30 Mar Lotties Story
As we come to the end of March and International Women’s Month, a time to celebrate great names in history, it is appropriate to also recognize those whose contribution have been all but lost to history. Take nurse Lottie Perkins who served in WW1.
A spartan life of commitment
Lottie’s Story
On 6th May, 1918 Miss Constance Crookenden, Matron of Cambridge Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the 1st Eastern General Hospital signed the requisite papers and correspondence informing Staff Nurse, Miss Lottie Perkins that she was “requested to proceed to France on the 14th May, 1918.”
This correspondence is but one piece of an 80+ page file in the National Archives. While there are no reports of heroism, outstanding achievements or meritorious service, it is nonetheless a revealing window into the everyday circumstances of one nursing sister, and her service during the Great War.
Lottie was one of thousands of nurses serving the wartime effort but at the time, nursing a was practiced in a very different environment than that of today’s professionals. The women were required to live in a nurses hostel, or with the onsite housing of their affiliated hospital. They had to be unmarried, and every aspect of their lives was closely monitored by Matron who was a close supervisor and cracked the whip vigorously –from inspection of uniforms to curfew and any “unbecoming behavior.”
In Lottie’s case, we learn she completed training from 1912-1915. A Matron’s letter confirms, “Miss Lottie Perkins completed three years training at this Hospital (Addenbrooke’s) from 1912 to 1915, and has her Certificate of this Hospital- Third Class.”
Lottie then began her public service by joining up with the Territorial Force Nursing Service, (TFNS) and was posted to the 1st Eastern General Hospital, a temporary, 1700-bed field hospital that had been quickly built next next to Addenbrooke’s for receiving wartime casualties.
Upon joining, TFNS nurses were given a badge and on 3rd September, 1915 Lottie dates and signs a form letter that states, “I acknowledge with thanks the receipt of the silver Territorial Force Nursing Service Badge and I undertake to return it when I leave the Service.”
Now, she was an official member of His Majesty’s Armed Forces, but unlike military records of today, there are no other records, no photos, no vital statistics or description of her, and we know nothing of her personal life.
But Lottie almost didn’t make it to France. On 26th August, of 1916 Matron Constance Crookenden writes the details of “one of my Nurses, Miss Lottie Perkins, is very dangerously ill.”
Permission required to be sick and to recover
Matron then provides a dramatic nail-biting account written to the Matron-in-Chief. She says Lottie “….apparently went to bed in the morning” (following her night duty) but “they telephoned up at 3-20 in the afternoon to say that she had had a dreadful hoemorrhage and had brought up about 6 pints, could Matron and the doctor go at once.
Rushing to Lottie’s aid, Crookenden then writes, “Matron found her absolutely pulseless and we were really very doubtful if she would live through the night. Her brother and sister were wired for immediately and they are still here. I went to see her this afternoon and (she) seemed fairly comfortable, I could feel her pulse but it is still very feeble. She is too ill to speak so that we can get no history at all but one of the nurses says that she had a tooth extracted in the morning, but I hardly think that this would account for such profuse hoemorrahage. We at first thought that the amount (of blood) was exaggerated but Matron saw it herself and said there was no doubt at all about it.”
Two days later Lottie was moved from the nurse residence to the main hospital and the situation clarified on August 30. Crookenden writes to Matron- in- Chief that the attending doctor says it was “entirely due to a pretty badly mauled tooth.and we are starting her on food today.”
Weeks later, on September 19th another letter informed that she had quite recovered and on Sept 21st Crookenden reports Lottie “is going away for three weeks sick leave.”
However, her leave required a number of letters asking for, and then being granted the sick leave with confirmation she had not contracted any “serious illness such as dysentery, diptheria, malaria, and typhoid as part of her active service.”
Apparently the improper dental service causing the badly mauled tooth, was not a choice to submit.
Adding insult to injury the Lt. Commander in charge of claims reported to Matron that, “As her illness was not caused through active service…” the claim for salary during that three weeks leave was denied. This prompted another letter from Matron. Had she been able to record her voice, we can almost hear the biting sarcasm in her reply.
“Are not members of the TFNS who have given up their civil appointments and have been mobilized, counted “on active service'” .
No resolution to the issue is learned beyond this last letter. But losing six pints of blood would have left the poor woman in a state of severe debility. Blood transfusion and blood typing were not widely accepted or practiced so Lottie was on her own to recover from this dental disaster.
Therefore, one can only imagine Lottie feeling highly aggrieved at this dismissive treatment which perhaps motivated her request a few months later, to seek service overseas.
In any event, she set her request in motion the following Spring with a letter of commitment. Lottie signed her two-page Agreement document whereby it states, “if offered, she agreed, on 26th March, 1917 that if (she was) accepted, to serve at home or abroad as a nurse to His Majesty’s Forces.”
Then came letters of reference. “Nurse Perkins has worked at the 1st Eastern General Hospital for twelve months. She is cheerful and good-tempered and her work is satisfactory.”
Yet another letter, curiously provides a very different assessment. “Nurse Perkins is a very good nurse as is her work; but is rather tactless and not over fond of work.”
Finally, confirming Lottie “was in a fit state of health to undertake nursing duties in a military hospital in an Eastern climate,” Matron Crookenden writes in May, 1918, “I beg to state that Miss Lottie Perkins,S/Nurse T.F.N.S. is available for service in France.”
Matron-in-Chief, Miss Sydney Brown then writes that Lottie’s health papers are in order and that Miss Perkins “…is entitled to 91 days Field Allowance, Camp Kit and Active Service Allowances, and also to one month’s pay in advance provided she has not drawn any Foreign Service Allowances at any previous date.”
Brown adds that, “I shall be glad if you will kindly arrange for this member to come to London on Monday the 13th instant. A room has been reserved for her at the Hostel, 5 0, Warwick Square, S.W.1. Hospitality will be given her there and she should not therefore draw the 15/- detention allowance. Miss Perkins should deposit her luggage at Charing Cross Station on the 13th in readiness for her journey on Tuesday and she should only take with her to the Hostel the hand luggage she will require for the night.’
Crookendon replies with, “I have the honour to report that the following member has been seconded for service overseas and has this day left the 1st Eastern General hospital, Cambridge.” This was the middle of May 1918.
And so, Lottie, at nearly age 30 was on her way to France. At some point she worked in Mons but those details are unknown and war ended November 11, 1918, only a few months after her arrival.
Conflict ends but not the paperwork
Her demobilisation became effective 23rd March, 2019 and Lottie was sent home due to “reduction in staff” and instructed to make application for her TFNS gratuity “on cessation of service” for her time in the TFNS which was in total, three years and 202 days. No amount was given.
Yet like so many others, Lottie’s return home would prove to be another challenge as she writes to Matron that she “could not find work.”
Eventually, a new opportunity must have opened up, as correspondence many years later reveal. In 1939 a letter reports that 31 Staff Nurses in the Territorial Army Nursing Service (the new name for TFNS) were approved for promotion from Nurse to Sister, and Lottie’s name was included.
A woman’s life to remember
As the next War commenced Lottie remained, again, eager to serve but her letter to the new Matron dated 22nd May, 1940 expresses frustration.
“I cannot understand why I have not been called for Duty. On September 3rd I received my first notice to be ready to join my unit at a short notice. But not get Uniform. Later I received another notice informing me of Promotion to the Rank of Sister, on Nov 17, 1939. Since then I have heard nothing and am still waiting.
“Listening to Radio and Newspapers SOS for Nurses. It is very galling and a disgrace if the Army does not want me.
“Please let me know and I (will) join up in something else, to offer my service as a Nurse who did good work in France and at Home during the last War.”
Her pleading for an opportunity in those few sentences says much. The reply came a day later from Principal Matron of the 20th (Eastern) General Hospital who writes, “In reply to your letter of May 22nd I regret that I have been unable to call you up.
“As I see that you are now just fifty five years of age, I must ask for your resignation, as this is the retiring age. This will then free you to do any work locally. You are entitled to keep your badge as you been enrolled for so many years.”
We can only imagine Lottie’s staggering resentment and disappointment at these words.
The last entry in Lottie’s file is a War Office document, yellow with age and a large, rubber-stamped red square with the words “CLOSED.”
A final notation in Lottie’s file on 31st October, 1940 is short.
“Resigned, age limit. Badge retained.” An anticlimactic end to one woman’s life in public service.
There were thousands of these nursing sisters who throughout the War worked tirelessly and gave all under the most horrific conditions, yet, their stories from more than a century ago are but a small footnote to this history. Lottie’s story is only one of so many left untold. We must remember her, and all of them.
And finally, consider the fate of those whose lives were saved by Lottie (and so many others ) and her capable hands of healing? It is their descendants who live among us now yet they will never know that indeed, they walk the earth today due to the once patient and skillful care of an unknown, unsung hero, Sister, Lottie Perkins.
Guest blog by Barbara Hesselgrave, Lady of Birshaw