207124 Helen Grace Brownrigg MIDV.A.D. Nurse Helen Grace Brownrigg was a V.A.D. nurse in WW1. She was attached to Surrey Detachment 56 when she was posted to France to the military hospitals at Harfleur and Étaples from 1915 to 1919. In 1917 she was mentioned in despatches and was awarded two scarlet efficiency stripes. She served under the Joint War Committee of the British Red Cross and Order of St. John. She became an Associate of the Royal Red Cross in 1919 and continued to work for the Red Cross in peacetime for many years.
Helen kept a scrap book of her experiences in France, with numerous photos and mementos. The latter includes poems by Pte. A.E.Tilsley of 40 Stationary Hospital, Harfleur which won a prize in 1917: 'Harfleur in
Spring''Harfleur in Summer''Harfleur in Autumn' 'Harfleur in Winter' - also songs such as 'Sing me to Sleep' (Pte. J.H.Jackson, 4th Platoon, 44th Labour Company, B.E.F.)and 'There's Nobody Home in Blighty' (Sgt. H.W.Ellereton, 44th Canadians)- also lots of cuttings about the awards and bravery of women at war, and examples of German bombing of Red Cross Hospitals, contrary to the rules of war.
One cutting of 9th February 1920 expressed surprise that 'Oldhams ABC of the Great War' (E.W.Colbrook) gave the impression that WW1 was almost exclusively a masculine affair, with no mention of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service or their Matron-in-Chief, Dame Ethel Becher, the Territorial Force Nursing Sisters and their chief, Dame Sidney Browne, or even the principal matron in France, Dame Maud McCarthy. Only Nurse Cavell was mentioned by name but...'women did so much in the war that probably they could justify an 'ABC' of their own'.
The scrapbook also contains her card for a Progressive Whist Drive,
a Christmas Greetings Card [1918-19] (R.A.M.C.)and the signatures of staff and patients (No. 5 Ward, 40 Stationary Hospital, Harfleur) on Armistice Day in 1918. There is also a menu card for a postwar reunion in February 1920 at the Florence Restaurant in Rupert Street, London, with former colleagues and relatives.
Helen Grace Brownrigg was my great aunt and she died in 1964 aged 80.
|