WW1 British Red Cross Auxiliary Nurses

[brianchatters]

Hello,
My great-aunt Helen Spiers volunteered as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachments of the British Red Cross. I have a copy of her record but I am confused about the number of hours served. It states that she served 504 hours a month but surely this cannot be correct. It  calculates to 18 hours a day, seven days a week! Is there another explanation for the entry? All suggestions welcome!
Regards

[Andy J2022]

As can be seen, whatever was originally written underneath 504 hrs was rubbed out and the words 'a month' added. It could be that this correction failed to take into account the original basis of the 504 hours figure. So for instance during the Easter holidays she only worked for 3 weeks, whereas in the summer holidays she worked for 6 weeks, making 9 weeks per year in all. That is over 2 months, but say the total number of hours she worked was 1010 a year and someone just divided that by two and got 504, whereas in fact it was 1010 hours over 2 months and one week (or 63 days) which then works out at 15 hours per day for a 7 day week. Yes, still quite long hours for someone who was presumably a school girl (or school teacher?) but only for relatively short stints. It may be some of those hours were a night shift when she might have got some sleep while still being on call.
Incidentally even if it really was 504 hours per month, that is 16.25 hours per day for a 31 day month and 16.8 hours for a 30 day month, not 18 hours as you stated, assuming she worked 7 days a week.

[brianchatters]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure that your explanation holds up. You are correct to point out that the entry had been corrected but I believe that the entry is complete. Some more details about my great-aunt: She was born in 1878 so she was 36 or 37 when she joined up. She was  a matron at an English public school and she took up her appointment there some time before April 1917 which, as you can see, overlaps with the period she served as a nurse. It may be that the entry was adjusted to fit into the school holidays. I've checked out the British Red Cross website but it does not help me understand the working hours of the volunteers. The only similar situation is for the women's land army and I believe that they were limited to working a maximum of about 50 hours a week although, of course, the work was probably a lot more strenuous.
The hospital where my great-aunt worked was an auxiliary one used mainly for soldiers convalescence after being treated for injury elsewhere. It may be that the 504 hours was a limit for nurses to be on  call if needed. Certainly, the nurses would have been resident at the hospital. I wonder if anyone has knowledge of their ancestors who may have also volunteered?
Regards
By the way, I used lunar months for my calculation (28 days) but I don't think it matters. Also, I believe that my great-aunt worked for 12 weeks in the year - 3 weeks each at Easter and Christmas (although that could be interpreted as 3 weeks in total), 6 weeks during the summer - these are typical periods of school breaks in English public schools.

[John915]

Good evening,

She worked for a total of 9 weeks.
That is 63 days with no days off. 63 days at 8 hrs per day = 504.
Or with one day off per week, 56 days at 9 hrs per day = 504
Two days off per week does'nt quite work out. 49 days at 10 hrs 20 mins would be 504.7

John915

Added, Sorry maths is not my strong point  . Only gave her 7 days off instead of 9. So 54 days at 9 hrs 20 mins would be 503.82. 18 days off would be 45 days at 11 hrs 15 mins would be 506.25.
So only no days off at 8 hrs per day works. The "per month" may have been a mistake.

[brianchatters]

Thanks for the reply John915. I believe that my great-aunt worked for 12 weeks per year (3 weeks at Easter, 3 weeks at Christmas, and 6 weeks in the summer although the record is a bit ambiguous in that respect). If it is 12  weeks and the 504 hours is per year rather than per month, that works out to a reasonable 42 hours a week. It probably doesn't matter as she was an unpaid volunteer and, no doubt, like other nurses at the hospital, she wouldn't have "clock-watched" if she was needed to help out.