XVIII
MISS EDITH HOLDEN, R.R.C.
“I wonderif patients entering the receiving-hall of this hospital realise how much they owe to the Lady of the Lamp, whose statue has been lent us for the war?” Colonel Bruce Porter, in command of the Third London General Hospital, Territorial Forces, wrote the above recently in an appreciation of Florence Nightingale and the great sisterhood of nurses which she founded. From the original 125 nurses—the total under her control by the end of the Crimean War—has sprung the wonderful organisation which is nobly carrying on the noblest of all woman’s work.
MISS EDITH HOLDEN, R.R.C.VandykTo face page98
MISS EDITH HOLDEN, R.R.C.
Vandyk
To face page98
To see one of our great military hospitals to-day is indeed an inspiring sight. To walk through the bright, airy wards, to glance into the spotless theatres, to watch the preparation of appetising meals in the big kitchens, and to examine some of the modern scientific developments, induce a sense of deep interest, in which emotions of pity and sympathy are overwhelmed in the predominant atmosphere of thankfulness and hope. But it is not till a visitor has been privileged to enter Matron’s office and to be shown, in the beautifully kept ledgers, the system of organisation, that a true understanding can be reached of how it is that the work of this great hospital seems to run so smoothly, and with none of the restlessness and bustle which are associated with undertakings on a large scale.
Miss Edith Holden has been Matron of the Third London General Hospital since August, 1914. One of the biggest military hospitals in the country, it contains over 2000 beds, of which 550 are for officers. It is certainly the largest collection of beds controlled by one matron, for in other of the larger military hospitals the patients are in different buildings, each containing several hundred beds, and having its own matron, though all under one commanding officer. The original building was the Royal Victoria Patriotic School for Soldiers’ Orphans, but as the hospital has increased a town of wooden huts has sprung up around the central stone edifice. Miss Holden had had considerable hospital experience in peace time, having been matron at the Richmond Hospital, Dublin, and assistant matron at Chelsea Infirmary. To her skill and power of organisation much of the success of the hospital is due. She presides over a staff of women numbering 520, which includes fully trained nurses,V.A.D.probationers, women orderlies, clerks, cooks, and scrubbers; and if she had no other duties, the control of this department alone would be a fair day’s work. The standard of nursing expected at the base hospitals in England is considerably higher than abroad, where the patient often feels he is merely resting on his way home. “Bed-sores are not always avoidable abroad,” writes a well-known Army doctor, “but they must never occur in a hospital in England.” The shortage of trained nurses makes the maintenance of this high standard no easy matter. “We have only two-fifths of the number of trained nurses laid down in the establishment as authorised by the WarOffice Schedule before the war,” Miss Holden stated recently, and even this nucleus is liable to be drawn upon for foreign service. This involves considerable strain on the Matron and her assistants.
There remains as supplementary staff the great band of untrainedV.A.D.workers, from amongst whom the more experienced probationers are constantly transferred abroad. Miss Holden was one of the first matrons to welcomeV.A.D.helpers at the beginning of the war, and the care which she has bestowed on rendering them efficient and skilful nurses has been one of the most helpful factors in the smooth working of the hospital.
Another of Miss Holden’s multifarious duties is the responsibility of catering for the officer patients and the women’s staff. The management of this branch of the work demands brains as well as imagination. While the soldiers must receive the dainty diet which sick men need, food supplies must be closely watched, wastage avoided, and expenditure controlled. The happy and human atmosphere of the hospital speaks volumes for the personality of those in authority. Every aspect gives evidence of deep thought, sympathy, and understanding for the welfare of the sick soldiers. The spirit of progress is felt on all sides. To give only one instance: several of the masseurs in attendance are soldiers blinded in the war, who have been trained for this work, “and,” says the commanding officer, “after the war no one must employ any other masseurs but blind soldiers.” A wonderful new branch of work is the facial department. Lieut. Derwent-Wood by the use of metal plates has achieved miracles of restoration for those most unhappy of all maimed soldiers who suffer fromapparently hopeless disfiguring facial wounds. He uses his skill as a sculptor to model these masks for cases in which surgery cannot restore the missing part.
Yet a further and very human branch of the Matron’s special, though unofficial, activities is the care of the relatives who are sent for by the medical officers to see the dangerously ill cases. These unfortunate people arrive, many from remote parts of the country, never having been in London before; and the Matron has made it her duty to find accommodation near the hospital to which they can be sent.
The story of the Matron’s day is an endless chronicle: ceaseless care for the critical cases under her charge, a hundred daily problems to be solved in organisation of personnel, stores, equipment, not forgetting entertainments, which form a great feature. Besides coping with the daily round, she must always maintain an open mind for fresh ideas and arrangements and new experiments in nursing. Above all, she must keep the serenity, rapidity of decision, firmness, and sense of humour which are essential in her responsible office. Miss Holden manages to combine these qualities—she is a woman who must be obeyed without question, but who may yet be approached by the humblest worker in the hospital with the certainty of finding sympathy and justice.
Work in a base hospital is perhaps the most unselfish of all hospital work to-day. There is none of the excitement and constant change of the work nearer to the front; day by day the routine of the wards goes on, unceasing in its calls on body and mind, unending in its responsibility, demanding andreceiving in its fulfilment the best that women know how to give.
Colonel Bruce Porter paid his women workers a well-earned compliment when he reported recently: “Since the early days of the war the standard of nursing and care of the wards has been maintained by means of the loyalty of the reduced staff to their chiefs, and the whole of the women here have been and are magnificent. To keep this big crowd of women workers at their best could only be done by a woman of exceptional ability, and I am fortunate in having that type of woman as my matron.”
MRS. GASKELL, C.B.E.To face page103
MRS. GASKELL, C.B.E.
To face page103