Field Hospital and Flying Column - Early August 1914

 Field Hospital and Flying Column

Being the Journal of an English Nursing Sister

in Belgium & Russia

By

Violetta Thurstan

A week later I had a telegram from the Red Cross summoning me to London.

London was a hive of ceaseless activity. Territorials were returning from their unfinished training, every South Coast train was crowded with Naval Reserve men who had been called up, every one was buying kits, getting medical comforts, and living at the Army and Navy Stores. Nurses trained [3]and untrained were besieging the War Office demanding to be sent to the front, Voluntary Aid Detachment members were feverishly practising their bandaging, working parties and ambulance classes were being organized, crowds without beginning and without end were surging up and down the pavements between Westminster and Charing Cross, wearing little flags, buying every half-hour edition of the papers and watching the stream of recruits at St. Martin's. All was excitement—no one knew what was going to happen. Then the bad news began to come through from Belgium, and every one steadied down and settled themselves to their task of waiting or working, whichever it might happen to be.

I was helping at the Red Cross Centre in Vincent Square, and all day long there came an endless procession of women wanting to help, some trained nurses, many—far too many—half-trained women; and a great many raw recruits, some anxious for adventure and clamouring "to go to the front at once," others willing and anxious to do the humblest service that would be of use in this time of crisis.

[4]

Surely after this lesson the Bill for the State Registration of Trained Nurses cannot be ignored or held up much longer. Even now in this twentieth century, girls of twenty-one, nurses so-called with six months' hospital training, somehow manage to get out to the front, blithely undertaking to do work that taxes to its very utmost the skill, endurance, and resource of the most highly trained women who have given up the best years of their life to learning the principles that underlie this most exacting of professions. For it is not only medical and surgical nursing that is learnt in a hospital ward, it is discipline, endurance, making the best of adverse circumstances, and above all the knowledge of mankind. These are the qualities that are needed at the front, and they cannot be imparted in a few bandaging classes or instructions in First Aid.

This is not a diatribe against members of Voluntary Aid Detachments. They do not, as a rule, pretend to be what they are not, and I have found them splendid workers in their own department. They are not half-trained nurses but fully trained ambulance [5]workers, ready to do probationer's work under the fully trained sisters, or if necessary to be wardmaid, laundress, charwoman, or cook, as the case may be. The difficulty does not lie with them, but with the women who have a few weeks' or months' training, who blossom out into full uniform and call themselves Sister Rose, or Sister Mabel, and are taken at their own valuation by a large section of the public, and manage through influence or bluff to get posts that should only be held by trained nurses, and generally end by bringing shame and disrepute upon the profession.

Field Hospital and Flying Column - July 1914

 Field Hospital and Flying Column

Being the Journal of an English Nursing Sister

in Belgium & Russia

By

Violetta Thurstan

THE BEGINNING OF IT ALL

War, war, war. For me the beginning of the war was a torchlight tattoo on Salisbury Plain. It was held on one of those breathless evenings in July when the peace of Europe was trembling in the balance, and when most of us had a heartache in case—in case England, at this time of internal crisis, did not rise to the supreme sacrifice.

It was just the night for a tattoo—dark and warm and still. Away across the plain a sea of mist was rolling, cutting us off from the outside world, and only a few pale stars lighted our stage from above.

The field was hung round with Chinese lanterns throwing weird lights and shadows over the mysterious forms of men and beasts that moved therein. It was fascinating to watch the stately entrance into the field, Lancers, Irish Rifles, Welsh Fusiliers, Grenadiers and many another gallant regiment, each marching into the field in turn to the swing of their own particular regimental tune until they were all drawn up in order.

There followed a very fine exhibition of riding and the usual torchlight tricks, and then the supreme moment came. The massed bands had thundered out the first verse of the Evening Hymn, the refrain was taken up by a single silver trumpet far away—a sweet thin almost unearthly note more to be felt than heard—and then the bands gathered up the whole melody and everybody sang the last verse together.

The Last Post followed, and then I think somehow we all knew.

Overhead Projector

 An overhead projector (often abbreviated to OHP), like a film or slide projector, uses light to project an enlarged image on a screen, allowing the view of a small document or picture to be shared with a large audience.

In the overhead projector, the source of the image is a page-sized sheet of transparent plastic film (also known as "foils" or "transparencies") with the image to be projected either printed or hand-written/drawn. These are placed on the glass platen of the projector, which has a light source below it and a projecting mirror and lens assembly above it (hence, "overhead"). They were widely used in education and business before the advent of video projectors.

Overhead projectors were once a common fixture in most classrooms and business conference rooms, but in the 2000s they were slowly being replaced by document cameras, dedicated computer projection systems and interactive whiteboards.Such systems allow the presenter to project video directly from a computer file, typically produced using software such as Microsoft PowerPoint and LibreOffice. Such presentations can also include animations, interactive components, or even video clips, with ease of paging between slides. The relatively expensive printing or photocopying of color transparencies is eliminated.

 While an overhead can display static images fairly well, it performs poorly at displaying moving images. The LCD video display panels that were once used as an add-on to an overhead projector have become obsolete, with that combination of display technology and projection optics now optimally integrated into a modern video projector.

The Batmobile

 

Batman originates all the way back to 1939 where he was first introduced in Detective Comics. Since then he has grown to become one of the most famous, if not the most famous, superheroes of all time. Batman made it from the comic book pages onto the TV screen in the 1960s when the Batman TV series first aired starring Adam West as Batman/Bruce Wayne.

Both Batman and his companion Robin were two crime fighters there to defend Gotham City, their mode of transport was the Batmobile. 

Frustration

 Frustration is a board game in which players compete to be the first to send four pieces all the way around a board. It is based on a traditional game called "Frustration" played on a wooden board with indentations for marble playing pieces and rules similar to Parcheesi. Pieces are moved according to the roll of a die using a contained device called a "Pop-O-Matic".

Players may move pieces out of their home onto their designated start space only when the die lands on 6. Getting a 6 at any point in the game also allows the player to take another turn, even if the player cannot move any of their pieces (as they cannot land on any of their own pieces). They also may move a new piece out even if they have another piece currently in play, and can also do the same if another player's piece is occupying their "start" space, but cannot do so when one of their own pieces is occupying their "start" space.

Pieces move clockwise around the track. Players can send opponents' pieces back to the start by landing on them. Teaming is not allowed in the game. Pieces are protected from capture after arriving in the final four slots of the finish area. Unlike more complex race games such as Parcheesi, counters cannot be maneuvered to block opponents' moves.

Pop-o-Matic die container

The most notable feature of Trouble is the "Pop-O-Matic" die container. This device is a clear plastic hemisphere containing the die, placed over a flexible sheet. Players, roll the die by pressing down quickly on the bubble, which flexes the sheet and causes the die to tumble upon its rebound. The Pop-O-Matic container produces a popping sound when it is used, and prevents the die from being lost (and players from cheating by improper rolling). It allows for quick die rolls, and players' turns can be performed in rapid succession. 

The Co-operative Dividend Book & Stamps

 

The Co-operative Society revolutionised food retailing with the dividend, often known as 'divi', and the 'divi number', it became a part of British life.

The dividend was a financial reward to customer based on each customer's level of trade with the Co-operative. The distribution of profits on the basis of turnover rather than capital invested is a fundamental difference between a Co-operative and most private sector enterprises.

Customer sales would be recorded in ledgers in the society's stores, at the end of the collection period a proportional payment would be made to the customer.

As the societies grew, the number of customer increased and the method of using ledgers became cumbersome. As a solution the Co-operative issued stamps to customer for qualifying transactions. Customers collected the stamps on a savings card, when the card was complete the customer would use it as payment for goods or deposit into their share account.

The dividend stamps were introduced nationally 1969.

Cadbury Chocolate Dispenser

 

Nearly every child must have owned one of these as a child, it is a timeless classic & is still in production to this day.

It was a chocolate dispenser that doubled up as a money box. By putting in a coin you got a mini block of Dairy Milk in return & when you ran out of chocolate you could buy a whole new packet to replace them but most parents never bothered.