the 1912 Olympics beside winning the Grand Challenge at Henley.

One of the nurses at Lady Murrays Alice Batt wrote in her diary following RBK's death as follows:-

" The last few nights have been wearing and something of a strain, with two very ill patients on this floor. And now tonight we all feel very sad, as the nicest patient, a young captain in the OBLI( Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry), died this afternoon. He was a dear, so courteous and patient; it was real joy to do anything for him- ' A very parfit,gentil knight'. The last few nights he's been frightfully I'll and one knew there was little hope. He had a deep shrapnel wound in the right arm, and after the piece was removed had two bad attacks of haemorrhage within a few days. His parents, it is for them, not him,one feels such awful pity, arrived in time to see him which was something. He was an only son. Tonight feels very blank without him to look after. Sister used to sit with him most of the night, leaving other patients to me, and then I took my turn to relieve her.Considering what fearful loss of blood he's had, he held his own wilfully really. But last night sitting there , we felt that death could not be far off, and had the feeling that his spirit was becoming remote, and in spite of the wonderful skill of the doctors and nursing, nothing could keep him back from ' that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns'.

Strange is it not, that thousands who

Before us passed the gateway thro'

Not one returns to tell us of the road,

Which, to discover, we must travel too."

I would be very interested in any information or photos people have of the staff etc of Lady Murrays. When RBK died his mother kept all of his possessions and correspondence to and from him which I have inherited. The only thing missing was his revolver which his Serjeant retrieved but which was thrown away in the intervening years. My brother wrote a book about RBK which he is updating( RBK A Very  Parfit Genil Knight)

Regards

Ralph Harris