First Aid Nursing Yeomanry; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
"For 'er uniform is khaki,
And 'er little car is green,
And 'er name is only FANNY
(And she's not exactly clean!)
And I see'd 'er first a'smoking
Of a ration cigarette.
And a'wasting army petrol
Cleaning clothes, 'cos she's in debt."
On the road to Fontinettes, etc.
I longed to be back so much sometimes that it amounted almost to an
ache! This, and the fact of being the only one, I feel sure partly
accounted for it that I became ill. According to the doctor I ought to
have been in a proper hospital, and then once again the difficulty arose
of finding one to go to. Boards and committees sat on me figuratively
and almost literally, too, but could come to no conclusion. Though I
could be in a military hospital in France it was somehow not to be
thought of in England. Finally I heard a W.A.A.C.'s ward had been opened
in London at a military hospital run by women doctors for Tommies, and I
promptly sat down and applied for admittance. Yes, I could go there, and
so at the end of November, I found myself once more back in London. I
was in a little room--a W.A.A.C. officers' ward, on the same floor as
the medical ward for W.A.A.C. privates. I met them at the concerts that
were often given in the recreation room, and they were extremely kind
to me. I was amused to hear them discussing their length of active
service. One who could boast of six months was decidedly the nut of the
party! We had a great many air raids, and were made to go down to the
ground floor, which annoyed me intensely. I hated turning out, apart
from the cold; it seemed to be giving in to the Boche to a certain
extent.
I loved my charlady. She was the nearest approach to the cheery
orderlies of those far away days in France, I had struck since I came
over. Her smiling face, as she appeared at the door every morning with
broom and coalscuttle, was a tonic in itself. I used to keep her talking
just as long as I could--she was so exceedingly alive.
"Do I mind the air rides, Miss? Lor' bless you no--nothin' I like better
than to 'ear the guns bangin' awy. If it wasn't for the childer I'd fair
enjoy it--we lives up 'hIslington wy, and the first sounds of firing I
wrep them up, and we all goes to the church cryp and sings 'ims with the
parson's wife a'plying. Grand it is, almost as good as a revival
meeting!"
(One in the eye for Fritz what?)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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