ianw Posted 19 June , 2003 Share Posted 19 June , 2003 Its interesting to drag this subject out into the open again. I think we get a false idea of life on the Western Front since pretty much all personal accounts are "bowdlerised" in respect of the language used and sexuality in all its forms. Interesting that Haig was realistic about the physical needs of men at the front whereas the official booklet recommended abstinence pure and simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Bowbrick Posted 19 June , 2003 Share Posted 19 June , 2003 Ian, One thing I often read into what people write baout the soldiers, airman & sailors who did the fighting were that they were some breed apart, no supermen or women, but different, wheras in reality they were not. They were like us. Perhaps not as well educated by today's standards but they were fundamentally just like us with the same needs including sexual ones. The more that I read personal diaries, the more I believe we are talking about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. (I am feeling reflective today!) Ian B. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw Posted 19 June , 2003 Share Posted 19 June , 2003 Yes, Ian I would certainly agree with your main point . However, I am not so sure about education. I think Fussell makes the point that many (inc non officers) were generally better read than us in terms of the Bible, Shakespeare and Eng. Lit in general . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine liava'a Posted 23 June , 2003 Share Posted 23 June , 2003 Ettie Rout (pronounced Rowt, not Root) of Christchurch, waged a one-woman "safe-sex" campaign among New Zealand and Australian troops overseas during World War One. According to a French venereologist, she was the "guardian angel of the Anzacs". To a bishop in the House of Lords she was "the most wicked woman in Britain". Soldiers described her as a saint. Their mothers regarded her as an "agent of the devil". Six decades before the term "safe sex" was coined, Ettie Rout went to war to protect soldiers from venereal disease. In Paris, she ran a complete social and sexual welfare service for the Anzac soldiers, collecting them on the station platform guiding them to a "safe" brothel which she regularly inspected, looking after the sick and running a counselling service. In England in 1917, Ettie consulted the experts and put together a prophylactic kit (containing calomel ointment, condoms and Condy's crystals). Her kit was adopted by both the New Zealand and Australian governments. But although all New Zealand soldiers going on leave were handed a copy of her kit, her own country made her persona non grata. The French, on the other hand, awarded her the Reconnaissance Francaise medal for her work, the same medal they struck for the English martyr Edith Cavell. After the NZ Times published one of her letters outlining the venereal disease problem and her resolution, the NZ Cabinet banned mention of Ettie in the country's publications, in the wake of protests from church and women's groups. She was suppressed in her own day and, until recently, remained largely ignored in her own country. http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ettie/ettie.htm Photo. Miss Ettie A. Rout , With 1st NZEF Medical Corps Soldiers (1917). Ref: WA 10/3/2, ZMR 1/1/40 Archives New Zealand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedley Malloch Posted 23 June , 2003 Share Posted 23 June , 2003 At nearly 450 views in a comparatively few number of days this topic must be a record breaker. Tim, Nobody ever lost market share by underestimating public taste. Christine, Ettie Rout sounds quite a woman - one of the unsung heroes of the Western Front. There must be a book waiting to be written about her, or at least a good article for Stand To or some such. I hope you can write it. I had never heard of her. Why not? Perhaps her neglect is due to the fact that so much of accounts of the Western Front is written by dead, white, middle-class (rugby-playing?) males who write about other white, middle-class, (rugby-playing?) males. In comparison the voice of those who are female, black and working-class struggles to be heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul guthrie Posted 23 June , 2003 Share Posted 23 June , 2003 Well this fight goes on today. Our republicans led by a president who does not believe in evolution are strongly against condom distribution and the latest aid bill to fight AIDS in Africa and Carribean requires 20% of the money be spent on teaching abstinence. Just say no. What a bunch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hussar Posted 23 June , 2003 Share Posted 23 June , 2003 Were soldiers going on leave ever issued with any form of contraceptives or disinfectant kits to prevent the spread of STDs? The Australians and New Zealanders issued their troops with Personal Disinfection Kits whereas the British did not start individual issues until 1918. Prior to that bottles of Potassium Permanganate Lotion and tubes of Calomel Cream where placed in the Latrines for general use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine liava'a Posted 23 June , 2003 Share Posted 23 June , 2003 Someone already has; but it is now out of print ISBN: 0140172165 Title: Ettie : a life of Ettie Rout Author: Jane Tolerton Publisher: Penguin Books Date Published: 1992 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keywords: Ettie Annie Rout, Women social reformers, New Zealand, Biography, Sexually transmitted diseases, Prevention, History, World War, 1914-1918, Social aspects, Prostitution photo; Ettie Rout Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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