Strange as untrained young women could be VADs,some basic training
but they ended up at Field Hospitals .
To wit, Vera Britain ,who wrote Chronicle of Youth and Testament of Youth .
They did various jobs and often were the ones who stayed with mortally wounded soldiers not much more than boys, when they were dying.
There were two women who worked with Belgian soldiers ,in a cellar of a house in Pervysje ,not far from zBruges
The invasion of German troops was so rapid there was no time to organise field hospitals etc and Belgian Drs were forced to work for German soldiers.
One a Dr Sebrechts ,from Bruges , was such a one .He pioneered spinal anaesthesia .
His family fled to England .
His wife and family lived in the house we bought on our return from Belgium.
They had been supported by the local church.
Two English women Mairi Chisholm and an English woman married to a Belgian Baron ,Baroness Tserclaes worked together to help Belgian Soldiers .
A meal,and hot drink and first aid.
They worked in Pervisje ,in the cellar of a ruined house.
For a time they were resting in aConvent school in Ghent ,we British ex pats
did a concert each year for OXFAM , there was a theatre in the school which we used.
Guess what was in the entrance hall of the School - A plaque ———-——!commemorating the work of two British women ,who gave shelter and hope to Belgian soldiers ,during WW1 , and had rested at The Convent.
Baroness Tserclaes and Mairi Chisholm !
What a small world .
Wonder Skoosh if at the start of the war with no idea how long or how
dreadful it would be ,it was ignorance .( Plus misogyny !)
Florence Nightingale in The Crimea sort of pioneered “battlefeld “ nursing.
( Mind you there are disputable figures which suggest the soldiers actually had more chance out in the open.Sepsis)
Nurses were very looked down upon , having to assist men to whom they were not married with personal care!
Viktoria.
S
