The Sword of Deborah: First-hand impressions of the British Women's Army in FranceJesse, F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson)
History
The Sword of Deborah: First-hand impressions of the British Women's Army in France
Jesse, F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Women
For remember it is not work that can be taken up and dropped. You sign
on for six months at a time, and only have two fortnights of leave in
the year. And the girls sign on, again and again; they are nearly all
veterans at it. And, comfortable as the camp has been made--all the
necessities of life are provided by the War Office and the "frills" by
the Red Cross--and in spite of the tiny separate cubicles--greatest
blessing of all--decorated to taste by the owner, in spite of everything
that can be done to make the girls happy and keep them well--it is still
a picnic. And a picnic may be all very well for a week or even a
fortnight, but a picnic carried on over the years is not at all the same
thing....
Certainly they all seemed very happy, and are all very well. Girls who
go out rather delicate soon become strong in the hard open air life,
and there has not been a single case of strain from working the heavy
ambulances. The girls do all cleaning and oiling of the cars themselves,
and all repairs with the exception of the very complicated cases, for
which they are allowed to call on the help of two mechanics, but only
after the request has gone through those in authority.
The domestic staff, with the exception of one Frenchwoman in the
kitchen, is supplied by the girls themselves, and on this subject of
domestic staffs in France I shall say more later. Their food is Army
rations, which are excellent, as I can testify after straitened
England--supplemented by milk and fresh vegetables, while the Red Cross
gives the extras of life such as custard, cornflower, etc.
When at tea I saw butter brought forth in a lordly dish and was told to
take as much as I liked on hot toast, I felt it was a solemn moment.
There seemed a very care-free atmosphere about the Fannies, and at this
camp the Commandant was known as "Boss," a respectful familiarity I did
not meet anywhere else. Some irreverent soul had even inscribed it on
the door of her cubicle. The Fannies "break out," so to speak, all over
the place; even the bath-room is not sacred to them. It is a pathetic
sight, that bath-room of the Fannies, more pathetic, I thought it, after
I had seen the rows of big baths in other camps. The Fannies have a
limited and capricious water supply, and their bath is so small as to
remove forcibly the temptation for one person to use it all up. Perched
on two stalks of stone stands a long bath in miniature, long enough to
sit in with the knees up, but of no known human size. Inscribed above
it--(under a fresco in black and white of cats in the moonlight)--are
these touching words: "Do not turn on the hot water when the cold is off
or the Boiler will Bust."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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