A V.A.D. in France Book

In the summer of 1915, Olive Dent, a member of the St. John's Ambulance Brigade, left England with a party of one hundred other V.A.D.'s (Voluntary Aid Detachment nursing sisters)?for France. Olive describes her arrival at her destination thus: "The car pulled up at the hospital to which two of us V.A.D.?s were allocated: a tent hospital situated on a racecourse three or four miles out of the town. We tumbled out to be received by the night superintendent nurse. We were taken to the night duty room, and in about three minutes time were wondering why on earth we volunteered for nursing service. It was 2.30 in the morning, the door of the duty room was swollen and would not close, an icy draught played along the floor, and the kettle refused to boil for some time, though finally some very weak tea was made. The sister lucidly and emphatically explained to us that she had no idea what ?people were thinking about? to send out such girls as we, girls who had not come from any ?training school,? girls who had ?not had any hospital training,??what use could we possibly be?" Olive and her companion were soon to prove their worth to this doubting superintendent as well as to the wounded soldiers that they nursed. Her story of her experiences of V.A.D. work and camp-life is while at times very amusing, deeply poignant. "Camp-life in fine weather is glorious?glorious are the nights when the nightingale sings in the forest which borders our camp. Glorious are the times when we lie abed looking out on a moon-bathed sky with scurrying mysterious clouds, nights when we tell ourselves that there is no war. Glorious it is to sit and watch a rose sunset fade to mauve twilight, with a honey-coloured moon, ?long drawn-out nights when one's life has time to pause, and one takes a moment to think. Then one loses the charm, turns sideways in the deck-chair, swallowing the lump in one's throat, a lump partly occasioned by the beauty of the evening, partly by one's sheer physical tiredness, and partly by the memory of a torn and gaping wound and of a magnificent young life dying behind a red screen in the ward yonder, quickly as the sunset..?Read More