Fanny Goes to War | Page 3

or more bell
tents, a smoky, but serviceable-looking, field kitchen, and at the end of
the field were tethered the horses! As I drew nearer, I felt horribly shy
and was glad I had selected my very plainest suit and hat, as several
pairs of eyes looked up from polishing bits and bridles to scan me from
top to toe.
I was shown into the mess tent, where I was told to wait for the C.O.,
and in the meantime made friends with "Castor," the Corps' bull-dog
and mascot, who was lying in a clothes-basket with a bandaged paw as
the result of an argument with a regimental pal at Bisley.
A sudden diversion was caused by a severe thunderstorm which
literally broke right over the camp. I heard the order ring out "To the
horse-lines!" and watched (through a convenient hole in the canvas)
several "troopers" flying helter-skelter down the field.
To everyone's disappointment, however, those old skins never turned a
hair; there was not even the suggestion of a stampede. I cautiously
pushed my suit-case under the mess table in the hope of keeping it dry,
for the rain was coming down in torrents, and in places poured through
the canvas roof in small rivulets. (Even in peace-time comfort in the

F.A.N.Y. Camp was at a minimum!)
They all trooped in presently, very wet and jolly, and Lieutenant
Ashley Smith (McDougal) introduced me as a probable recruit. When
the storm was over she kindly lent me an old uniform, and I was made
to feel quite at home by being handed about thirty knives and asked to
rub them in the earth to get them clean. The cooks loved new recruits!
Feeling just then was running very high over the Irish question. I learnt
a contingent had been offered and accepted, in case of hostilities, and
that the C.O. had even been over to Belfast to arrange about stables and
housing!
One enthusiast asked me breathlessly (it was Cole-Hamilton) "Which
side are you on?" I'm afraid I knew nothing much about either and
shamelessly countered it by asking, "Which are you?" "Ulster, of
course," she replied. "I'm with you," said I, "it's all the same to me so
long as I'm there for the show."
I thoroughly enjoyed that week-end and, of course, joined the Corps. In
July of that year we had great fun in the long summer camp at
Pirbright.
Work was varied, sometimes we rode out with the regiments stationed
at Bisley on their field days and looked after any casualties. (We had a
horse ambulance in those days which followed on these occasions and
was regarded as rather a dud job.) Other days some were detailed for
work at the camp hospital near by to help the R.A.M.C. men, others to
exercise the horses, clean the officers' boots and belts, etc., and, added
to these duties, was all the everyday work of the camp, the grooming
and watering of the horses, etc. Each one groomed her own mount, but
in some cases one was shared between two girls. "Grooming time is the
only time when I appreciate having half a horse," one of these
remarked cheerily to me. That hissing noise so beloved of grooms is
extraordinarily hard to acquire--personally, I needed all the breath I had
to cope at all!
The afternoons were spent doing stretcher drill: having lectures on First

Aid and Nursing from a R.A.M.C. Sergeant-Major, and, when it was
very hot, enjoying a splash in the tarpaulin-lined swimming bath the
soldiers had kindly made for us. Rides usually took place in the
evenings, and when bedtime came the weary troopers were only too
ready to turn in! Our beds were on the floor and of the "biscuit" variety,
being three square paillasse arrangements looking like giant
reproductions of the now too well known army "tooth breakers." We
had brown army blankets, and it was no uncommon thing to find black
earth beetles and earwigs crawling among them! After months of active
service these details appear small, but in the summer of 1914 they were
real terrors. Before leaving the tents in the morning each "biscuit" had
to be neatly piled on the other and all the blankets folded, and then we
had to sally forth to learn the orders of the day, who was to be orderly
to our two officers, who was to water the horses, etc., etc., and by the
time it was eight a.m. we had already done a hard day's work.
One particular day stands out in my memory as being a specially
strenuous one. The morning's work was over, and the afternoon was set
aside for practising for the yearly sports. The rescue race was by far the
most thrilling, its object being to save anyone from