II
LADY PAGET, G.B.E.
Asa monument to human endurance and courage there can be no more wonderful record than that of Lady Paget’s Hospital Unit in Serbia. The whole unit, several members of which were Americans, worked with a devotion and a loyalty unsurpassed during the war, but in Lady Paget they had a born leader, and a woman of indomitable heroism. At all the crucial moments, of which there were many, Lady Paget’s wisdom, tact, foresight, and rapidity of decision saved the situation and enabled her hospital to render inestimable work to stricken Serbia.
Lady Paget, as wife of a former British Minister to Serbia, already possessed a wide experience of Balkan hospital work, having worked through the two Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913.
In November, 1914, Lady Paget’s Hospital Unit reached Uskub. This was one of the most critical phases for Serbia in the whole war. The Austrian invasion was at its height, and the Serbian armies, their ammunition exhausted, were being driven helplessly through the country before the enemy guns. Uskub was one of the main hospital bases, though the conditions there were of the roughest as regards sanitation and hospital equipment. As soon as LadyPaget’s hospital could be hurriedly installed it was filled to overflowing with wounded Serbian soldiers, and for three months the work was incessant. When the surgical work began to slacken, the great typhus epidemic swept over the country. The Serbians had no means of meeting it, and Lady Paget, with two doctors and two nurses, by super-human labours prepared a great Typhus Colony at Uskub, Lady Paget herself undertaking the hardest menial work of scrubbing and cooking, and sparing herself no risk in washing and caring for the infected patients. By the labours of this gallant staff of five, and some Austrian prisoners working under them as orderlies, huge barracks were converted into hospital buildings and filled with hundreds of typhus-stricken soldiers within little over a week. Then Lady Paget herself caught the deadly fever, and for many days her life was despaired of. She was so much beloved throughout Serbia that her danger was felt as a national disaster, and the children of peasants in far-away places, where she was known only by name, were taught to pray for her daily, while in the synagogues a special day was set apart for prayers for her recovery.
In the spring, before Lady Paget was fully restored to health, she returned to England to prepare for further work, and in July, 1915, she again went to Serbia. She returned to her previous headquarters at Uskub and reorganised her staff, and during August and September the hospital was continuously full.
About the middle of October the storm of invasion again broke over the unhappy little country, and, while the German and Austrian armies swept down from the north, the Bulgarians poured in from theeast. It was at this point that Lady Paget had one of her most momentous decisions to make. The Serbian population was flying before the oncoming tide of the enemy armies—“one of the greatest tragedies in history,” Lady Paget wrote; “a nation was shattered, crushed, and driven forth into the wilderness to die of cold and hunger.” But, refusing to desert her Serbian patients, and in the hope of being able to save her large hospital stores for the help of the refugees, Lady Paget, with her staff, gallantly decided, in spite of strong opposition, to remain at Uskub and face the enemy. Describing this critical decision, a friend wrote of her: “Lady Paget’s will was the only fixed point that night in the universal land-slide around her. By setting her single will against the stampede, she turned back the flood of panic that was hurrying the wretched inhabitants of the town away to certain destruction; for the next day in Uskub, when it became known that the British Mission was staying to look after the wounded, it went far to reassure the people, and hundreds who would otherwise have gone to their death in the icy mountains of Albania remained in the shelter of their homes.”
With the coming of the Bulgarians on October 22nd began a long and difficult period. Until the middle of February, 1916, the Hospital Unit remained at Uskub, prisoners in the enemy’s hands. But, owing to Lady Paget’s tact and resource, they were able to carry on work of inestimable value, not only in nursing many hundred wounded, both Serbian, Bulgarian, and Austrian, but also in feeding and clothing thousands of Serbian refugees. Through the worst weeks of winter, between three and fourthousand were fed and clothed daily, and from first to last over 70,000 were relieved entirely from Lady Paget’s stores. It is a remarkable tribute to her personality that the enemy, though not too plentifully equipped themselves, should yet have allowed her to retain possession of this large quantity of stores, trusting as they did to her scrupulous sense of fairness and straight-dealing.
By February, 1916, Lady Paget and her workers had done all in their power for Serbia. By this time the refugees had been either interned or sent to their homes, the hospital had been evacuated of patients, the staff was worn out with hard work, and the stores were exhausted. After difficult negotiations Lady Paget obtained permission to leave and was able to return with her unit to England.
This is the third war in which she has given herself unsparingly to help the Serbians, and she has become an object of worship to this desolate people. To mark the national gratitude, King Peter has bestowed upon her the first class of the Order of St. Sava, an honour that had never before been given to an uncrowned woman.
MISS LILIAN BARKER,C.B.E., MISS MABEL COTTERELLTo face page21
MISS LILIAN BARKER,C.B.E., MISS MABEL COTTERELL
To face page21