Loughborough VADs

 


When the First World War broke out in August 1914 Loughborough General Hospital, like many other hospitals in the UK, was designated as an Auxiliary Military Hospital, with its primary function the treatment of wounded soldiers from the battlefields.

The five doctors with local practices, Doctors Reginald Paul, Joseph Pike, Philip Phelps, Robert Stamford and James Reid Foulds, who also performed in honorary medical roles at the hospital, were forced to send many of their hospital patients home in order to free up the 80 beds stipulated by the military. The casualties were to arrive at the 5th Northern Base Hospital in Leicester and then be distributed among hospitals in Leicestershire including Loughborough General.

Auxiliary hospitals were usually staffed by a commandant who was in charge of the hospital except for the medical and nursing services, a quartermaster who was responsible for the receipt, custody and issue of articles in the provision store, and a matron who directed the nursing staff. The Commandant at Loughborough General Hospital Military Wards was Walter Chapman Burder MBE, a retired civil engineer of Field House, Ashby Road, Loughborough. The Matron of the hospital in 1914 was Miss Bithia Dudley who had previously been Matron at the Victoria Cottage Hospital, Maryport, Cumberland. She was succeeded in 1916 by Miss A. Kaye, who had previously been Matron at the Cottage Hospital, Lytham, Lancashire. Both matrons had trained at the Royal Infirmary, Liverpool.

Additional staff would be needed to help in the hospital and were to be supplied by Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) from the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross with the Order of St. John.

Those who joined the VAD were trained in cookery, sanitation, bandaging and dressings, washing of bodies and linens, and proper procedure before, during, and after surgeries.For work in an auxiliary hospital, the VAD signed a contract before admittance, stating she would remain for three months after a fortnight's probation.

The proportion of trained nurses in the units was small, and much of the basic work was the responsibility of the VADs - they cleaned, scrubbed and dusted, set trays, cooked breakfasts; they lit fires and boiled up coppers full of washing and changed bed linen. They helped to dress, undress and wash the men - which was a big step for young women who might never have been alone and unchaperoned with a member of the opposite sex before other than their father and brothers. They also did clerical work. They were rarely allowed until later in the war to change dressings or administer drugs. Relations between professional nurses and the volunteer assistants were constrained by rigid and unbending discipline and contracts for VADs could be withdrawn even for slight breaches of the rules.

Forty-two women from Loughborough became VAD members of the Red Cross and served in the military wards at the hospital in Baxter Gate.Twenty-seven gave their services for the entire duration of the war. Fifteen more volunteers joined between 1916 and 1918.

The majority of the volunteers were between the ages of twenty and thirty, with smaller groups of older women. Three were aged nineteen and the youngest was an eighteen-year-old, a doctor's daughter. Most of the Loughborough VAD worked part-time, without any remuneration, giving as many hours as they were able. They had to provide their own uniforms but any other expenses were paid. Most were from middle-class homes and could afford to do unpaid work.Two of them, Miss Jessie Abbott and Mrs. Annie Baldwin, each gave 5450 hours of their time over the war years and several others contributed almost as many hours.

One of the VAD nursing members was 25 year-old Mabel Barker. Mabel was unusual and exceptionally dedicated in that she also had a full-time job as a teacher at Church Gate Girls School. Throughout the war she continued to teach and after school she cycled round to Baxter Gate to do her hospital shift.

While Mabel was working at the hospital she kept an autograph book. She had only just started working there when she found herself looking after several Belgian soldiers who had been wounded at the Battle of the Yser. Some of the wounded soldiers wrote or drew in Mabel's autograph book and it includes inscriptions from Edouard de Lannoy from Antwerp, Camille Bil from Bruges, and Julien Cappens 'wounded in my left hand by bullet at Dixmude 22nd October 1914' among others. Several of the soldiers added photographs.


Mabel Barker (right)

 
Entry by Florent Bielens (left) and Gustauf Molens, wounded Belgian soldier (right)


As the war years went by there were more contributions in Mabel's autograph book from British soldiers such as Private Robert H. Crane, 2nd Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, who had shrapnel shell in his left side and back and two bullet wounds in his left arm and Private V. Hunt, King's Royal Rifle Corps, who had also fought in the Second Boer War. Private W. Ewing, 2nd Battalion, Highland Light Infantry, who was wounded at Dixmude contributed a six verse poem which began as follows:


'Fifty sturdy Greenock lads
Standing in a row
Out to fight the Germans
Willingly we go.
Will you have it now my lads
Powder, shell and shot
By the ships of Greenock
We serve it hot.
'


The Red Cross have put their First World War VAD records online and it has been possible to establish who all the VAD women from the Loughborough area were who volunteered their services and worked at Loughborough General Hospital. They are listed below.




A group of Loughborough's VAD nurses


The women who started as VADs on 26th October 1914, and worked until 15th February 1919 at Loughborough General Hospital Military Wards were:

Miss Jessie M. Abbott
2 Curzon Street, Loughborough. Daughter of Horace Wood Abbott, cabinet maker. Member. Assistant storekeeper of clothing. 5450 hours.

Miss Marjorie Arnatt [Gertrude Margery Arnatt]
8 Burton Street, Loughborough. Daughter of John Harley Arnatt, auctioneer. Nursing member. 900 hours.

Miss Elsie Albon Arnold
16 Baxter Gate, Loughborough. Daughter of Charles J. Arnold, draper. Occasional masseuse. 3000 hours.

Mrs Annie Baldwin
Leicester Road, Loughborough. Wife of George Joseph Baldwin, pharmacist. Nursing member. 5450 hours.

Miss Mabel Barker
16 Derby Square, Loughborough. Daughter of George Barker, coal merchant. Nursing member. 5200 hours.

Miss Mary Blackett [Edith Mary]
Charley Knoll Farm, Nanpantan Road, Loughborough. Daughter of John Joseph Blackett, farmer, and sister of Minnie Blackett [below].
Nursing member. 3000 hours. October 1914 to February 1919 Loughborough General Hospital Military Wards. Served in an emergency in August 1917 at Uppingham VAD Hospital and from September 15th 1917 for one month at Clipstone Camp.

Miss Minnie Blackett
Charley Knoll Farm, Nanpantan Road, Loughborough. Daughter of John Joseph Blackett, farmer, and sister of Mary Blackett [above]. Nursing member. 2000 hours.

Miss Helena Clarke
Victoria Street, Loughborough. Nursing member. 5250 hours.

Mrs Hilda Corah (née Mounteney)
Wynestowe, 127 Ashby Road, Loughborough. Daughter of George Mounteney, coal merchant. Married Lt. Sydney Corah, 1/5th Leicestershire Regiment, between April and June 1918. After Lt. Corah was killed on 3rd October 1918 Hilda resigned from her VAD duties. Nursing member. 1000 hours.

Miss Beatrice Edwards
25 Stanley Street, Loughborough. Nursing member. 5250 hours.

Mrs Florence Julia Fielding Everard
The Willows, Barrow on Soar. Wife of Bernard Everard, civil engineer. Nursing member. 2000 hours.

Miss Jennie Foulds
150 Ashby Road, Loughborough. Pharmacist and dispenser for her brother Dr. James Reid Foulds. Nursing member. 3500 hours.

Miss Constance Haynes
Merrion, 133 Ashby Road, Loughborough. Step-granddaughter of Sarah Ann James, widow. Nursing member. 5300 hours.

Mrs Mabel E. Hepworth
18 Royland Road, Loughborough. Wife of John Stafford Hepworth, retail chemist. Nursing member and also assisted occasionally with cooking. 5400 hours.

Miss Josephine MacLean
Rectory Place, Loughborough. Daughter of Dr. Joshua Buchanan MacLean, physician and surgeon. Nursing member. 1000 hours.

Miss Frances Marsh
The Brooklands, Forest Road, Loughborough. Daughter of John William Marsh, merchant . Nursing member. 3500 hours.

Miss Edith Mary Nash
Albert Place, Loughborough. Daughter of the Rev. Frederick Gifford Nash, retired Church of England clergyman. Nursing member. 2000 hours.

Mrs Muriel Nash
Field House, Loughborough. Widow of Edmund Humphrey Hollick Nash, actor. Nursing member. 3500 hours.

Miss Mabel Percy
14 Herrick Road, Loughborough. Daughter of John Henry Percy, a traveller in hosiery. Nursing member. 1000 hours.

Mrs Jane M. Stapleton
16 Beacon Road, Loughborough. Headmistress. Wife of Frederick Stapleton, a commercial clerk for electrical engineering and rolling stock builders. Nursing member. 900 hours.

Mrs Hylda Simpkin
68 Frederick Street, Loughborough. Wife of John Bertram Simpkin, a boot and leather merchant. Nursing member. 3000 hours.

Service from 1916-1919

Miss Winifred Ball
20 Leicester Road, Loughborough. Daughter of John B. Ball, a gas engineer. Served from October 1916 to February 1919. Nursing member. 3000 hours.

Miss Nellie Bampton
78 Leicester Road, Loughborough. Daughter of Harry Bampton, retired marine store dealer. Full-time nursing member. Served from June 1916 to May 1917 Loughborough General Hospital Military Wards (no pay); from June 1917 onwards at 1 West General Hospital, Liverpool (paid Army rate).

Miss Hilda Beeby
92 Ashby Road, Loughborough. Daughter of George Owen Beeby, boot merchant. Served from June 1916 to January 1919. Nursing member. 3000 hours.

Mrs Dorothy Hollick Burder
Ingleside, Ashby Road, Loughborough. Aged 36. Wife of Eric Walter Jefford Burder, horticultural and heating engineer. Served from September 1918 to March 1919. Nursing member. 500 hours.

Miss Ethelreda Burrows
Coteshale, Quorn. Daughter of Alfred Borrows, a lace draughtsman. Served from March 1917 to March 1919. Nursing member. 800 hours.

Miss Katherine Cartwright
Steeton, Ashby Road, Loughborough. Daughter of James Cartwright, retired hosiery manufacturer. Served from June 1916 to February 1919. Nursing member. 300 hours.

Miss Gwendoline Chamberlin
90 Derby Road, Loughborough. School teacher. Daughter of Ernest Chamberlin, solicitor's clerk. Served from September 1918 to February 1919. Nursing member. 350 hours.

Mrs. Annie Christian
32A Cobden Street, Loughborough. Wife of George Christian, domestic coachman. Served from April 1917 to February 1919. Nursing member. 2000 hours.

Miss Phyllis M. Coleman
Aingarth, Albert Promenade, Loughborough. Served from January 1918 to February 1919. Nursing member. 800 hours.

Lady Kathleen Curzon-Herrick
Beaumont Park, Leicester. Wife of William Montagu Curzon-Herrick. Served from February 1918 to October 1918. Nursing member and County Secretary. 250 hours.

Mrs. Henrietta Grey
105 Herrick Road, Loughborough, Served from March 1918 to February 1919. Nursing member. 250 hours.

Mrs. Ellen Johnstone
Longcliffe Hotel, Nanpantan, Loughborough. Wife of William Johnstone, electrical engineer. Served from February 1918 to February 1919. Nursing member. 150 hours.

Miss Ella Rosalind King
Beaumanor, Loughborough. Domestic servant. Served from April 1918 to October 1918. Nursing member. 150 hours.

Mrs Mabel Mathews
66 Frederick Street, Loughborough. Served from March 1917 to February 1919. Nursing member. 3000 hours.

Miss Norah A. M. Voce
Rempstone Grange, Loughborough. Daughter of John Edward Voce, farmer. Served from December 1917 to February 1919. Nursing member. 800 hours.

Service from 1914 onwards, not all in Loughborough

In February 1915 the War Office proposed that volunteers could help at Military Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) hospitals. These had previously been staffed exclusively by army nurses and orderlies from the RAMC. The first request from military hospitals for these 'special service' VADs in England came early in 1915 and from France in May of the same year. These were quickly followed by demands from Malta and Egypt.
The following signed up in October 1914 and, after some time at Loughborough Hospital, were posted elsewhere:

Miss Mabel Eliza Marsh
The Brooklands, Forest Road, Loughborough. Daughter of John William Marsh, merchant. Full-time nursing member.
From October 1914 to June 1916 Loughborough General Hospital Military
Wards (No pay); from June 1916 to November 1917 Alexandra Hospital,
Cosham and from December 1917 to April 1919 Military Hospital, Cairo
(Paid Army rate).

Miss Katie Daft [Louisa Kate]
The Laurels, Walton-le-Wolds. Daughter of William Daft, farmer. Full-time nursing member.
From October 1914 to June 1917 Loughborough General Hospital Military Wards (No pay); from June 1917 5th Northern General Hospital, Leicester - still serving there in June 1919 (paid at Army rate).

Miss Janet Rae
Officer. Full-time member. Assistant cook.
From October 1914 to December 1915 Loughborough General Hospital Military Wards (no pay); June 1917 onwards New Zealand Convalescent Hospital, Hornchurch, Essex (paid at Army rate).

Miss Josephine Taylor
The Bell Foundry, Loughborough. Daughter of John William Taylor, bellfounder.
Full-time nursing member.
From October 1914 to December 1914 Loughborough General Hospital Military Wards (no pay); from May to October 1915 at University Hospital, London; from October 1915 to February 1917 in France; from April 1917 to November 1917 at No. 4 Northern General Hospital, Lincoln; from October 1918 to January 1919 at No. 33 American Base Hospital, Portsmouth, and Naval Base Hospital, Plymouth (all paid at the Army rate).

Miss Natalie Wright
Castledine Street, Loughborough. Daughter of Thomas Wright, elastic web manufacturer. Full-time nursing member.
From October 1914 to December 1914 Loughborough General Hospital Military Wards (No pay); from August 1915 to September 1916 Nevers Hosptal, France; from February 1917 to March 1919 No. 14 General Hospital, Wimereux, France (all paid at the Army rate).


MLC