Fanny Goes to War

Fanny Goes to War

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Title: Fanny Goes to War
Author: Pat Beauchamp
Release Date: August 13, 2005 [EBook #16521]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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GOES TO WAR ***

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FANNY GOES TO WAR
BY PAT BEAUCHAMP (FIRST AID NURSING YEOMANRY)
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MAJOR-GENERAL H.N.
THOMPSON, K.C.M.G, C.B., D.S.O
LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 1919

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
To T.H.

INTRODUCTION
I eagerly avail myself of the Author's invitation to write a foreword to
her book, as it gives me an opportunity of expressing something of the
admiration, of the wonder, of the intense brotherly sympathy and
affection--almost adoration--which has from time to time overwhelmed
me when witnessing the work of our women during the Great War.
They have been in situations where, five short years ago, no one would
ever have thought of finding them. They have witnessed and taken
active part in scenes nerve-racking and heart-rending beyond the power
of description. Often it has been my duty to watch car-load after
car-load of severely wounded being dumped into the reception
marquees of a Casualty Clearing Station. There they would be placed in
long rows awaiting their turn, and there, amid the groans of the
wounded and the loud gaspings of the gassed, at the mere approach of a
sister there would be a perceptible change and every conscious eye
would brighten as with a ray of fresh hope. In the resuscitation and
moribund marquees, nothing was more pathetic than to see "Sister,"
with her notebook, stooping over some dying lad, catching his last
messages to his loved ones.
Women worked amid such scenes for long hours day after day, amid
scenes as no mere man could long endure, and yet their nerves held out;
it may be because they were inspired by the nature of their work. I have
seen them, too, continue that work under intermittent shelling and
bombing, repeated day after day and night after night, and it was the
rarest thing to find one whose nerves gave way. I have seen others
rescue wounded from falling houses, and drive their cars boldly into
streets with bricks and debris flying.
I have also, alas! seen them grievously wounded; and on one occasion,

killed, and found their comrades continuing their work in the actual
presence of their dead.
The free homes of Britain little realise what our war women have been
through, or what an undischarged debt is owing to them.
How few now realise to what a large extent they were responsible for
the fighting spirit, for the morale, for the tenacity which won the war!
The feeling, the knowledge that their women were at hand to succour
and to tend them when they fell raised the fighting spirit of the men and
made them brave and confident.
The above qualities are well exemplified by the conduct and bearing of
our Authoress herself, who, when grievously injured, never lost her
head or her consciousness, but through half an hour sat quietly on the
road-side beside the wreck of her car and the mangled remains of her
late companion. Rumour has it that she asked for and smoked a
cigarette.
Such heroism in a young girl strongly appealed to the imagination of
our French and Belgian Allies, and two rows of medals bedeck her
khaki jacket.
Other natural qualities of our race, which largely helped to win the war,
are brought out very vividly, although unconsciously, in this book,
_e.g._ the spirit of cheerfulness; the power to forget danger and
hardship; the faculty of seeing the humorous side of things; of making
the best of things; the spirit of comradeship which sweetened life.
These qualities were nowhere more evident than among the F.A.N.Y.
Their _esprit-de-corps_, their gaiety, their discipline, their smartness
and devotion when duty called were infectious, almost an inspiration to
those who witnessed them.
Throughout the war the "Fannys" were renowned for their
resourcefulness. They were always ready to take on any and every job,
from starting up a frozen car to nursing a bad typhoid case, and they
rose to the occasion every time.

H.N. THOMPSON, K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O., _Major-General_.
_Director of Medical Services, British Army of the Rhine._
_Assistant Director Medical Services, 2nd Division, 1914; ditto 48th
Division, 1915; Deputy-Director Medical Services, VI Corps, May
1915 to July 1917;