Women in the War Zone by Powell Anne

Author:Powell, Anne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Women in the War Zone
ISBN: 9780752469515
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2011-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Lady Howard de Walden

Convalescent Hospital No. 6, Alexandria, Egypt

At the outbreak of war Tommy Scott-Ellis, 8th Lord Howard de Walden, went to Egypt as second-in-command of the Westminster Dragoons. Shortly after the birth of their third child his twenty-five-year-old wife, Margherita, who was a trained opera singer, left the three children at Chirk Castle, the family’s country seat in north Wales, and followed him to Egypt.

When her husband went to Gallipoli with the 29th Division, Margherita and her friend Mary Herbert, wife of Aubrey Herbert, answered the appeal for hospitals and nurses in Egypt and found a building, Maison Karam, outside Alexandria, that would be suitable for a hospital. She returned to England and engaged a Matron and eleven private, fully qualified nurses. She then ‘ordered hundreds of jolly-coloured striped pyjamas. Jams and chocolate, stores, and medical stores, instruments, blankets, sheets, etc., and foodstuffs and much more besides.’ Towards the end of July 1915, four days before she was due to return to Egypt, Margherita Howard de Walden was asked to report to General Sir Alfred Keogh, Director General of Army Medical Services at the War Office. He refused to give her permission to start a hospital, telling her everything was well in hand and that he did not ‘require or wish for any private enterprise in Egypt’, and she was also intimidated by the matron-in-chief who joined General Keogh in his office. When she burst into tears the General gave her permission to ‘go out and see her friends’, but he ordered that she must not take the nurses and stores. However, the following day Margherita Howard de Walden, Mary Herbert, the Matron, eleven nurses, stores and equipment left for Egypt.

After an uneventful journey during which we got to know our nurses a little, we arrived, and the ship anchored off Port Said. The Captain came and told us that he had just received strict instructions not to allow us to land. This was indeed a shock! General Keogh had cabled to General Sir John Maxwell, then in charge of Egypt saying, ‘Forbid these women land. Please uphold authority.’ So he had no choice but to inform the captain of the P & O. We felt very low, and equally very determined. We calmed the nurses and hung over the rails, watching the last of the passengers disembarking.

At that moment, an open launch came alongside and a woman dressed in black stood up and called out, saying, ‘Je suis l’emisaire du White Slave Traffic de la part de Sir Ronald Graham. Ou sont Lady ‘Ovard de Valden et ces autre dames?’

We rushed down the gangway, we jumped into this splendid life-saving boat. We thanked the good lady profusely and she laughed and told us that Ronald [Sir Ronald Graham, Advisor to the Ministry of the Interior] had been blessed with this brilliant idea on our behalf.

We got into a hotel and chose our own rooms in strategic positions so that nurses would not go out without our hearing them.

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