Poppy (28 page)
Authors: Mary Hooper
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours faithfully,
Miss Poppy Pearson
I
don’t remember learning about the war at school, so researching it from the point of view of one of the young volunteer nurses who served during it has been both eye-opening and humbling. More than 70,000 VADs (Volun-tary Aid Detachment) were recruited to serve as nurses, ambulance drivers, cooks and stretcher bearers during the Great War. Two thirds of VADs were women or girls.
As soon as I knew I was writing this book, I went to the Imperial War Museum in London, which holds a huge amount of wartime memorabilia. Unfortunately, when I got there I discovered that, just three days before my visit, the World War I section had been closed temporarily in order to set up new displays in readiness for 2014, the centenary of the outbreak of the war. It will be open again by the time this book is published and should be the first port of call to anyone who wants to find out more.
I found other places to do my research, including the British Red Cross Museum in London, where the staff were most helpful, and the amazing new interactive museum in Ypres, Belgium, which was a fiercely contested city throughout the war. There are a great many museums in this area, including small, family-run bases situated on what was actually the front line, with shored-up trenches still in place. Visiting one of these museums on a dark November day in the pouring rain, standing beside a lone piper in full Highland dress playing a lament, was a memorable moment. It also made me decide that I would like to write a second book where Poppy goes to work as a nurse in Flanders, very close to the front line.
As well as the books listed in the
Bibliography
I made use of the many internet sites devoted to different aspects of the war, especially the excellent
The Long, Long Trail
at
www.1914–1918.net
, and the marvellous
Scarletfinders
at
www.scarletfinders.co.uk
, which is specifically about British military nurses and has a huge and fascinating section about VADs plus lots of photographs.
Much has been written about the bravery and humour of the ordinary soldier, the Tommy. Photographs of Tommies going off to fight, waving their tin hats and cheering, are especially heartbreaking when you learn that whole platoons of young men were killed or injured in one battle, many only seventeen or eighteen years of age.
Some soldiers, like Billy, couldn’t cope with the carnage they were confronted with. They either ran away, inflicted wounds on themselves, went mad with terror or simply refused to fight. Most of these men were court-martialled and faced an instant death by firing squad. Some 306 soldiers died in this way. Relatives of these men have been active in trying to obtain a pardon for them and to have their names put on war memorials, arguing that they weren’t criminals, but were suffering severe mental trauma.
Conditions in field hospitals – that is, those close to the front line (‘in the field’) – were poor and there were no antibiotics at this time. Although the importance of hygiene was understood, it was difficult to keep things sterile when men came into the operating theatre badly injured, gashed all over by rusty barbed wire or covered in caked-on mud. Those with major injuries had very little chance of survival. If wounds were very extensive, they were often packed with dried sphagnum moss. This was highly absorbent and could hold quantities of liquid and blood, like a natural type of cotton wool. If they were lucky, those with facial wounds were treated at one of the facial reconstruction units, known by Tommies as the ‘tin noses shops’, within a hospital. The most famous of these, Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup, Kent, provided pioneering plastic surgery to those with injuries to their faces. The skill of the surgeons was remarkable and the patients were treated with care and compassion. However, although some patients endured years of operations in the hopes of making themselves look even passable, many still struggled to re-enter society. The extreme psychological trauma of having bad facial injuries must have been very great indeed.
This is a work of fiction and, although I have researched the period and read diaries and first-hand accounts of the war, all the characters are fictitious. Some of the places are not, however: Netley Hut Hospital is very much based on the real hospital of the same name in Southampton which was demolished in 1966. The war poet Wilfred Owen was briefly treated at Netley in 1917 before being transferred to ‘Dottyville’, as the patients called Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh. Although I would have liked Owen to have a walk-on part in this story, he was there in 1917 and
Poppy
is set in 1915.
Airey House is fictional but is typical of the many great houses up and down the country which became hospitals or convalescent homes for war casualties. Some of these were official and came under the auspices of the War Office; others were run by wealthy women who wanted to do something concrete to help the war effort. When the war ended some of these great houses were never reclaimed by their owners, often because they could no longer get the staff to run them. Many former male servants – grooms, valets, butlers and so on – had become casualties of the war, while many female servants had found more varied professions. This era was a time of great social change and the women who had taken on men’s jobs, and proved themselves more than capable of doing so, didn’t want to stay below stairs. It took until 1928 for all women to get the vote, but they were well on their way.
If you enjoyed
Poppy
, look out for the sequel,
Poppy in the Field
, publishing in May 2015.
Appleton, Edith,
A Nurse at the Front: The First World War Diaries of Sister Edith Appleton
, Simon and Schuster, 2012
Atkinson, Diane,
Elsie and Mairi Go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front
, Arrow, 2010
Bagnold, Enid,
A Diary Without Dates
, Virago, 1978
Bowser, Thekla,
Britain’s Civilian Volunteers: Authorised Story of British Voluntary Aid Detachment Work
, Forgotten Books, 2012
Brittain, Vera,
Testament of Youth
, Virago, 1978
Doyle, Peter,
First World War Britain
, Shire Publications, 2012
MacDonald, Lyn,
The Roses of No Man’s Land
, Penguin, 1993
Rathbone, Irene,
We That Were Young
, Virago, 1988
Tapert, Annette,
Despatches from the Heart: An Anthology of Letters from the Front
, Hamish Hamilton, 1984
Van der Kloot, William,
World War One Fact Book
, Amberley Publishing, 2011
Historical fiction
At the Sign of the Sugared Plum
Petals in the Ashes
The Fever and the Flame
(a special omnibus edition of the two books above)
The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose
At the House of the Magician
By Royal Command
The Betrayal
Fallen Grace
Velvet
The Disgrace of Kitty Grey
Contemporary fiction
Megan
Megan 2
Megan 3
Holly
Amy
Chelsea and Astra: Two Sides of the Story
Zara
Poppy's story continues in the sequel, Poppy in the Field, publishing May 2015.
Another sumptuous, satisfying read from Mary Hooper’
Lucy Mangan
Kitty has a comfortable life as a country milkmaid. She is well
looked after by the family who live up at the great house, and she
enjoys being courted by Will Villiers, the handsome river man.
Then, one day, Will vanishes.
Kitty is heartbroken, and when sent to London on an errand, she
is determined to track down Will. But, alone and vulnerable in
the vast city, Kitty’s fate is snatched out of her hands and she is
plunged into a dizzying spiral of despair . . .
A thrilling tale of betrayal, love and true courage.
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney
First published in Great Britain in May 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP
This electronic edition published in May 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Text copyright © Mary Hooper 2014
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Cover images:
Girl © Richard Jenkins
Poppies © Shutterstock
Wire © Benjamin Harte/Arcangel Images
Soldier © Stephen Mulcahey/Arcangel Images
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
eISBN 978 1 4088 2762 8
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