alice batt

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NURSES

The diary of Alice Maud Batt (18891969)

Audrey Cruse

Summary:Alice Batt while working as a VAD1

nurse in 1918 during World War I was awardedthe Albert Medal.2 She was also awarded the British Red Cross Society Special Service Cross in1919 for exceptionally meritorious service and earlier, in 1915, had been awarded the RoyalHumane Society Medal for saving a girl from drowning in the sea. This account is based onher own wartime diary, published privately by a family member, Arthur Batt.

The name Batt is commemorated in the parish churchof St Mary in Witney, Oxfordshire where five gener-ations of medical men, all members of the Batt family,are commemorated (Figures 13).

Alice was born in Witney on 13 November 1889. Shelived there for most of her life with her well-settled

family, in a large house (The Hill) situated in threeacres of land. Nikolaus Pevsner3 comments:

Market Square, Witney. Where the pavement is raised abovethe road is No 16, one of the grandest Georgian houses inWitney. Of c. 1725 it has an ashlar front with chamferedquoins and keystoned windows, a door case with Tuscan pila-sters and a pediment. The central first-floor window is alsopedimented.

A team of servants cared for The Hill and those wholived there. The drawing room had three stained-glasswindows, known as the medical windows. Theydepicted John Abernethy, William Harvey and John

Hunter. In 1984 the windows were removed to StBartholomews Hospital in London and were installed inthe entrance hall of the Clerks house, part of the 18thcentury North Wing. The surgery in Witney was in ahouse adjoining The Hill and was approached throughan alleyway on the south side (Figure 4).

Alices father was the fifth generation of the familyto practise medicine in Witney. Alice herself was edu-cated at Wycombe Abbey (190507). In her first yearthere, when she had reached the age of 16, her motherdied. In her second year (1906) at Wycombe the stra-tegic plans for the 191418 war were being preparedby the German Chief of General Staff whose name lives

on in the meticulously conceived Schlieffen plan for thedefeat of France and Russia.A picture of a sheltered and idyllic childhood, gov-

erned by tradition and the rhythm of the seasons,emerges from the introduction to the diary. This is

much in contrast with the war and the conditions inwhich Alice was later to live. The introduction to thediary informs us that the children grew up with anappreciation of their privileged position, realizing thatthis brought with it obligations of service and leader-ship. Alice was a product of her time, the embodiment

of the upper middle-class Englishwoman. Her familyhistory is recorded in the monuments in the graveyardof the Parish Church. In 1911 she joined the Oxford 22Voluntary Aid Detachment of the Red Cross and on 4August 1914 the war began.

The war

On 12 November 1914 Alice reported for duty at LadyEvelyn Masons Hospital for Officers at 16 BrutonStreet, Berkeley Square in London. She kept a scrap-book which gives a glimpse of the lighter side of

nursing the sick and wounded, known as the blesses.4

Particularly admirable and witty are the cartoons andsketches drawn by Nurse Stevens. Alice did not write adiary at this stage for as well as nursing duties therewas also time for a busy social life. The scrapbookreveals a warm personality and a liberal humanitywhich endeared her to her patients and which was tosustain her through the terrible war years to come.During this period Alice was given the nicknameBetty; the reasons for the choice of this name are notknown. After a period of home-leave and more than ayear spent in the hospital at Bruton Street, Aliceapplied for service in France and on 25 March 1916 shearrived at No. 9 British Red Cross Hospital where she

commenced her nursing duties and her diary (Figures5 and 6).

No 9 British Red Cross Hospital

The hospital, also known as the Millicent SutherlandAmbulance (MSA), was near the Gravelines Road onthe sand dunes by the ramparts of Calais. Alice was towork in this hospital at various places including Calais,St Omer, Hazebrouk and Roubaix (St Omer was 45 kmfrom Calais and from October 1914 to March 1916 wasthe General Headquarters of the British Expeditionary

Force). Indeed, Alice worked (unpaid of course) with

Audrey Cruseis a trained nurse now retired (Kings College Hospitaland Queen Marys Hospital for Children, Carshalton). Upon retire-ment she studied for a BA degree with the Open University and shefollowed this with an MA in Archaeology at the University ofReading. Her chief interest is in the archaeology and history of medi-cine. In 2004 she published Roman Medicine with Tempus (now theHistory Press). A second edition was published in 2006. She con-tinues to be interested and active in medical history and related sub-jects. Correspondence: Audrey Cruse, Applewood Bath Road,Littlewick Green, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 3QR, UK (email:[email protected])

Journal of Medical Biography2010;18: 205 210. DOI: 10.1258/jmb.2010.010032


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only occasional leave, as a VAD nurse until the warwas over, finally leaving the MSA on 27 November1918. Many of these sites were casualty clearingstations (CCSs) that can be located today by the clustersof military cemeteries that surround them. CCSs wereessentially near the fighting frontline. They were thereto provide emergency treatment and to move

casualties, where possible, by rail, road or barge alonga canal, back to stationary and general hospitals.

The MSA hospital was originally established atNamur (Belgium) as a convent on 16 August 1914 byMillicent Duchess of Sutherland.5 On 22 August theGermans took the town. The Duchess made many pol-itical demands of the Germans; indeed she had knownsome of them socially from before the war. Thesedemands were mainly with regard to provisions offood and logistics. Eventually the ambulance was per-mitted to move to Maubeuge, 20 miles south of Mons.Thereafter there were several more moves, first fromBelgium through German lines to England and then to

Dunkirk in early November 1914. After several moremoves it arrived at Calais and opened there on 12January 1916 as a hospital for British wounded, with100 beds later increased to 120, which is where Alicejoined it. There were to be three more moves before thehospital was demobilised on 20 November 1918.During this time Alice lived in a hut, a tent and on a

Figure 1 The Good Samaritan memorial in St Marys Church, Witney

Figure 2 A close-up of the message attached to the memorial

Figure 3 The Batt family plaque placed below the memorial. Dr CharlesDorrington Batt was Alices father

Figure 4 The Hill where Alice was born and where the family lived for

four generations. The house is now a school

206 Journal of Medical Biography Volume 18 November 2010


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barge, and writes that she wouldnt choose the latter

for long.On arrival at the camp in Calais, Alice was given

accommodation in a hut. One night in April 1916 sheheard violent explosions and the sinister sound of bigguns, her bed and the hut itself shook and Alicerecords that this was her first experience of fear of thewar. A further fearful incident occurred during a nightof violent storm, wind and rain. Tents were blowndown and wet and bedraggled members of staff hadsomehow to be put up for the remainder of the night.On 5 May 1916 there came a brief respite when the60th Brigade held sports on the shore to which allmembers of the staff were invited. ... we walked

through blazing sun and much heavy sand to the sceneof the action, found a good place on top of a high dune

and extracted amusement from the rather comic racingof the Tommies. The sea made a sparkling back-ground. Another diversion occurred when Alice wentinto Calais with a friend for afternoon shopping andtea, and she comments with enthusiasm on the cour-tesy and friendly attitudes of the French and Belgians.

Alices sensitivity to and appreciation of the naturalworld is often poetic, as on 19 May when enjoying aprecious day off she writes: It is very lovely here in thewoods where I am writing. Blue sky and pale springscenery; white butterflies and the black and white flashof magpies wings appear among the trees. But even inthis peaceful spot you can just hear the distant rumble ofbig guns from the firing line and it is that whichspoils everything. A memorable incident occurred whenAlice and a friend were tempted by the beauty of thenight to sleep outside. After two hours sleep a heavyshower of rain caused them and three other VADs todrag their bedding into the mess-tent, for which theMatron scolded them. It is not surprising that Alicesusual stoical attitude, her humour and courage, fail her

for a short while when on 13 May she reports a vividrealization of the misery of war and of suffering a fit offear and depression. The atmosphere of camaraderieamong the staff and the working ethic of a commoncause were vital ingredients for the mental health ofthese workers, particularly in the case of the nurses.Conversely, whenever a close friend left the hospital forleave or for health reasons, she was sadly missed.

Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme began on 1 July 1916 and was

to become known as the blackest day in British militaryhistory. The events are well documented. Alice records

Figure 5 Alice Maud Batt (from the archive of the late Capt. Swann. Capt.Swann was the husband of one of Alices nieces)

Figure 6 British Red Cross Hospital No 9 ( from the archive of the late Capt. Swann)

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big guns booming away in the distance and bargesbringing in the wounded. Patients could arrive or leaveby road, rail or canal. On 10 July she notes:

A most horrible day, I never felt so nervy and on edge herebefore, and as tho I couldnt bear the ward any longer. I feela mean coward it is awful; when they are so bad. One poor

boy with two compound fractures, and now hes to have one

foot amputated. Have just come off duty (10 p.m.). Anothertrain load arrived about 7.45. One of ours can hardly survivethe night. The lighted ward, the trolley ready for dressings,one of the new arrivals on a stretcher ready to go off at onceto the theatre, screens, bowls of water, bundles of dirty khaki,clean fresh pyjamas and bedclothes ... these poor Tommies ...I seem to see it all in a kind of nightmare this evening.

On going to bed that night Alice was wakened byviolent explosions; with taut nerves she put on her coatand joined a group of people outside her tent. She wasgiven the information that a Zepp had droppedbombs on the other side of the canal. She was appreci-ative on 15 July when Matron gave her a days rest.

Another poignant passage is recorded on 18 August:

We had eight new patients in yest: evening all pretty badlywounded and tonight there is a train full of patients arriving,which fills us up completely. We have the most angelic Scotch

boy in 3 bed only 18, and hes lost an eye, is wounded inthe cheek, arm, chest and thigh and his legs and both armsare peppered with tiny bits of shrapnel yet he says he gotoff lucky and everything we do for him is just excellent.Oh, he is sweet and so good and patient and says such quaintthings. He makes us laugh, and yet I almost want to cry hesso brave. I only wish we all had half the pluck.

After three weeks home leave Alice returned to the

MSA at St Omer. The hospital was to become a testhospital for the new Carrel treatment of wounds.6

While waiting for the wards to be ready Alice was sentto BRC GHQ en route for Le Treport where she was tojoin No 10 BRCH. But having spent a day there waitingfor transport, which would not arrive for another day,she went off for a prowl of Boulogne:

... for instance here are the French fisher folk in their quaintgarments and wooden clogs, selling great baskets ofsilver-scaled fish, against a background of brown-sailedfishing boats, as in times of peace. ... Beyond these one seestwo long white hospital ships, painted with the sign of theRed Cross, waiting to take those who had done their bit atthe front back across the channel. Further on I saw a squad of

blue-coated French soldiers, marching to the sound of a bandup one of the narrow streets leading from the quay, and everand anon Red Cross cars, Belgian, French and British arepassing. All sorts and conditions of les Allies are here French sailors with their red pom-pom caps, EnglishTommies and kilted Scotties, a British officer hurrying downto the leave boat ...

Le Treport

At Le Treport, where Alice arrived on 1 December 1916by train after a slow and cold journey, the hospital towhich she was assigned was Lady Murrays Treport No

10 BRC. There were 50 beds, all for officers. Before the

war the building was a Golf Hotel and stood at the top ofa high cliff, with the little seaside town of Le Treportdown below. A large camp was situated up there, com-posed chiefly of hospitals. Alice was on night duty. Thework was arduous and the cold intense. By way of achange with a colleague she was asked to do some inter-mittent canteen work at Fontinette Railway Station. Therailway station had become busy here due to the closureof Boulogne to shipping. Troop ships and leave boatswere using Calais instead and soldiers were pouring intoFontinette by train. Armed with quantities of bread, jamand potted meat they became very cold, wet and dispir-ited. After a difficult first day, they had only fed a smallnumber of soldiers. Subsequently they leapt into popu-larity as they doled out tea and thick hunches of breadand jam to hundreds of men, charging a penny each.

On 19 January 1917 the first barge load of patientsarrived, sent on from CCS near Bethune, and Carrel-Dakin treatment was commenced. The work was, as ever,arduous. After a year of vividly contrasting experiences,both work and social, Alice was able to record the extent

of the nursing responsibilities she and her colleagueswere expected to perform. The weather was perishingcold and Alice, depressed and exhausted, together withher friend, talked to Mr Dean, the medical officer, abouta change of hospital. She complained of being sick ofthis, etc. His advice was to stick with the Le Treport No9 hospital while it lasted as they would never get betterwork anywhere else7 and, Alice reasoned, for here wedo practically the same as the sisters. Pretty nice andcheering really, although one longs for a change.8

Alice received her well-deserved change when on 28March 1918 she arrived at St Omer and rejoined theMSA, which was now a CCS. But before this couldhappen there was much work to be done in the break-ing of camp and this concerned everyone at Le Treport.A large band of Chinese workmen9 was employed intaking down the huts that were then packed in lorriesand taken down to the canal. From here they wereshipped by barge to St Omer. Life at the camp waschanging. Alice writes:

We were all ravenous for meals these days the ration jamhappened to be always quince, the one jam I cant tolerate ...We managed to have quite a fair amount of time off duty in

between strenuous bouts of packing. Fleet and I had somewalks, one jolly blowy morning on the pier, a prowl down bythe docks and an evening stroll to the high dunes in theHappy Valley were especially nice ones.

There were also farewell entertainments; the Duchessgave a large party. Another social event was a lastgame of hockey with the men from No 6 Camp on abroiling hot afternoon, followed by a big picnic tea inthe wood. One evening the Canadians gave a dance intheir mess tent at No 8 all very good dancers. Aliceand her friends trekked home afterwards through themud wearing their big army boots. During a three-hourraid one night many bombs fell and a lot of chapswere killed or injured. There was also news of the shel-ling of Paris by incredibly long-range German guns.This was part of the big new German Push, chiefly

near St Quentin. The days were full of anxiety and



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reminded Alice of the awful first days of the war. Thebattles at Ypres would have supplied many casualties.

The MSA opened as BRC CCS No. 9 on 30 April with180 patients. Almost immediately the hospital became atarget for enemy guns and bombs. Alice was on nightduty. She describes the perpetual rumble of gunfire andthe heavy air raids, with planes flying lower than beforein order to drop their bombs; her ward was a long dark

hut full of wounded men with only the faintest glimmerof light allowed all doors and windows were keptshut. Alice comments that this was terrible for thepatients, most especially for those who had already beenwounded in air raids during the last fortnight. Duringthe previous week a hospital in St Omer had beensmashed up by bombs and some of the survivingpatients were now in Alices ward. The raid lasted from22:00 until 02:00 hours and everyone was glad to see day-light. By 26 September the war was changing and theMSA on the move again, following the army to the front.The staff was being reduced in number, some going onleave, others to a Red Cross rest home. This contrasts

vividly with the few social events that occurred at thistime. For example, there was the day when Alice, withtwo friends, took a picnic to the woods for the last playthey would have together. They climbed up through thepine wood carrying rugs, a primus stove and a kettle,and enjoyed drinking excellent China tea and eating alarge meal that had been prepared for them in thecanteen. Sitting in a patch of sunshine near heather andlarch trees they talked, smoked, told stories and laugheda lot.

On Saturday, 28 September, while daily continuing tobreak camp at MSA, a team that included Alice waseating their dinner when they were ordered to go to No36 CCS (Figure 7). With only one hours notice they fin-

ished their meal, packed up suitcases, camp beds and

bedding and were ready to begin the journey by 21:00hours. They travelled in one ambulance while operatingequipment and luggage followed in a second one:

Then followed a long, long drive in the dark; we wentthrough Cassel and Steenvoide and soon after passing thelatter had to extinguish our head lights which made thedriving slower. The roads here were camouflaged by curioussort of canvas hangings all along the sides. At one point wewere held up and had to wait a while as there was a slight

block on the road a Hun shell having fallen at the side of theroad just ahead of us. Eventually we arrived about midnightand got out on a dark and muddy roadway.

The scenes in the receiving ward were difficult to bear,for it was a picture of misery; men were groaning anddirty. Alice writes but after getting on with the workthings were not so hard. On that night they workedhard until 20:00 hours. On the next night they were onduty from 20:00 hours until 08:00 hours. However, theywere much cheered by good news from the front.

On Monday 30 September the team was on duty at22:00. Alice was in the abdominal theatre with them at01:00 when an orderly came in and warned that aslight fire had broken out in the officers ward and thatthere was a possibility that the light would go out,which it did. The surgeon carried on with the bigabdominal operation by the light of a torch. Due to thesmell of smoke and sounds of a disturbance the teambecame aware that the fire was rapidly spreading. Thesurgeon carried on with the operation and at this timehe had the whole of the patients abdomen laid open.Captain Saner continued to stitch up the patient withAlice continuing her work of handing instruments andthreading the needles with forceps. She writes some

effort was required to keep the hands steady. They

Figure 7 The operating theatre at No 36 casualty clearing station at Rousbrugge, Belgium (from the archive ofthe late Capt. Swann)

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carried on until the smoke was so thick that it wasurgently necessary to get out of the theatre. There wasno time for a bandage, they flung on a dressing and,carrying the patient on a table, they made a rapid exitbefore the flames entered the theatre. Alice then contin-ued to work in helping to carry patients from theburning wards to places of safety. It was for her actionsat this time that she was awarded the Albert Medal.

The fire was attributed to aerial bombing. Almost thewhole hospital was burned down and violent explosionsoccurred each time a gas or oxygen cylinder caught fire.Everyone was brought out from the burning wards andput on the ground outside the hospital. There were 200bad stretcher patients who now had to be moved to asafer place in the field beyond. An ambulance arrivedfrom the next CCS, No 3, Australian, from about a mileaway and the most seriously ill patients were taken there.Several died in the field before they could be taken any-where and many died later at the Australian. The otherswere evacuated by train. On 1 October between 05:00and 06:00 the team went to bed, cold and muddy with

shaken nerves, only to be woken again at 07:00 whenthey packed and were sent off to the Australian CCS.They were now the only CCS for this army corps. Alicerecords this is another new operating theatre to get usedto, not nearly as well equipped as No 36. The Great Warhad exactly six weeks left to run and there was still timefor tens of thousands of men to be killed, to be woundedand to go missing. Alice worked at the Australian CCSuntil 5 October. She was then given two days rest at theChateau St Omer. There were rumours of peace andAlice records we have a very different atmosphere herenow from what it was during those dreadful days inMarch when we first arrived. Thus ends Alices time atSt Omer from March to October 1918.

The MSA removed to the new place at Hazebrook.Alices ward was S1, which was extremely busy with sickand wounded patients admitted at a few hours notice.They were all very ill due to a virulent flu epidemic thatcaused many deaths. Alice became tired and depressed.After more theatre work she was moved to a medicalward where the patients seemed to get worse everyday. Despite the good news of the Allies push forward,Ostend, Douai and Lille have been entered by us andBruge today (19.10.1918). Alice records no surgical wardhas ever depressed me as much as this medical one. Thedepression lasted for 10 days and eventually Alice wasgiven a glass of Burgundy wine and a day off before yet

another move, this time to Roubaix. There were a fewsocial events and a lorry ride to Bailleul to see what arecent battle-field looked like. On 1 November Alice wasadmitted to a ward for a few days rest. At 11:00 on the11th of November hostilities ceased and the Armisticewas signed.

Alice, together with her friend, Fleet, lorry-hoppedto Ypres on 20 November 1918. They had wanted tomake the pilgrimage alone together and not with agroup, Fleet having said that it was like a church andnot the sort of place one wants to see, except with acongenial soul. Alice writes Nothing has made merealize the war more than the sight of that Ypres-Meninroad. I never imagined anything so completely and

utterly desolate. It is just one mass of shell and mine

holes, derelict tanks and gun carriages, blackened tree-trunks and here and there pathetic little white crossesof wood sticking up out of the mud. No part of Francecan be more completely desolate than thisYpres-Passchendaele countryside.

A week later, on 27 November Alice writes, I thinkthis day ends my war diary, as today we drove straightout of the hospital at Roubaix; so ends my hospitalcareer with No 9 BRC CCS and Fleet and I embark on afortnights frivolity in Gay Paree!

On 10 July 1919 Alice went to Buckingham Palace toreceive the Albert Medal from the King. She wasloudly cheered by the spectators.10

In 1969 Alice died in Burford in Oxfordshire in her80th year. Her remains are in the graveyard of theparish church.

Acknowledgement: I am extremely grateful to the lateMrs Joan Swann (Alices niece) for the loan of a copy of

the diary and for giving me permission to write about it,and to Deborah Kirk, her daughter, for providing thephotographs at Figures 5 to 7.

References and notes

1 The VAD, as it was known, was the Voluntary Aid Detachmentof the Red Cross

2 Alice was also awarded the badge of the Joint Council of the RedCross and the order of St John, the British War Medal and theVictory Medal. The Albert Medal was considered to be the civilequivalent of the Victoria Cross. Now replaced by the GeorgeCross, it was the highest honour to be conferred by the Crown onnon-combatants for acts of the greatest heroism or the mostconspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger. AliceBatt was one of only 16 women ever to receive this award

3 Oxfordshire19744 The blesses were the sick and wounded. The word is derived

from La Societe francaise de Secours aux Blesses Militaires(SSBM). The society is a branch of the Red Cross, which theDuchess of Sutherland was permitted to join during the firstweek of the war

5 An acknowledgement to and a history of Millicent, Duchess ofSutherland appears on pages 13/15 of the diary, as also does alist of some of the staff

6 The Carrel-Dakin method of treatment is a procedure for theemployment of solutions of hypochlorous acid (a chlorine-baseddisinfectant) in the treatment of wounds. The main principleinvolved is that of constantly maintaining an efficient solution incontact with every nook and crevice of the wound. The resultsdiffered between hospitals (Official history of the War. HMSO Vol.1, pp. 269274)

7 This information was taken from the Reports of the British RedCross Society, p. 346. HM Stationery Office, 192. One of theoutstanding features of this hospital (No 9 BRCH) was theefficient way the Carrel-Dakin treatment was carried out. Verysatisfactory results in the treatment of wounds were obtained.Excellent results were also obtained in the treatment of fracturedlimbs by means of suspension and counter-extension. In fact thehospital was the most up-to-date in all its methods of surgicaltreatment of the wounded

8 Schools of nursing were established in Britain at the beginningof the 20th century; they were hospital-based and preceptssettled by Florence Nightingale were used as a guide. TheSisters referred to by Alice may have been trained there

9 At the end of 1915 a decision was made to form labour battalionsincluding white and coloured labour. The coloured labourerscame from South Africa, Egypt, India, the West Indies, Fiji andChina, European labour came from Portugal and Italy

10 Times Newspaper, 11 July 1919


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