A Long Way Home

It might be a Long Way to Tipperary, but it was even a longer way home to Canada.

Some of the nearly half million Canadians serving overseas in the Great War had family in Britain, but others found themselves far from home, perhaps for the first time. Many were still in their teens, and unused to large cities like London, which was also notoriously expensive.

Princess Patricia of Connaught - by W&D Downey

While Canadian officers were welcome at established British clubs – the Royal Automobile Club often being mentioned in memoirs, for example – there was nothing similar for enlisted men.

Concerned for their welfare when on leave or convalescing, and in the hopes of keeping them out of trouble in London, Lady Drummond of Montreal – who was head of the Canadian Red Cross Information Bureau in London - instituted the Maple Leaf Clubs for Canadian soldiers. They provided a hot bath, clean bed, decent meals, and a homey place to congregate for a minimal cost. They were subsidized by contributions from organizations in Canada, like the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) and Canadian Clubs, as well as private citizens. 

Rudyard Kipling and his wife were on the Board of Directors, and volunteers who helped serve meals included Princess Patricia, whose father, His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught, was Canada's Governor General from 1911-1916. The King was so impressed that he asked they be named the King George and Queen Mary Maple Leaf Clubs.

One of my characters is involved in setting up a fictional Maple Leaf Club outside of London in The Summer Before The Storm.

Women were not forgotten, as the IODE established a club for Canadian nurses in Lady Minto’s London townhouse. Lord Minto was a former Governor General of Canada.

At Home With the Astors

The Author at Cliveden

Once owned by Waldorf and Nancy Astor, Cliveden is a magnificent estate on the Thames near Maidenhead, England. At the outbreak of the Great War, the Astors generously donated their indoor tennis court and bowling alley to the Canadian Red Cross to be used as a hospital. Lots of additions were made, and it became The Duchess of Connaught Hospital, which is where some of my characters nurse and convalesce. 

Nancy visited the wounded regularly, and was very popular with them and the staff. Although an American, Vicountess Nancy Astor became the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons, in 1919.

There are 42  WW1 war graves – mostly Canadian - in a lovely secret and sunken garden on the estate. The Astors donated part of their extensive grounds to the Canadians again in WW2, and a more substantial hospital was built. It functioned as the Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital until the 1980s.

The Author at Cliveden - photo copyright Melanie Wills

Cliveden is now a luxury hotel, where I enjoyed a delightful lunch last summer. That famous portrait of Nancy in the background was painted by John Singer Sargent in 1909.

Hospitals with Chandeliers

Duchess of Westminster Hospital, Le Touquet, France

The young Duchess of Westminster, like so many others, was eager to do “her bit” for the war effort, so she turned her seaside villa in Le Touquet France into a hospital with the help of the Red Cross. In the early days of the war, she and her friends would dress in full evening regalia, including diamond tiaras, to greet the incoming wounded whatever time of day. "It's the least we can do to cheer up the men," the Duchess would say, her wolfhound at her side. Her villa soon became too small, and her hospital took over the local Casino, which is probably what we see in the photo above. I couldn’t resist creating the fictional Duchess of Axminster’s hospital on the French coast in Elusive Dawn.

Rothschild Villa Strassburg, Deauville, France [by Kamel 15- GNU General Public Licence]

Other private estates were offered as convalescent homes. Canadian VAD Violet Wilson accepted a position at this Rothschild villa in Deauville, France. Luxuries were provided by wealthy Canadians for officers recuperating from minor wounds and illnesses. Violet was rather disgusted that she was little more than a glorified housemaid, just serving tea and so forth. But the benefit of this resort-like place to the officers was evident in this newspaper article.

Canadian Convalescent Hospital, Bearwood Park

Bearwood Convalescent Hospital in Woking, England had been a private home with 90 bedrooms, belonging to the widow of the Times newspaper owner. It housed 900 Canadian soldiers. The Canadian Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) funded and set up a Red Cross officers’ hospital in London. The Red Cross also arranged for convalescing officers to spend up to a month as guests at country houses in England, or failing that, in hotels.

Officers and nurses were often sent to the Riviera on sick leave. Famous poet-doctor, Lieutenant-Colonial John McCrae (who wrote "In Flanders Fields"), spent 3 weeks at Cap Martin in late 1916 recovering from pleurisy. The balmy weather and absence of shellfire and air raids undoubtedly provided a relaxing and healthful retreat – a temporary reprieve from the mud and blood of war.