Chapter Twenty-Three
Kate knocked on the door of the terraced house and Archie invited her in. She squeezed past the bicycle in the hall.
‘C-careful of your dress, the ch-chain’s a bit oily,’ Archie said.
Archie’s mother appeared, wiping her hands on her apron. Her round face settled on her double chin and her eyes fixed Kate’s. Her smile made the creases between her eyebrows flatten and Kate could see that, in her youth, she had probably been quite attractive.
‘Pleased to meet you at long last, Kate,’ she said, extending her hand.
‘Pleased to meet you too, Mrs Mabbs,’ Kate replied.
‘Archie, take Kate into the sitting room while I fetch the tea tray,’ Archie’s mother said.
‘Please make yourself at home.’
Archie’s mother laid on a special tea, neatly cut egg sandwiches, scones and jam and, in pride of place, a Victoria sponge.
The tiny sitting room was crowded with furniture but everything was neat and tidy and a smell of polish permeated the air.
Kate kept the conversation lively so that worries of Archie’s imminent return would not dampen their spirits.
She told them all about Micklewell, describing what a free and untroubled childhood she’d had wandering the country lanes and splashing in the streams. She reminisced about how her brother, Fred, had taught her to swim in the river, and how much she missed seeing her baby brother, Henry, grow.
Mrs Mabbs smiled and smiled all the way through the hour or so she was there and talked of happier days when Archie’s father was still alive.
‘He was a cab driver,’ she said. ‘Loved the horses, he did. Always said that he would move us to the country one day where the air was clean and we could have our own little garden. He would grow vegetables, he said, didn’t he, Archie?’
Archie nodded. He didn’t need to talk much, he told Kate later, ’cos his mum did all the talking for him. He walked her home to Vanburgh House and they said their goodbye. He asked if she would try to look in on his mother occasionally while he was away. Kate said she would.
‘Sh-sh-she’s worried about me, Kate. Y-y-you know, the st-st-st-stutter.’
‘I’ll visit when I can, promise,’ Kate said.
They stood holding onto each other for a long while and Kate kissed him. Now was not the right time to show her doubts. He was going back and, as for every soldier going back, there was no guarantee of a safe return. It did no harm to give him the courage and the hope that he so needed.
‘Look after yourself, Archie,’ she said.
When she looked back he was still standing there. She smiled and waved and went inside.
It would be several weeks before Kate could keep to her promise. The next time she had a Sunday afternoon off Clara asked her to help at the Bethnal Green Hospital, to carry out non-medical duties and so ‘release the nurses to do nurses’ work’, as Clara explained.
‘I’m making a list of women who are prepared to do such work,’ Clara said.
‘Will you help, Kate? I know it’s your only free time but we’re desperate.’
‘Of course, I’ll help,’ Kate replied without hesitation.
She penned a hasty letter to Archie’s mother apologizing and explaining that she’d arrange something as soon as she was able to and pay her a visit. She hoped that she would understand. Kate was excited about the afternoon with Clara.
‘Now, there are one or two things you need to know before we go, Kate,’ Clara said.
‘Firstly, you must prepare yourself to see some upsetting sights. Some of the men have horrific injuries. There are deep wounds and you will be asked to wash out bloodied clothes and bandages. There are men who have had limbs amputated, some lose their sight. What you are required to do is not to show any signs of fear or disgust. Do you think you can do that? These men have suffered enough without seeing horror mirrored in your eyes. Do you understand me?’
Kate nodded. ‘I quite understand. I can do it. I’m sure I can do it.’
‘Very well then. I will take you for your first introduction to Bethnal Green Hospital this Sunday.’
When Clara said that they would be going on an omnibus to the hospital, Kate felt a little flutter inside.
She had never travelled on an omnibus before.
They left the house together and boarded the bus.
Clara asked Kate if she’d like to travel on the top.
Kate was speechless, not just a bus but one that had an upstairs! What an adventure to write home about!
Kate held on to her hat as they began their journey towards Bethnal Green.
They were not going so fast that it might have blown away but she wanted to make sure.
The lurching movement and the stopping and starting made her hold on to the bar of the seat in front but, once she was settled with both hands securely clamped, she relaxed and took in her surroundings.
She hardly spoke to Clara but was amazed at the view from her vantage point, taking in a bird’s eye view of cyclists and pedestrians and seeing across walls into gardens.
‘Bethnal Green Hospital,’ the ticket collector called, and they descended the stairs.
‘Now, Kate,’ Clara explained, ‘I’m not sure what the matron will need you to do but it’s likely that you’ll be asked to do some of the least pleasant tasks. There’ll be bedpans to empty and floors to clean, bed linens to change and sick to clear up.’
‘Not a lot different to what I’m used to then,’ Kate replied.
‘I suppose not.’ Clara smiled.
As they entered the severe looking brick building, she wondered what awaited her and followed Clara silently to the area where the soldiers were being treated.
The Angel of Mercy ward was a long corridor of bed after bed.
Nurses were moving amongst the white bundled shapes, under which some men were lying prone and others were sitting up and taking a drink or having their wounds tended to.
A strong smell of disinfectant hung in the air, mixed with something sour and unpleasant which was unfamiliar to her.
A screen was being pulled across a bed at the far end and there were shouts for assistance.
A nurse was placing instruments hurriedly into a tray, a metallic clang accompanying each one.
Doors banged along another corridor somewhere and a doctor was being summoned. Kate was overwhelmed by the constant activity and wondered, for a moment, what she had agreed to.
One man, lying on a bed near the door, called out as they entered, ‘Here we are then, another angel for us lads.’
‘Now, Sergeant, just you behave yourself,’ one of the nurses replied. ‘Don’t you mind him,’ she said, addressing Kate, ‘he’s getting so much better that he’ll be off our hands soon. Hello Clara, you’ve brought us another volunteer, I see.’
Clara was greeted by nurses and patients by name.
Kate’s eyes swept over the entire room and she could see that, although this particular group of men were very talkative, there were many who were too sick and injured to respond.
One, whose thin body looked no bigger than a child’s, groaned with every outgoing breath and his head was so bandaged that she couldn’t see his face.
Kate turned back towards the nurse, her expression silently questioning what had happened to him.
‘Gassed and bullet wound to the head,’ the nurse whispered. ‘I’m afraid the surgeons had to remove one eye. He’s lucky to be here.’
Kate’s realization of what she had volunteered for hit her.
She expected that nursing the wounded would mean seeing injuries but she had not considered that some of those injuries might be so shocking to see, so life changing.
She took in the rest of the ward. One soldier at the far end was calling out with such urgency for help that Kate looked around her to see if anyone was going to him.
There was both pain and panic in his voice.
A nurse pushed past them saying, ‘Excuse me,’ and rushed off, calling for assistance from the other nurses.
Clara said to Kate that they should let the nurses get on with their work and took her to find the matron. Before Clara knocked on Matron’s door, Kate asked if the soldier who called for help would be all right.
‘Some injuries are so bad, Kate, that the men don’t survive. It’s the sad reality of what we do here. Are you sure you want to do this?’
Kate thought of Philip and how she would want someone to be looking after him should he be lying in some hospital somewhere, a kind face and a helping hand to speed his recovery.
She thought of Archie, heading back to the front, and Fred.
These men she did not know, these soldiers, deserved looking after too.
‘Yes, I’m sure,’ she said.
Clara knocked, and a voice asked them to enter. The two women greeted one another and Clara introduced Kate.
‘Good afternoon, Kate. Please sit down,’ Matron said. ‘I’m always pleased to meet another of Clara’s young women. We are particularly in need of extra help now, as we’ve just taken in another shipload of men. We’ve hardly enough beds for them all.’
Matron explained to Kate that she’d be given her duties each time she reported for duty by the ward sister and that there would be a certain amount of ‘using her own good sense’ when something needed doing.
‘Oh, Kate is the most able person I know at taking the initiative,’ Clara said.
‘Well good, that’s what I like to hear,’ Matron replied.
‘Now there are a few things I should mention about confidentiality. These are not normal circumstances, Kate, and we cannot have visitors on the wards. It’s too distressing for all concerned.
We get servicemen from all over and if local men were allowed visitors then the others would suffer and we believe they’ve suffered enough, as I’m sure you’ll agree. ’ Kate did agree.
‘Now, Clara will introduce you to Sister,’ Matron said. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
Sister Mathews welcomed Kate and then immediately passed the task of showing Kate the routines of the ward to an experienced volunteer called Jane.
Jane introduced her to the clean linen cupboard and the dirty linen baskets, where to find the mop and bucket, the kitchens and the cupboard where the cleaning materials were kept.
She showed her how to make up a bed according to Sister’s strict requirements and where the collection of books and magazines were kept.
‘Some of the men like to be read to, if you ever have the time,’ Jane said.
‘Main thing you need to know though is where to find the urine bottles and the bedpans.’ She opened a tall cupboard door to reveal the rows of them.
‘Right, next things next, this is the slops room. We spend a lot of our time in here,’ Jane explained.
As soon as they returned to the main ward, Kate got her first call. ‘Here’s your chance,’ Jane grinned. ‘No time like the present, Kate! Sergeant Carter needs a bedpan and it looks like he needs it in a hurry.’
Kate fetched the pan and Jane helped her to assist the sergeant whose injuries made it difficult for him to raise his lower body.
She waited, turning her face away and, when he had finished, removed the pan.
Covering it with a cloth, she took the waste to the toilet area and disposed of it, unable to stop herself from wanting to retch.
As she came out of the slops room, where she’d cleaned and disinfected the pan, one of the doctors swept passed her.
At the bed by the window, one of the nurses was calling for assistance.
She was leaning over a patient and pressing down on his chest, beating out a rhythm.
The doctor shouted for screens and Jane hurried across to Kate.
‘Come on, Kate, help me,’ Jane called, snapping Kate out of her shocked stillness.
‘Will he be all right?’ Kate asked.
Jane shrugged. ‘Happens all the time in here,’ she replied. ‘Some of them survive and some don’t. You’ll get used to it.’
Kate wasn’t sure of that but she knew that she must expect more and probably worse. The thought wasn’t even cold in her head, when a cry of anguish snapped her out of it.
She turned to see one of the men slumped across the edge of his bed, contorted in pain. She went to him and could see that one leg was twisted under him. She needed to move him and called for Jane to help her get him on his back.
As they pulled back the covers and tried to right him, Kate noticed that his leg wound was bleeding out and had soaked his bandages.
‘What on earth were you trying to do, Samuel?’ Jane asked.
He managed to reply, his face creased and pinched with the effort. ‘Needed to use the toilet,’ he said.
‘That’s what we’re here for,’ Jane replied.
‘You fetch the bedpan, Kate, and I’ll get some clean dressings. Now you stay put, young man, and no more trying to get out of bed, do you understand?’
The soldier nodded and lay back exhausted.
Kate knew as she fetched her second bedpan of the morning that there was no room for squeamishness or embarrassment in this job.
She knew that these men had suffered much and now they had to put up with the restrictions of being confined to bed and the loss of personal dignity.
They had to get used to it and so would she.