A WW1 Military Hospital Autograph Book - What became of the soldiers?

 An autograph book I bought on eBay simply stated that it was from the WW1  "era" but I decided to take a risk and see if it would be of interest to me (a WW1 historian). On leafing through a few pages I immediately discovered that it was linked to the King George Hospital in London - this was because several entries stated it! The book seems to have belonged to "Hettie" who is mentioned several times. Indeed judging by several heartfelt declarations of love, Hettie was very popular with the patients! I hope to discover more about her in my researches.

 

 

The King George Hospital was a newly built 5 storey warehouse that was commandeered as a Red Cross military hospital in 1915. Beds were provided by subscription: Queen Alexandra paid for the first bed. Subsequently 1650 beds were provided.

 

 

A tunnel was built between Waterloo Station and the hospital to enable badly wounded soldiers to be transported out of sight of the public. 

 

 

 

The hospital was very well provided for and had all equipment and facilities necessary, including laboratories, dispenseries, kitchens, gardens (including a roof garden), leisure facilities for both patients and staff. Patients were provided with 7 cigarettes a day - different times! I have found a wonderful, online photo album that covers the period of my autograph book (link and credit below), with over 60 photos.

 

 

Time to dive into the life of the soldier who first signed the book - and what a life he had!

Gunner Stephen "Steve" Cairns of the19th Manchesters was wounded at  Trones Wood 20 July 1916. He had enlisted in November 1915 aged 23. I discovered that he was granted a 6 week furlough and he returned to the front only to be very seriously injured a year later  in July 1917, after which he was awarded a Silver War Badge (exempting him from further service) and a pension.

 

 

According to his pension records, after the war,  "Steve" as he was known, moved around the length and breadth of England including Durham, Blackpool, Birmingham and Cornwall.  I was initially baffled by this and then discovered that on the 1921 census his occupation was - "music hall artist". This was then confirmed again 1939. In fact, Steve had an incredibly successful career as a musician, comedian and ventriliquist, becoming the manager of a successful production and theatre company known as "Band Box" and managed the famous Blackpool Winter Gardens for several years. 

  

Steve was quite a minor celebrity and as such, he was interviewed by a local newspaper in the 1930s about his experiences in the War and how he came to "Escape from the Huns". This gives an excellent, first hand account of how he was wounded - however, I do wonder if his love of drama caused him to embellish his tale somewhat.  According to his service records he was injured twice - once receiving a fractured skull and once with a gunshot wound to the head. According to his account, he received 14 gunshot wounds whilst making a daring escape across enemy lines.  I really love the fact I have found his story in his own words (indeed maybe he WAS shot 14 times...).

 

Steve had quite an eventful and at times, mysterious life.  Before the War, the 1911 census shows him coming from a family of mill workers and he himself was a clerk in the mill. And yet by 1921 he is a music hall artist who went on to be featured literally dozens of times in the newspapers both as advertisemens and reviews of his productions! Another mystery is to whether he was married. He states in the 1939 census that he is a music hall artist and is married. The woman living with him is Mabel Wilman - also a music hall artiste and married. I have found no marriage for Steve. Mabel is variously described as single, married or Steve's sister - but I cannot find a sister for him. Mabel was if anything more celebrated than him. 

After searching through dozens of newspaper articles about them, I finally found a photo of them - however, Steve is dressed as a clown! So not a great likeness!

 

I found his story fascinating - the "straight from the horse's mouth" description by a soldier of his experience at the front, the fact that after the War a working class man became a music hall act and indeed, an impressario. I sadly cannot find for certain when he died - possibly 1969 - but there is another Stephen Cairns who might have died at that time. 

 If even a tenth of the soldiers' tales are as interesting as this one, I'm in for a treat!

Ancestry

Find my Past

BNA 

 

 https://www.blackpoolpostcards.co.uk/category/winter-gardens-programmes/

Album of photographs of the King George V Military Hospital, Stamford Street, London, First World War. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/xg876uygKing  

 

More tales from an WRAF autograph book: Winifred Beaufoy and her remarkable siblings

 I have previously shared some stories from an autograph book that I have that is filled with names of women in the WRAF in WW1. I have been delving deeper into some names and discovered some really interesting women who served at RAF Lympne. There are dozens of names and happily, many added "WRAF Lympne" after their entry. The records for women who served there haave been added to Ancestry.co.uk and so it was very easy to find important facts about the women, thus enabling me to trace their lives before and after the War as can be seen by Winifred's entry. These were really useful in tracing common names or partially illegible entries.

 

 

 Winifred's WRAF record at Lympne

 

Winifred's record provided her full names and year of birth. Further research showed someone of that name who lived in Worcestershire- so the fact that she enlisted at Birmingham confirmed I had the correct Winifred!

 

Winifred was born on 10th October 1894 in Willenhall in the West Midlands to William and Elizabeth Beaufoy. William, who was a farmer, was widowed in 1899. According to the 1911 census Winifred was living at home and was a cardboard box maker. 

 

 

  

I have found a lot of information about what life would have been like for Winifred from the wonderful Universtity of Warwick archive (links below). It was a very hard occupation and only the very poor were prepared to do it.

 

 

 "Sweated industries: being a handbook of the "Daily News exhibition

compiled by Richard  Mudie-Smith 

 

What interests me is that four years later, on 18th March 1918,  Winifred enrolled in the WRAF and moved away from home, to live in Kent with her fellow members. By the time she left the service - and she stayed on for a year after the end of the war - Winifred  is a General clerk, but had risen to be a chief section leader; presumably in charge of office workers. What a step up! she signed her colleague's autograph book on 5th April 1918, very soon after arriving at the base. This happened quite a lot in Dolly's book - I wonder if she welcomed any newcombers and asked for them to sign to the book as a way of introducing herself.

 

 

By the 1921 census Winifred was back home living with her father and sister, Bessie. I wonder how much she missed her fulfilling job. However, on researching the 1939 register I made a very interesting discovery. Winifred is a Sister of Mercy living in St Albans. The address - 2 Romeland - is very close to the Abbey. She has become a nun!

 

She died in 1977 in Plymouth From a five year old girl, being raised by her father and later working in a "sweated" industry - she served her country and was promoted as a leader of other women and later became a nun.  .What a remarkable life!

 

During my research I also discovered that her sister, Bessie Marjorie, after working as a dressmaker at home for several years, became a ward sister in the County Mental Hospital Hatton, Warwickshire.She trained at the Cheshire Mental Hospital for 4 years and qualified in 1935. I have found advertisements for equivalent positions at that time and the pay was £2-11 - 11p. She was working away from home in a fulfulling job and no doubt earning far more, in better conditions, than doing piece work at home. She died in 1991 aged 94. Details of the experience of nurses working at the hospital are in the very interesting link below.

 

 Hatton County Lunatic Asylum

 

Winifred also had a  brother, Archibald William, who was born in 1890. Before the War, he worked as a groundsman at a local golf club. Archibald enlisted in the Duke of Wellington Wiltshire Regiment. He died in Iraq in 1916, aged 26. 

 

 

 Archibald's Memorial Certificate: Commonwealth War Grave Commission

What a credit the three children were to their parents. All three served their country and their community, one of them paying the ultimate  price. It has been a privilege to rescue them from obscurity and I am very grateful that one entry in an autograph book could take me on such a humbling and interesting journey.

 

Only 40  + more names to go! 

 

 

 

Ancestry.co.uk

 https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/collections/digital/tradeboard/1906

https://wdc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p21047coll2/id/353 

 

https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/history-of-the-central-psychiatric-hospital-site-at-hatton 

 

Undiscovered War Poetry - In a forgotten autograph book

 

I recently posted a blog about an autograph book I have that belonged to Doris Freeman (Dolly) a Member of the WRAF, stationed at Lympne in Kent in World War One While reading some of the poems before further research, I realised that as well as the usual "ditties" and quotes, there were several poems that were written by friends of Dolly that relate to their experiences in the War as it was happening. I thought it would be fitting to publish these - in their own way as important and authentic as the so-called "War Poets". 

 

 

 

As the old Christmas time will come back to us

And Pa will cease directing cab and motor bus

Girls will leave there (sic) war-work

And ma won’t sugar hoard

Second […..] in “civvies” gather round the board

Loud will be the laughter ; mirth will never cease

When we rest in honour and a British peace

Looking round the table face with pleasure lit

Pa will say a triumphant “well, we did our bit”.

A  Rae 

What I love about this poem, is how it describes the different roles in her family! "Pa" appears to have worked in transport, "ma" did her bit (for the family anyway!)by hoarding sugar! The girls did their war work - and they could ALL say a triumphant "well, we did our bit" . Wonderful!!

 

Alice Rae was a mmber of the WRAF from 18th November 1918 to 11th October 1919. Although she is in Dolly's book, Alice's records show that she enlisted in Edinburgh and discharged in Farnborough. I think she must have spent some time seconded to Lympne. Alice was born in 1892 and she is described as a "fabric worker" presumably as part of the frame of aeroplanes. Unfortunately I have been unable to trace her in other records.

 

 

 

When War is here, a danger nigh,

God and the Soldier is the cry;

When war is over; and all things sighted,

God is forgotten and the soldier Slighted

Miss G Poole WRAF Lympne December 6^th 1918

This is a quite scathing comment on the world that soldiers returned to and relatively soon after the end of the war. Perhaps this poem shows that already the sacrifices of soldiers has been forgotten. Very moving.  

Gladys Mary Poole was born in 1895 and enrolled in the WRAF on 1st July 1918 in Birmingham and was discharged from Lympne on 13th September 1919. She was listed as a "fitter" and her work and character were listed as "superior". I cannot find definitive records for Gladys, although I did find a single woman of the same year of birth who died in Birmingham in 1971.

 

 

 

I pray the prayer that the Easterns (sic) do

May the peace of Allah Abide with  you

Wherever you be, wherever you go,

Many the beautiful psalms of Allah grow

In days of labour and days of rest

May the love of Allah make you blest

I touch my heart as the Easterns (sic) do

May the peace of Allah abide with you.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1924.

Although this is a poem by a well known poet, I found it really interesting that it was in the autograph book.. It was written after the War. Does this mean that whoever wrote this had served with Muslim soldiers at the Front?  It is such a peaceful and respectful poem. Unfortunately, no signature!

 

When the cold is making ice of the marrow in the bones

When your (sic)  shaking like a jelly fish and your feet are dead as stones

When your clothes and boots and blankets and rifle and kit are soaked hell to breakfast

And the dugout where you sit is leaking like a basket

And upon the muddy floor the water lies in filthy pools 6 inches deep or  more

That life feels cold and its rabble and all the World is wet

You’ll always get this [   ] somehow if  you go a cigarette.

 

"Sam" 

 

I thought that this might be the work of an established  poet, but cannot as yet find a published version of this poem. To me, it really does conjure up images of a pretty grim life - and yet there is a glimmer of something cheerful at the end - the much covetted ciggie! I do wonder whether Sam was a soldier as he is bringing up some authentic images. I believe that Roberet Frost had use the image of ice in the marrow of the bones but I cannot find the full  poem in the autograph book mentioned anywhere else. Very sadly no name or date!

 

 

 

You should never point a gun at a little boy in fun for lots of people that are dead, 

have died with bullets to the head

C C Walters 16/11/22

And finally, a rather succint and grim little ditty! I wonder if the author had seen plenty of soldiers who had suffered such catastropic injuries. Sadly I cannot trace "C C"

 

I really enjoyed reading these poems. I have dozens more entries to research - many with names. I can't wait to further  research the woman who signed herself "Mad Mabs" .. I know who she is!