XV
MISS LENA ASHWELL, O.B.E.
Miss Lena Ashwell’swork in starting and arranging concerts at the front has probably given more delight to a greater number of people than the efforts of any other individual woman in the war. The entire scheme was her own, and it is through her untiring efforts and her personal energy that the work has been carried on and extended in a way that is little short of marvellous.
MISS LENA ASHWELL, O.B.E.HoppéTo face page79
MISS LENA ASHWELL, O.B.E.
Hoppé
To face page79
It was in February, 1915, that Miss Ashwell was asked by the Ladies’ Auxiliary Committee of the Y.M.C.A. to send a concert party to France, and with the goodwill and co-operation of that Committee the work was launched on its successful course. The first party was an experiment in every way, but its reception left no doubt as to the feelings of the soldier audiences. The love of music is enhanced by the alternating monotony and danger of life at the front, and is as fundamental in human beings as the craving for beauty. This instinct is seen, for instance, in the soldiers’ touching desire to make gardens wherever they are quartered, and however unpromising the conditions. From Miss Ashwell’s tentative effort there has grown up a great organisation, in response to the ever-increasing request from every base, from every camp, from every hospital, and even from thefiring-lines, for more and more concerts. In little more than two years over 5000 concerts have been given in France alone, apart from what has been done in Malta, in Egypt, and in the ships of the Adriatic Fleet. The audiences have been known to number as many as 5000 men, and thus hundreds of thousands are reached every month, and millions during the year.
What are called “permanent” concert parties have been established at five of the bases in France. Each party stays for about six weeks, giving on an average three concerts a day. In the afternoons they usually perform in the hospitals. In the evenings they motor sometimes twenty-five or thirty miles to outlying camps and stations, performing in tents, huts, barns, sheds, railway sidings, or even by the roadside, to all sorts and conditions of men in all branches of the Army.
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A MUSICAL ENTENTE BEHIND THE LINES
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The request for the concert parties to go up to the trenches and firing-lines soon followed, and this fresh branch of work was undertaken. Only men are allowed to go in the firing-line parties, and theY.M.C.A.cars convey them on these tours. Concerts have frequently been given under shell fire—sometimes to an audience fully armed and liable to be ordered into the trenches at any moment. Some of the most successful concerts are those for men just leaving the trenches after days of fighting, and here perhaps the music has had its most wonderful effect. It seems to act like magic on the exhausted men, strained almost beyond endurance by the ordeals they have had to face. The spell of horror is broken and their minds are turned away from all they have suffered to thoughts of beauty and happiness. Theexistence of the firing-line concert parties is in itself a proof of how much the military authorities appreciate the concerts and their effects. They have been quick to realise that the British Army can stand anything better than being bored. The keenness with which the concerts are anticipated, the touching patience of the men, who will wait for hours in bitter wind and rain—they would rather miss their principal meal than miss a performance,—the discussion for weeks afterwards, all prove how much the music means to them.
At the outset Miss Ashwell determined that the concerts should be up to a high standard. The programmes are varied as much as possible. Classical music, selections from operas, glees, trios, and concertos, the old ballads and folk-songs, are all given, as well as popular rag-times and modern chorus songs. A “concert party” generally consists of a soprano, contralto, bass, tenor, violinist or ’cellist, pianist and accompanist, and often a ventriloquist, conjurer or reciter. “The entertainment given is a mixture of a ballad concert, a recital, and a children’s party,” writes a member of one audience.
Sometimes plays are arranged, and in the autumn of 1916 Miss Ashwell herself took out a small dramatic company and acted inMacbeth,The School for Scandal, and some short modern plays. Writing of these performances, Miss Ashwell says: “We gaveThe School for Scandalin a wood, with half our audience on the grass, the other half dangerously overcrowding the branches of the nearest trees.Macbethwas given in a great hangar, with Army blankets for the walls of the banqueting-hall, and a sugar-box for the throne.Macbethwasan enormous success. Its reception was wonderful. We gave it to vast audiences; they listened breathlessly in absolute silence, and then cheered and cheered and cheered.... There were never such audiences in the world before—so keen, so appreciative, so grateful.”
Nothing can be more touching than the appreciation of the concerts in hospital. Here again the spell of the music seems to relax the strain on the men’s nerves, and the badly wounded and even dying soldiers beg to hear it, and find comfort in the midst of their suffering. The following is an extract from a letter written by a nurse: “The concert party gave a concert in the orderly room here, and afterwards those kind people came into each ward and sang softly with no accompaniment to the men who were well enough to listen, and the little Canadian story-teller told stories to each man in turn as he was having his dressings done. The result was that instead of being a suffering mass of humanity, the men were happy and amused through the whole of the time that is usually so awful.”
Concerts are also given for the medical service and the nurses, for whom these occasional evenings are the only relaxation in a life of strict discipline and unending work.
In January, 1916, in response to urgent requests, arrangements were made to extend the work to Malta, and in October, 1916, to Egypt; and, as in France, the success has been wonderful. Lord Methuen, the Governor of Malta, wrote to Miss Ashwell recently: “I cannot tell you the value that your concert parties have been to Malta. They have kept the men in hospital cheerful, and I am surethat a great deal of the excellent discipline that has been maintained here is owing to the interest the men have taken in attending your performances.”
From Egypt comes another appreciation from General Dobell, who writes: “The Lena Ashwell concert party has given concerts at all posts where it was in any way possible to allow them to go, and the fact that the ordinary rules were waived and special permission granted them to travel where no civilian in any circumstances had previously been allowed to go will make it clear to you how high a value we attach to their entertainments.” A touching account was recently given of an incident at a concert in the Sinai Desert. Some soldiers in a camp ten miles away, unable to obtain leave, were so much disappointed that they induced the Royal Engineers to lay some telephones wires, by which means these men in the distant camp were able to listen to the concert. Innumerable letters and testimonies to the success of her work have reached Miss Ashwell from all ranks and all branches of the Army—generals, commanding officers, doctors, chaplains of all denominations unite in saying that the concert parties are accomplishing work of real military value. Countless have been the letters of appreciation from the soldiers themselves. In spite of its rapid and enormous increase, Miss Ashwell has continued to organise the work in a personal and vital way. Not only has she frequently been abroad giving performances herself, but she has personally engaged all the artistes for the parties and has supervised their complicated travelling arrangements. Moreover, she has raised the entire funds to maintain the scheme by addressingmeetings and by making known the work, which has thus been carried on entirely by voluntary contributions.
Miss Ashwell has her thanks in the delight of the thousands who have been cheered and helped by the efforts of the organisation which she has truly made her own. The great message that the music has brought to the soldiers is well expressed by a medical officer who wrote to her recently:
“You do help us by heartening the men up and sending them back to the firing-line happy, and with the feeling that those at home do care, are with them and are trying to help.”
MISS VIOLETTA THURSTANTo face page85
MISS VIOLETTA THURSTAN
To face page85