Hôpital auxiliaire, n° 222 - French Red Cross hospital in Menton

[SarahHes]

Hello

I'm researching the hospital known as the 'Entente Cordiale', established in the Imperial Hotel, in Menton on the French Italian border. It was under the auspices of the French Red Cross, but was almost entirely funded by British philanthropists. Many of the key staff were British, though it was very much a joint effort.

I'm interested in particular in the doctors, nurses and administrators. 

At the moment, I'm drawing a blank on the matron for the early years of the war, Isabel Sarah Bidgood. I'm fairly sure she was British, as during periods of ill health or exhaustion she returned to the UK, and she appears on the French Red Cross's list of nurses who died in service (her record shows that she was affiliated to L'Association Des Dames Françaises, and that she died from an illness she contracted on duty - but gives neither date nor location). I know she left Menton in May 1917, and the Menton and Monte Carlo News records that she was awarded a medal by the French government for her service in December of that same year, but I don't know where she went, or how/when she died. For that matter, I know nothing at all about her before the time she emerges as the matron of the newly opened hospital - none of the biographical records on Ancestry seem to *fit*.

If this rings any bells for anyone I would be very, very glad to hear from you. It's a bit frustrating because with one or two exceptions it is much easier on the whole to tell the stories of the men involved in running the hospital - eg. Percy Cochrane, Lord Waleran, Dr Stanley Rendall - than the women, who were just as important. 

I'd also love to hear from anyone with any interest at all in the Menton hospitals during the war.

I'm living in the Imperial (now apartments) at the moment, so if anyone is conducting research in a similar area, let me know and I will happily visit sites / take photographs for you.

[ZeZe]

Hi Sarah,

You may know the book already but encase it’s new there is a mention of the Hospital at Mentone in ‘For Dauntless France’ p.153. Unfortunately no names mentioned.

https://archive.org/details/fordauntlessfran00biny/page/152/mode/2up

Also have you considered if Emily T Bidgood might have been Isabel’s sister or cousin? They both entered France in 1915 for French Red Cross.

Regards ZeZe

 

 

[SarahHes]

Thanks Zeze - I do know the book, but hadn’t come across Emily Bidgood before. I’ll see if following that trail leads me anywhere….

 

[ZeZe]

Hi Sarah,

You may have found these already -

A search of vad volunteers on the B.R.C. site with the word ‘Menton’ produced these names plus a couple of others which may have worked at the hospital. Not sure if ‘Hop. Aux. 222. Menton. A.M.France’ is the same hospital.

https://vad.redcross.org.uk/search?searchTerm=menton

Catherine. M. Noel Maynard

Helen Adams

Vivyan Una Bourke

Margaret Ellen Killick

Frances Chisholm

Ruth Mary Taylor

Celia Ethel Taylor

Another site of interest regarding Maud Millicent Wilson: https://grangehill1922.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/maude-millicent-wilson/ 

Regards ZeZe

Edited 17 January , 2023 by ZeZe

[SarahHes]

Thanks - yes, Maud Millicent Wilson is one of only a couple of the Menton nurses about whom it’s possible to tell a story, rather than just pull together a few basic biographical details. (The other one is May Palmer, a New Zealander who replaced Sister Bidgood as Matron). I have a lot of VAD names - the Menton and Monte Carlo News published a list of all staff alongside a feature on the hospital in 1917, so I have followed up all of those, gone through the BRC archives etc - but I haven’t found much in the way of detail. A lot of the VADs seem to have only been here for a couple of months, but I don’t know enough about the system yet to know whether that was normal….

Back in the late 19th century / early 20th century, Menton was a very popular ‘winter resort’ - there was a big British community here who spent a lot of the year in their own villas, or in the hotels. The influential Brits who pulled strings to set up the hospital and formed the committee were all drawn from this community - and lots of the girls / women who volunteered as nurses were linked to it somehow. And they came via the French Red Cross rather than the British, which is making everything a lot trickier. For the most part, there’s a lot of information out there about the ‘administration’ - and they were a fascinating set of people. But they’re not the whole story, at all.

I think I may have exhausted what I can find out online and I may need to start visiting some archives. I know there is a book about the hospital in the BNF in Paris by Dr Stanley Randall, the chief doctor (committee member, and long-term Menton winter resident). So I may need to jump on a train….

(and yes, that’s this hospital).

[SarahHes]

A further note on Sister Bidgood…

After she left the hospital in Menton in May 1917, she had a short break in service before taking up another post elsewhere from Jan 1918 to November 1918. So if anyone has any idea how I might find out where she went, that would be great! 

[SarahHes]

I now know that after serving for two years at hospital 222 in Menton, Sister Bidgood worked at the hospital in Etrenbières that was run by the BCFRC with financial aid from the New Zealand government, and finally at military hospital 73 at Salies-du-Salat, where I assume she contracted the illness that killed her.  

I have found a picture of Sister Bidgood outside the hospital in Menton with Lord and Lady Waleran, who were the Administrators from mid 1916 onwards. She looks to be in her forties / fifties. There's no record of a Isabel Bidgood in any of the nursing registers - but if she died before the end of the war she may never have been registered.

[SarahHes]

On 17/01/2023 at 10:23, ZeZe said:

Hi Sarah,

You may know the book already but encase it’s new there is a mention of the Hospital at Mentone in ‘For Dauntless France’ p.153. Unfortunately no names mentioned.

https://archive.org/details/fordauntlessfran00biny/page/152/mode/2up

Also have you considered if Emily T Bidgood might have been Isabel’s sister or cousin? They both entered France in 1915 for French Red Cross.

Regards ZeZe

 

 

Just wanted to say thank you - Emily T Bidgood was also in Menton at hospital 222 from May 1915 to November of that year, working as a nurse (probably a VAD) so it looks very likely that she was connected in some way to Isabel.

[ZeZe]

Hi Sarah,

Good to find a photo of one of the elusive Bidgood’s. As you have Ancestry, did you check to see if there is any info on the back of the two Medal Index Cards?

Regards ZeZe

[SarahHes]

@ZeZe
 

Thanks. I just checked, and I’m not sure if I am doing something wrong, but I have their medal index cards from the National Archives site, but I can’t find them on Ancestry. And on the NA there is only the front, not the reverse. 

 

Edited 1 March , 2023 by SarahHes

[ZeZe]

Hi Sarah,

I Googled and found this page. I think if you put in the Bidgood name and click search there will be then the option to sign in and hopefully you will be at the right place. If not then maybe a request for more advice on the medal forum will find the answer.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/1262/

Regards ZeZe

[SarahHes]

@ZeZe

thanks, yes, that’s where I was searching. It says there are ‘zero matches’ - maybe because they were with the French Red Cross, not military units (though I know there ARE medal index cards for both of them through the National Archives. Next stop the medal forum, as you suggest. 
 

They both seem so invisible, I wonder if they came over from one of the ‘British possessions’ - India, or the Cape Colony, or Jamaica…. There is an Isabel Sarah Bidgood who would be just about the right age, and who had connections to Menton… but she was from a fabulously wealthy family and there’s no evidence she ever trained or worked as a nurse. I can’t see the Red Cross putting her in charge of a hospital…..

[RussT]

Have you tried contacting the BRCS Archives as per the advice on the late Sue Light's website, Scarlet Finders:

Regards

Russ

 

Researching a Nurse - Scarlet Finders

 

[SarahHes]

Thanks @RussT - I’ve just sent them a message. Finger’s crossed.

[frev]

@Jim Strawbridge Jim - not sure if you've seen this thread, but was wondering whether you can shed any light on the death of this lady Isabel Sarah Bidgood?

 

[SarahHes]

On 02/03/2023 at 09:32, SarahHes said:

There is an Isabel Sarah Bidgood who would be just about the right age, and who had connections to Menton… but she was from a fabulously wealthy family and there’s no evidence she ever trained or worked as a nurse. I can’t see the Red Cross putting her in charge of a hospital…..

Further to this…. After a bit more digging around in old newspaper archives I am now 99 percent certain that the Emily T Bidgood who served for 6 months at the hospital in Menton as a VAD was the niece of this Isabel Sarah Bidgood. Which makes me think that maybe she IS the elusive matron after all. And that leaves me with the following questions:

Is it possible that she trained as a nurse in one of the French Red Cross training hospitals (hence no record of her training / working ever in the UK)? 

Why do the French Red Cross records state that she died in service (of an illness picked up presumably during her final posting at Salies-du-Salat, when the UK census records show her living a fine long life back in the UK? 
 

 

 

 

[Jim Strawbridge]

5 hours ago, frev said:

@Jim Strawbridge Jim - not sure if you've seen this thread, but was wondering whether you can shed any light on the death of this lady Isabel Sarah Bidgood?

 

This one is a puzzle. My records show her as the daughter of Thomas Edward Bidgood (a retired army officer) and Emily Anne Marie Bidgood latterly living in Shanklin, Isle of Wight. NOT to be confused with the Isabel Sarah Bidgood who was born in Nether Wallop in 1846 to Lieut. Thomas C. Bidgood and Emily A. Bidgood. I know that reports have mentioned that she died during the wartime period but there is evidence that she was sailing on board the Kennilworth Castle from Natal, South Africa to Southampton in 1930.  The only death in the UK that I can find is an Isabel Sarah Bidgood who died in the third quarter in Greenwich. This one I believe to the the Nether Wallop one and not our subject. I surmise that at the war's end our Isabel emigrated to South Africa, returned for a family visit in 1930 then returned to South Africa where she died. BUT this is only an assumption.

[SarahHes]

@Jim Strawbridge

Yes, that’s what I had found, too. And the ‘other’ Bidgood nurse in Menton, Emily T, is (I think) the niece of the Shanklin Isabel; the daughter of her brother, Harry. (Full name Marjorie Emily Theodora Bidgood).

IF we assume that the references to her dying in service are not correct, then I am left with the question as to how this Isabel became matron of a hospital. With her background I wouldn’t have been surprised to see her as a VAD - but surely someone appointed as a matron would have some nursing training and experience? I can’t find any indication anywhere that this Isabel ever worked as a nurse, either before or after the war.

Are my assumptions correct here? Or could the Red Cross have made her a matron without her having trained or worked as a nurse in England? She served as a matron in 3 different hospitals during the war (starting in March 1915) - is there any way she could have been a very competent VAD and not a trained nurse? 

 

[Jim Strawbridge]

2 minutes ago, SarahHes said:

@Jim Strawbridge

Are my assumptions correct here? Or could the Red Cross have made her a matron without her having trained or worked as a nurse in England? She served as a matron in 3 different hospitals during the war (starting in March 1915) - is there any way she could have been a very competent VAD and not a trained nurse? 

 

I think it most unlikely that anyone but a trained nurse would make it to be a matron.

[SarahHes]

Back again hoping for some advice…

As @RussT suggested, I contacted the BRCS archives - they got back to me really quickly, but unfortunately don’t have any further info….

Can someone more experienced in this space explain how best I should interpret this? I am certain she was English (or at least British), and she appears on British medal roles - is the fact that she was working for the French Red Cross an indication that she was living in France (although she ‘returned home to England for a well-earned test’ at one point)?

I’ll contact the French Red Cross again (I did try before but got no response), but I would be really grateful for any insight into the ways in which English nurses ended up working for the French Red Cross….

 

[Felicity Harwood]

I have a photo album of my grandmother's, which mostly consists of photos of soldiers and nurses, with flowery "remerciments" for all the care given. Some photos are excellent quality, some not so much. I also have five letters from my grandmother  (Enid Grove) from her time in France. Three from Hopital 222 Menton, two from another posting in Orleans. She was there with the French Red Cross as described in one of the posts above. She does not mention Isabel Bidgood, unless she had a nickname maybe?  I feel confident that one of the many photos would include Isabel. Enid does mention her fellow flatmate and nursing companion Vera (no surname).

I would love to donate the album to a museum, possibly in France as so many of the photos of the soldiers are from there - but equally there is one of a Serbian unit etc etc Any suggestions?

Below just a couple of examples scanned (apologies for poor quality)

[SarahHes]

@Felicity Harwood this is so exciting, thank you. I’m going to study the photos in detail and see who I can identify and I will update you then, but I can tell you that I think Enid’s flatmate was probably Vera Elliot Cooper. In January 1918 the Menton And Monte Carlo News published the names of all of the staff at hôpital 222, and Enid and Vera are the final two names on the list of nurses.
 

Both your grandmother and Vera served in Menton between 10/15 and 7/18, so they will have worked alongside both Sister Bidgood (who moved on in 2017) and the matron who replaced her, New Zealander May Palmer - another quite extraordinary woman. They must have been very highly valued; a good number of the VADs at hôpital 222 were only around for a few months before either being moved elsewhere or returning to England. And even some of the doctors were seasonal, with a few only in Menton for the winters. So the really experienced probationers who knew the hospital were presumably much appreciated.

I’d love to hear about Enid’s time in Menton, and see more of her photos. 

Thank you again - and I’ll be back when I have studied the photos properly. I’ll also get back to you with some ideas to where you could donate the album. My instinct is that the safest place for them might be in the (British) Red Cross archives - that way people like me who are researching British volunteers working overseas during WW1 would find them. But I’ll give some thought to archives and museums in France….

Sarah
 

[SarahHes]

Looking a bit more closely at the group shot, I think the woman in the centre of the front row is Helen Lavinia Cochrane, and the man in uniform to her left is her husband Percy. They (pictured below) were the first Administrators of the hospital, and played a huge role in getting it up and running. They left in spring 1916, so this photo must have been taken before then. It would be logical if the man on the other side of Helen was Dr Stanley Rendall, who was also instrumental in setting up the hospital and was the lead medic for the duration of the war - but that is nothing more than guesswork as I haven’t ever seen a picture of him. And I *think* that the nurse on the right of him is my elusive Sister Bidgood….

Does Enid make any mention of the Matron in her letters? And, leaving Isabel aside, I would be absolutely fascinated to hear anything at all she has to say about her life in Menton.

 

You have made my day, @Felicity Harwood

Sarah

 

 

Edited 18 July , 2023 by SarahHes

[Felicity Harwood]

I'm delighted to have made your day Sarah! I have so many more photos that there is surely a better one of Sister Bidgood. I will scan and send more. I have re-read the letters in my possession but there is no mention of staff at Menton. It's a little frustrating that she says once or twice there is no news of interest!

The first letter contains a little about the conditions (see below) the rest is more about the doings of Aunts in England and thanks for the chocolates etc. She has more to say about Orleans, and more names figure in her letters from there. Looking more closely at the photos, Vera must indeed be V.E.C. written one one of the pages. There is a photo of Vera and an M. Harison on an outing to Cap Martin.  And another of the photos at Cap Martin says it is of The Doctoress M. Moore.

1.      31^st January 1917. Hôpital Auxiliare No. 222, Menton. A.M.

My dearest Mother,

I had a lovely long letter from Daphne yesterday. She says it is bitterly cold in England now but I don’t think it could be colder than here. We are going in for war economies with a vengeance. Hot water on Tuesdays and Fridays only, as there is no coke to be got. It is dreadful, as of course it means no heating & washing in the morning is awful. Every drop of water throughout the day we have to heat in kettles on a gas ring, as of course we have to use hot for washing the patients. I am now wrapped in my dressing gown, nursing my hot water bottle, I should have died long ago without it. Sugar is so scarce we have each an allowance, ¾ of a kilo, about 100 lumps a month, which is only 3 lumps a day & I used to take 1 ½ in my coffee at breakfast & the same at our 9 o’c tea & tea in the evening. Butter we have for tea only once a week, & puddings I think are being knocked off, but then of course we have a first course of rice or macaroni before the meat.

Below are more photos, but I need to stop for now and get on with work!

 

[SarahHes]

These are truly extraordinary - you have an absolute treasure trove! There are some local historians in Menton who would love to see these images… (although they may not be quite as excited as I am). I am going to spend all day perusing these (I think I need better glasses).

At a first glance though - the M Harrison who is pictured at Cap Martin with Vera is Mabel Harrison, an English artist who served as a VAD at Menton during the war. She did some lovely paintings of the town and its surroundings while she was there.  

And it’s great to see a picture of the x-ray room. Hôpital 222 was extremely well equipped for an auxiliary hospital, and its x-ray facilities were the jewel in its crown. It cost 10,000 francs, and was paid for by a wealthy financier who was a member of the British winter colony in Menton, on the understanding that it would be devoted to the town after the war. There is a very popular apocryphal story that Marie Curie herself oversaw the setting up and testing of the equipment - it appears in lots of accounts of the history of the Imperial Hotel, so I like to think that maybe it is true!