Small discrepancy between Red Cross VAD card and personal account?

[monkstown]

I have been 'operating' for the past 10 years or so on the basis of the Red Cross VAD card which gave 21/6/15 as Winifred Letts's date of enrolment as a VAD and 2/7/15 as the date of her 'selection' - the late Sue Light explained to me that Co Dublin Special Detachment probably meant that she was chosen to work in a military hospital. However, I came across a personal account this week which states she 'went for training to the (Royal) City of Dublin Hospital, Baggot Street' on 11th June 1915. I have not - to date - been able to trace when/where Letts did her initial training as a masseuse but I wonder now if it was in Baggot Street? I would be very interested to hear from anyone who can comment further on this.

Thanks.

Bairbre

Rank at engagement: N/A

Date of engagement: 21/06/1915

Pay at engagement: N/A

Rank at termination: N/A

Date of termination: N/A

Pay at termination: N/A

Particulars of duties: N/A

Whole or part time: N/A

Additional information: Detachment Co Dublin Special When selected: 2.7.15 nurse Postings: 25.8.15 - 30.6.16 2nd. Western Gen: HP. Manchester

[Madmeg]

"Letts, having firmly established herself as an Irishwoman and a Revival writer, then made a sudden (and perhaps unexpected) move upon the outbreak of the Great War: she threw herself body and soul into the British war effort.[11] She joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse and worked at the Linden Auxilary Hospital in Blackrock, Co. Dublin and at the 2^nd West General Hospital in Manchester. Later, she joined the Almeric Paget Military Massage Corps, and worked as a masseuse at an army camp in Alnwick, Northumberland and in the Military Orthopaedic Hospital back in Blackrock. Tending to the wounded – including massaging the limbs of amputees – brought the horrors of the war very close to Letts, and these experiences left a tremendous imprint on the next volume of poems that she would produce, 1916’s Hallow-E’en and Poems of the War. This volume would become celebrated for the empathy that it shows towards the soldiers and all they had to endure; for example, “The Deserter” and “What Reward?” show sincere compassion for those who could not psychologically or physically handle life at the Front. And, in the collection’s most famous poem – “The Spires of Oxford (Seen From a Train)” – Letts laments the loss of a generation of young men with bright futures:"

https://irishwomenswritingnetwork.com/an-appreciation-of-winifred-letts/

(Am I guessing you might be the author of that page?)

or

"During the First World War Winifred joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment as a nurse at the Manchester Base Hospital and then trained as a masseuse with the Almeric Paget Military Massage Corps, working at army camps in Manchester and Alnwick, Northumberland. In 1916 she published Hallowe’en and Other Poems of the War: this proved so popular that it was reprinted in 1917 and renamed The Spires of Oxford and Other Poems."

https://warpoets.org.uk/worldwar1/poets-and-poetry/winifred-letts/

two different versions there .

you may already have seen this?

https://www.csp.org.uk/frontline/article/foreign-fields-physiotherapys-links-first-world-war

I can tell you where she was in mid January 1915- Edinburgh recieving a bouquet after a children's performance of a play 'wot she wrote'. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1910-01-01/1919-12-31?basicsearch=winifred letts&somesearch=winifred letts&exactsearch=false&retrievecountrycounts=false

 

If she was with Almeric Paget did they run their own training?

[monkstown]

Thanks Madmeg - I'm not the author of either but am the source of much of both!  

I have been saving my pocket money  to enable me to pay yet another subscription - I hadn't spotted the Edinburgh bouquet reference when I 'googled' the britishnewspaperarchive but I think I'll pay up and get the full works!

Almeric Paget MMC only accepted trained masseuses/masseurs as per Sue Light's Scarlet Finders:
 Early in 1915 the War Office officially recognised the Corps by making it the official body to which all Masseuses and Masseurs engaged for service in Military Hospitals should belong. An Advisory Committee was instituted by the War Office to advise in all matters relating to Massage in Military Institutions. This Committee laid down the standard of training and the qualifications required and formed Sub-Committees to select the candidates. Thus the admission of untrained or partially trained personnel was prevented and the interests of the patients and of the Massage profession were safeguarded.

I have details of the June 1917 ISTM Register of Members which includes her, and of her (presumably, additional) qualification in Med Electricity in November 1917 and of her election to the Society in February 1918, but haven't been able to find the details of an initial qualification and so I thought the Baggot Street Dublin reference might help.

Thanks again

Bairbre

Edited 26 March , 2022 by monkstown