First Aid Nursing Yeomanry; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
"A complete unit with sixteen to twenty motor ambulances, organised,
worked, and driven by women, will next month be added to the British
Army.
"The women will drive their own cars and look after them in every way.
One single male mechanic, and that is all, is to be attached to the
whole unit. These ambulances may of course be summoned from their camp
to hurry over any type of winter-worn road to the neighbourhood of the
firing line.
"What strength, endurance, and pluck such work demands from women can
easily be understood by anyone who has ever tried to swing a car in cold
weather or repair it by the roadside.
"It is a very notable fact that for the first time under official
recognition women have been allowed to share in what may be called a
male department of warfare.
"The Nursing Yeomanry have just extracted this recognition from the War
Office and deserve every compliment that can be paid them; and the
success is worth some emphasis as one of a series of victories for women
workers and organisations, at the top of which is, of course, the
Voluntary Aid Detachment.
"The actual work of these Yeomen nurses, who rode horseback to the
dressing stations when no other means of conveyance were available, has
been in progress in France and Belgium almost since war was declared.
Most of their work has been done in the face of every kind of
discouragement, but they were never dismayed. Their khaki uniforms on
more than one occasion in Ghent made German sentries jump." (Mrs.
MacDougal arranging for F.A.N.Y. work[11] with the Belgians in September,
1914).
"This feat of the 'Yeowomen'--who have struggled against a certain
amount of ridicule in England since they started a horse ambulance and
camp some six or seven years ago--is worth emphasis because it is only
one instance, striking but by no means unique, of the complete triumph
of women workers during the past few months!"
* * * * *
The next question was to decide who would go to the new English Convoy,
and two or three left for England to become proficient in motor
mechanics and driving.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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