No Place for a Woman

by Val Wood

  Eleanor’s mouth dropped open. Not in a million years had she thought her father would take her seriously, but he was thinking about it … and then, as she smiled, she began to think of even bigger opportunities for when this awful war was over. She would forget about working for Madame Clapham, the Court dressmaker, because by then she would be experienced enough to start a fashion house of her own.

  Lucy and Oswald walked silently side by side, no cosy arm in arm as they often did, but with a gap between them.

  ‘The war is changing everything, isn’t it?’ he said as they reached the top of Baker Street and turned towards Albion Street. ‘Everyone is affected by it. Imagine Pa thinking of what else he might do that would make a difference.’

  ‘Yes,’ she murmured, ‘and Eleanor thinking of making shirts for soldiers.’

  ‘I’ve decided to take that offer at the other lab,’ he said abruptly. ‘I’ll be involved in more research according to the schedule I’ve seen, and if I still think I’m not doing enough after say six months or so, I might apply to enlist. There must be something I can do.’ There was a note of desperation in his voice. ‘I’m a pacifist,’ he said, ‘not a conscientious objector!’

  ‘Nobody thinks you are,’ she said softly. ‘And as a pacifist you could be a stretcher bearer or something like that if you really thought you should.’

  ‘I know,’ he muttered. ‘But it still doesn’t seem enough.’

  They walked on without talking until they reached Mason Street. ‘I’m not sure if I remember which house it is,’ Lucy murmured. ‘Dolly lives on the front but Mary is through one of these arches. This one.’ She pointed. ‘Grotto Square.’

  They knocked on the door of one of the houses down the dark and narrow street but there was no answer, so they turned away. ‘Perhaps they visit their relatives on Boxing Day, or are out for a walk, like us,’ Oswald suggested. ‘Shall we try Mrs Morris?’

  They retraced their steps to Mason Street, found the house number and climbed the steps to the door, where there were several bells, for this was a whole house with three floors and a basement divided up into apartments. Dolly Morris, her husband and their youngest son lived in three rooms upstairs, and when they knocked on the door it was opened by Mary.

  ‘Mary!’ Lucy said gleefully. ‘We’ve just been to your house. I’m so glad that we’ve found you.’

  ‘Come in, Miss Lucy,’ Mary said. ‘Hello, Master Oswald.’ She looked up at him, so tall above her, and smiled. ‘Mind your head!’

  He ducked through the doorway. ‘Hello, Mary. It’s nice to see you.’

  ‘Me and ’girls have come round to cheer our Dolly up,’ Mary whispered. ‘She’s a bit down with it being Christmas and her lads being away. Even Charlie’s working today, same as my Joe. They can’t afford to turn down a bit of extra on Boxing Day.’ She lowered her voice still further. ‘But they’re worrying over Stanley and they’ve onny just heard from Josh.’

  ‘Stop whispering, Mary, and bring ’visitors in,’ Dolly called out. ‘You’re letting ’heat out.’

  They all looked at each other wryly and went in to greet Dolly and her husband Tom, and Mary’s two daughters. Dolly was holding a letter in her hand.

  After the usual season’s greetings had been exchanged, Lucy and Oswald perched on chair arms as there were not enough chairs to go round and they’d both refused to take Tom’s or Dolly’s.

  ‘Can’t stay long,’ Lucy explained, ‘but we wanted to come and see you before we go back to London.’

  ‘You’re lucky to get home,’ Dolly said in a gloomy voice. ‘Our Edie’s been on duty all of Christmas. Says she’ll come home at ’beginning of January for a couple of days.’

  Oswald nodded, remembering that Edie had told him she’d be going abroad in January; the visit home might be her last for quite some time.

  ‘What do Stan and Josh have to say, Mrs Morris?’ he asked. ‘Are they both all right?’

  ‘They say so, but are they telling ’truth? There’s no way of us knowing, and on onny one page they can’t say much.’

  She handed him the crumpled paper she’d been holding. ‘You can read it if you like; this one came from Josh before Christmas.’

  He took it and quickly scanned it. It was true, Josh wasn’t saying much, but then he’d be under orders not to otherwise some of it would be deleted.

  Dear Mam, Da and everybody, we’re just settling down for the night and hoping for a quiet one and that Fritz is as well. I’m quite well but a bit damp and muddy cos we’re in the trenches but quite safe. I haven’t seen Stanley since he got back from Blighty and he’ll be further up the line I expect, but we’ll catch up soon. I’ll tell him to write as soon as he can. Please give my best to Bob and his wife and Charlie and everybody, and Ada, tell her I’m sorry we didn’t make it to the wedding, and I hope everybody’s in good spirits. Your loving son. Joshua. PS A slice of Christmas cake would be just the ticket. Ha ha!

  ‘He sounds to be in good spirits,’ Oswald said, handing the letter back to her and including Mr Morris in his comment.

  She looked down at the letter again. ‘He does, doesn’t he?’ she muttered. ‘But he wouldn’t say even if he wasn’t!’ She looked up at him. ‘And what about you, young man? Are you in uniform? Our Charlie comes home from work all mucky in his greasy overalls so that folk won’t think he’s avoiding conscription and give him a white feather.’

  ‘No, I’m not in uniform. I’m a scientist.’ He hesitated. ‘I hope I’m working to make life a little easier for those at the front. We’re looking at how to combat infections such as trench foot and fever and typhoid; providing tetanus injections against—’ He wanted to say injuries from barbed wire, but he didn’t; he’d seen photographs of the damage it could do and wouldn’t want to share it with the mother of two soldiers. ‘Against – cuts and other wounds, and researching into types of mobile X-ray machines that can be transported to areas where they’re needed.’

  He wanted to tell them more, but thought perhaps it wasn’t appropriate; he would have liked to talk about the scientist Marie Curie, who had been personally involved in arranging to have army trucks adapted as X-ray units that could be driven to the battlefields so they were quickly on hand to assess injured French soldiers. It would take more than just a quick visit to explain everything; all the urgency of having critical medicine and equipment ready and available for use in the war that was consuming Europe.

  ‘I see.’ She nodded slowly. ‘Important work, then? But nobody who sees you would know that, would they, lad?’

  When he didn’t answer she said softly, ‘So has anybody given you a white feather?’

  Lucy turned to look at him as without flinching he said quietly, ‘Yes, as a matter of fact, they have.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Edie went home in the first week of January 1915. She was sorry to have missed Lucy and Oswald but none of them were masters of their own destiny any more and had to snatch home leave whenever they could.

  As she stepped off the train at the Paragon railway station the platforms were full of servicemen both arriving and departing and the station was full of steam and noise. Some of those arriving looked as if they had come from the war zone; others were energetic and enthusiastic after completing their basic training, whilst the raw recruits waiting to depart, young men not yet in their twenties, were rowdy and exuberant, slapping friends heartily on their shoulders in greeting whilst their relatives, mothers in particular, were trying to hold back tears. Hull had raised four battalions of Hull Pals, each with over a thousand men, and with a reserve battalion of replacements, the 4th East Yorkshires. They had trained in the streets, parks and playing fields of the city and considered themselves ready for anything.

  Edie fought to hold back her own concern that she might see some of them again when she arrived in the French hospital, but then, she told herself sternly, if she did, it would mean that they had survived death, even though sustaining injuries. She and her nur
sing colleagues, hand-picked to travel abroad, had been left in no doubt that they would see some distressing sights that women were not generally accustomed to.

  As she walked down Albion Street towards her parents’ home in Mason Street she followed an officer in a very well cut uniform, one made by a tailor, she surmised. Some of the graduates she had met who had enlisted straight from university were not always as well kitted out as this one appeared to be and she wondered who he might be; he would be with an East Yorkshire regiment, that was for sure, but as his steps slowed and he paused before glancing down into the basement of one of the houses and then turning towards the steps, she knew or thought she knew who it must be, even though she hadn’t seen him in many years.

  Some sixth sense made him glance over his shoulder as he took the first step, and seeing her nurse’s cloak he nodded and touched his cap. ‘Good afternoon, nurse,’ he said. ‘Are you off duty too?’

  ‘I am, captain. Henry,’ she added.

  His eyebrows shot up and he took off his peaked cap. ‘Lieutenant,’ he corrected her. ‘Have we met?’

  She laughed. ‘A long, long, time ago and I wouldn’t expect you to remember. We met when we were children. You and your sister were at Lucy Thornbury’s birthday party and I was there with my brother Josh. I think I was six.’ She smiled again and dimples appeared in her cheeks.

  ‘Great heavens!’ He came back down the step to the pavement. ‘Imagine you remembering. Was I pretty awful back then? Is that why you remember?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said. ‘But I recall my brother offering to fight you.’

  He put his head back and laughed and she thought admiringly how handsome he had become. ‘Josh!’ he said. ‘Yes! I was most put out, because didn’t he win every game we played?’

  ‘I expect he did,’ she said, smiling. ‘He usually does.’

  ‘What’s he doing now? Has he enlisted?’

  ‘He and my brother Stanley are regular soldiers. Stanley’s a sergeant, Josh a corporal. They both joined the army before the war began.’

  ‘So did I,’ he said. ‘I always wanted to be a soldier. Do you see anything of Lucy Thornbury? I met her by chance a few years back when I was on leave.’

  ‘Yes, we’re still good friends. We meet from time to time. We’re both in London. She’s almost finished her medical training.’

  ‘Has she really? Good for her,’ he said. ‘And her brother, a quiet fellow back then?’ He gave a little frown as he tried to recall. ‘What was his name?’

  ‘Oswald, but he isn’t her brother, they’re – sort of cousins. He’s a scientist. He works in London too,’ she added, and then said, ‘Well, it’s been nice to see you again. I must be off home.’ She gave a little shrug. ‘It’s only a short leave and I have to break some news to them.’

  ‘Ah, getting married or something?’

  ‘No!’ she exclaimed. ‘Certainly not. I’d have to give up nursing if I did.’

  She saw his eyebrows lift again. Crikey, she thought, he is so good-looking. He had a thin fair moustache above an attractive smiling mouth. ‘No,’ she said again, more seriously. ‘Erm, I’m not supposed to talk about it but I’m allowed to tell my family.’

  His face dropped, as did his next words. ‘You’re taking a holiday abroad?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘I am. I hope ’weather’s better than here!’

  He shook his head. ‘It won’t be,’ he said. ‘So take care.’ He took a step towards her. ‘It’s Edie, isn’t it? It just came to me.’ He remembered then her cheeky grin from when she was a child. He put out his hand and she extended hers and he clasped it firmly and held it. ‘I mean it,’ he said. ‘Some of those holiday destinations can be rather precarious.’

  She nodded. ‘So I believe, but yes, I will. Goodbye, lieutenant. Nice to see you again,’ she repeated. ‘And you take care too.’ And she felt a great lump of anguish in her chest for all the young men who were risking their lives to defend their country and thought that if she could help to save just one of them it would be worth her small risk in being there.

  ‘Henry,’ he corrected her. ‘Where are you nursing now, Edie?’

  ‘At St Thomas’s,’ she said, knowing that he would have heard of it.

  He nodded. ‘Sterling work done there, I’ve heard,’ and giving her hand another gentle squeeze he smiled at her and turned away.

  His mother had been watching from the window, waiting for him to arrive. She opened the door to him. ‘Darling Henry.’ She put up her cheek to let him kiss her. ‘Who was that nurse I saw you flirting with?’ she said coyly.

  ‘I wasn’t flirting, Mother. It was someone I met a long time ago.’ Though I might have done, he thought, if circumstances had been different. ‘She’s a very brave young woman.’

  Edie’s mother took the news of her impending journey well and proudly, her father not so.

  ‘It’ll be dangerous out there for a young woman,’ he asserted. ‘It shouldn’t be allowed. It’s no place for women!’

  ‘I’m not going to be fighting, Da,’ she said. ‘Nurses are needed! And it’s a pity that ’British authorities don’t realize it too,’ she said hotly, ‘instead of leaving it to the French.’

  ‘What d’ya mean?’ He scowled at her.

  ‘I mean that I’ll be working in a French hospital run by English women and treating mostly French soldiers because ’English authorities won’t allow their nurses to travel abroad, which means in turn that our wounded soldiers have to be transported back to this country to be treated here rather than on the spot where they were injured.’

  He was silenced for a moment whilst he contemplated this piece of information. ‘So, you mean, they’ve got to be brought overland to ’French coast and then shipped home?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said simply. ‘And some of them need serious surgery where time is essential.’

  She couldn’t explain further as she didn’t want them to worry even more about Stanley and Joshua than they were doing already. Her mother had turned away, clearly affected by the thought of the consequences if either of her sons should be injured.

  ‘Ah, well,’ Tom relented, glancing at her. ‘I suppose, in that case, even though I’ve no love for ’French …’

  She knew he’d want to have the last word, but couldn’t resist saying wryly, ‘And how many French folk do you know, Da?’

  ‘I don’t know any,’ he admitted, ‘but I’ve heard tales about ’em. They’re a funny lot, so you just watch out!’

  She let it go; he was worried about her, she knew that, and it was his way of telling her to be careful.

  ‘I suppose you’ll have to learn to speak French then, will you?’ her mother asked. ‘You’ll have to learn ’lingo.’

  Edie smiled and glanced at her father who had settled back into his easy chair. ‘Oh, just a few words to get me by,’ she said. ‘I’ll find some handsome Frenchman to teach me.’ She saw her father turn and scowl at her and laughed. ‘Onny kidding, Da.’

  She visited as many of her relatives as she could during that weekend. Her newly married sister Ada; Bob and his wife; Mary and Joe and her cousins. Aunt Susan, who was working in one of the family shops. Her cousin Jenny who was managing the one in Charles Street since Max had enlisted. He’d applied for officer training but hadn’t been accepted. Running a grocer’s shop didn’t give him the credentials that were needed and so he’d joined the Hull Pals Commercial battalion with many of the men he remembered from his schooldays.

  ‘They’ll all be in it together,’ Jenny said as she and Edie chatted and she surreptitiously weighed in an extra slice of bacon and winked at Edie as she handed it over for her mother. ‘You should have seen ’queue of lads at ’recruiting bus outside city hall. Some of them looked so young, barely out of school. I bet their mothers didn’t know they were there.’ She gave a pout. ‘There’ll be no eligible young men left in town,’ she said gloomily. ‘Have you met anybody special yet, Edie?’

  Edie s
hook her head. ‘I meet plenty of young men,’ she said, thinking of the many badly injured soldiers brought to St Thomas’s. ‘But I don’t intend marrying, not yet anyway; our Ada waited, didn’t she? She was in no hurry …’ She left her words hanging for a moment. ‘I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to see her wed.’

  ‘It’s a risk though, isn’t it?’ Jenny folded her arms. ‘Isaac’s gone off to war now. What if he doesn’t come back?’

  Edie took a breath. ‘Well, she’ll be in ’same situation as she was before, won’t she? Except she’ll be a married woman instead of a single one!’

  She thought of the handsome officer, Henry Warrington. She could fall for him, she thought, but what would be the point in that? He was way above her socially and she could imagine his sister Elizabeth’s scathing comments. Of course, she might have changed too from the pretentious child she used to be; just as we all have, she thought with a sigh. We’re none of us the same as we once were.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Lucy was kept up to date with what was happening in Hull by letters from her uncle, who told her about the Hull fishermen in their trawlers who were minesweeping and dropping depth charges in their effort to search for and destroy submarines. He also said that he had had a telephone installed at the house, and was thinking of buying a motor car. Her aunt Nora described the women’s groups who were helping out the families of many soldiers who had been sent abroad, and Eleanor was planning on leaving school at Easter and keen to tell her about her proposed project of making shirts for the military.

  S.F.S. Eleanor wrote. Shirts For Soldiers. Of course we’ll make puttees and other things too if we get the contracts. Papa has done all the paperwork and worked out how much it will cost to buy sewing machines and I’ve sent a sample of my work so that they can see that I’m up to it, and if we do get the go-ahead Mama suggested we use the Pearson Park house as a temporary workplace. I’m so excited, she finished. I’ll be devastated if they turn us down.