Red or Blue Light

[Ghazala]

Robert Graves recalls in 'Goodbye to All That' the queues of British soldiers outside the licensed brothels run by the pragmatic French - those adorned with a blue light for officers, those with a red one for the troops - wondering whether the women were also of different types. Apparently, General Pershing was greatly concerned that his boys would fall prey to the VD killing thousands of French and British soldiers every day but not so much about the fate of the prostitutes.

[Andrew Upton]

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24724

[Muerrisch]

Having reviewed the thread at hyperlink nobody but nobody has come forward with evidence that brothels for officers [if they existed, which they very probably did] were signed by a blue lamp.

Rather, the blue lamp was the sign of a prophylactic facility.

Skindles and Ginger's seem to have thrived without such illumination.

Two asides:

in British Forces Germany 1970 to 1996, an "in-joke" among officers on the subject was that "rate one subsistence" was calculated and revised as being the price of a short time of dubious pleasure.

also at the Joint HQ the junior ranks bar/swimming pool/meeting place was the Blue Pool, known as the Bluey, and parents strove to keep their teenagers away from it, which made it all the more attractive. It was THE PLACE for an officer's daughter to meet young men not chosen by her parents.

[Old Tom]

Signs of the times!

Old Tom

[Ron Clifton]

"All London brothels display a blue lamp."

From Hoffnung at the Oxford Union, passage on advice to foreign visitors.

(For non-British Pals, a blue lamp outside a building means it's a police station.)

Ron

[Loader]

"Do you mean to tell me that a serving British officer.......!?"