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Observations of an Orderly: Some Glimpses of Life and Work in an English War Hospital
A R.A.M.C. orderly's experiences during World War One at the 3rd London General Hospital, Wandsworth, in the East End of London. He relates everyday life within the hut hospital, the predominantly cockney soldier patients and their wives, matron's sternness (R.A.M.C. stands for 'Run Away Matron's Coming!’), and talks about the nurses, V.A.D.s and other staff within the hospital. He tells us of the kindness of a Nursing Sister to a soldier's family, and of another Sister's 'pilfering' ways (who after bring 'caught' promptly left for the French Front). He also talks of unloading the packed hospital trains alongside the 'Bluebottles' (the civilian London Ambulance Column) who had worked without ceasing all the previous night at Charing Cross and Paddington Stations. The story of the blind and partially sighted soldiers out on a day trip deciding to have fun by going up and down on the escalators on the London Underground is very funny, and particularly poignant is the tale of a blind soldier's homecoming to his miner's cottage in Yorkshire.
- GenresHistory
125 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1917
About the author
Ward Muir
14 booksWardrop Openshaw Muir (22 June 1878 – 9 June 1927) was a British photographer, journalist, editor, and author, known as Ward Muir.
During World War One, Muir served as an orderly with his artist friends Francis Derwent Wood and C. R. W. Nevinson, working at the Third London General Hospital.
In 1919, Muir wrote a series of memoirs for The Amateur Photographer, under the title "Photographic Days". Also in 1919, the publisher Ivor Nicholson wrote a complimentary two-page article about Muir which appeared in The Bookman. He noted that "Ward Muir is a really expert photographer and is one of the very few men who have succeeded in writing interestingly about photography."
During World War One, Muir served as an orderly with his artist friends Francis Derwent Wood and C. R. W. Nevinson, working at the Third London General Hospital.
In 1919, Muir wrote a series of memoirs for The Amateur Photographer, under the title "Photographic Days". Also in 1919, the publisher Ivor Nicholson wrote a complimentary two-page article about Muir which appeared in The Bookman. He noted that "Ward Muir is a really expert photographer and is one of the very few men who have succeeded in writing interestingly about photography."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 4, 2014
I've collected quite a few titles about WWI from Project Gutenberg and am finally starting to read them. This book was published in 1917 but there is really no indication given of exactly when in the war the narratives took place. We begin with the author's arrival at the hospital and jump right to work on the wards. The first few sections talk about procedure, and adjusting to the routine. We learn at last just how to properly scrub the dinner dishes, for example. I wondered as I read if the author was trying to make his work more cheerful on the written page than it was in actual fact.
Muir never actually explains why he is an orderly and not fighting in the trenches, but he does devote an entire chapter to the various reasons apparently able-bodied men were not across the Channel being 'real' soldiers, so I can only imagine that one of those reasons is his.
I did not care for the attitude Muir revealed in the chapter about the entertainment available to the patients at his hospital. After bragging on the rec rooms and the good they did for the mental health of the soldiers, he ruins it all by a long piece about the minstrel show that was on the bill in the theater one afternoon. To modern readers the repeated references to the performers and their skin color is repulsive; and is one of those times I had to remind myself that this was the attitude in those days. Always a risk when reading books from times past.
Another bit that caught my eye later was in his chapter about slang in the hospital. It started off as a sort of glossary and light-hearted explanation of various new terms that were popping up everywhere with the return of soldiers from the various battlefields of the war. And then Muir reveals himself once again with this: Meanwhile the above notes are offered not as a serious contribution to a subject so immense, but rather as a warning. The infectiousness of slang is incredible; and this gigantic inter-association of classes and clans has brought about a hitherto unheard-of levelling-down of the common speech. Accent may or may not be influenced: the vocabulary undoubtedly is. Nearly every home in the land is soon going to be invaded by many forms of army slang: the process in fact has already begun. If we were a sprightlier nation the effect might not be all to the bad. But most of our slang-mongers are not wits. "He was balmy a treat," I heard a soldier say of another soldier who had shammed insane. That is what we are coming to: it is the tongue we shall use and likewise (I fear) the condition in which some of us will find ourselves as a result.
Not exactly the kind of statement to make a reader appreciate the author. The book itself, yes, as witness for a tragic part of history. But as much as I admired the spirit of the other people in the book, I ended up wanting to smack the author's snootiness out of him.
Muir never actually explains why he is an orderly and not fighting in the trenches, but he does devote an entire chapter to the various reasons apparently able-bodied men were not across the Channel being 'real' soldiers, so I can only imagine that one of those reasons is his.
I did not care for the attitude Muir revealed in the chapter about the entertainment available to the patients at his hospital. After bragging on the rec rooms and the good they did for the mental health of the soldiers, he ruins it all by a long piece about the minstrel show that was on the bill in the theater one afternoon. To modern readers the repeated references to the performers and their skin color is repulsive; and is one of those times I had to remind myself that this was the attitude in those days. Always a risk when reading books from times past.
Another bit that caught my eye later was in his chapter about slang in the hospital. It started off as a sort of glossary and light-hearted explanation of various new terms that were popping up everywhere with the return of soldiers from the various battlefields of the war. And then Muir reveals himself once again with this: Meanwhile the above notes are offered not as a serious contribution to a subject so immense, but rather as a warning. The infectiousness of slang is incredible; and this gigantic inter-association of classes and clans has brought about a hitherto unheard-of levelling-down of the common speech. Accent may or may not be influenced: the vocabulary undoubtedly is. Nearly every home in the land is soon going to be invaded by many forms of army slang: the process in fact has already begun. If we were a sprightlier nation the effect might not be all to the bad. But most of our slang-mongers are not wits. "He was balmy a treat," I heard a soldier say of another soldier who had shammed insane. That is what we are coming to: it is the tongue we shall use and likewise (I fear) the condition in which some of us will find ourselves as a result.
Not exactly the kind of statement to make a reader appreciate the author. The book itself, yes, as witness for a tragic part of history. But as much as I admired the spirit of the other people in the book, I ended up wanting to smack the author's snootiness out of him.
June 21, 2021
I came across Ward Muir in British Library anthology series, Tales of the Weird. It was his short story Sargasso. This World War I memoir is out of print and I had to get it through forgotten books reprint. It is beyond me , as to how this book can be out of print.
It is witty, sarcastic, and comic. It is without a doubt one of the best memoir of great war that I have recently and I have read Robert Graves , Erwin Rommel's memoir. I wish penguin or Wordsworth classics brings back this book.
It is witty, sarcastic, and comic. It is without a doubt one of the best memoir of great war that I have recently and I have read Robert Graves , Erwin Rommel's memoir. I wish penguin or Wordsworth classics brings back this book.
May 5, 2014
What exactly did an orderly in the Great War do? It was that question that brought me to this book which indeed answered my question. In short, a World War 1 orderly was, "a cross between a valet and a waiter, with a subtle dash of chambermaid."
With no shortage of humor, I also learned how dirty laundry was exchanged for clean at London's 3rd General Hospital, the advantages of plain army huts over fancy converted civilian buildings, nickname for Scots (it was 'Jocks'), a list of slang terms coined during the Great War (including "goes in off the deep end" and "nothing to write home about"), how frustrating it is to clean the "scorched high-tide-mark of tapioca or sago from the shores of a large metal pudding-basin," and laughed aloud at tales of blind patients making a game out of 'riding' the escalator.
Told as a series of anecdotes, Mr. Muir bought the duties of orderlies to light, while giving a peek at the inner workings of one of London's hospitals and the men who recovered there.
This quick read is available free online here: http://www.archive.org/stream/observa...
PM me if you would like my notes.
With no shortage of humor, I also learned how dirty laundry was exchanged for clean at London's 3rd General Hospital, the advantages of plain army huts over fancy converted civilian buildings, nickname for Scots (it was 'Jocks'), a list of slang terms coined during the Great War (including "goes in off the deep end" and "nothing to write home about"), how frustrating it is to clean the "scorched high-tide-mark of tapioca or sago from the shores of a large metal pudding-basin," and laughed aloud at tales of blind patients making a game out of 'riding' the escalator.
Told as a series of anecdotes, Mr. Muir bought the duties of orderlies to light, while giving a peek at the inner workings of one of London's hospitals and the men who recovered there.
This quick read is available free online here: http://www.archive.org/stream/observa...
PM me if you would like my notes.
September 30, 2010
Jen, I hope there's pus in this!
...nope, no pus, just a lot of very hard work. An entertaining quick read. Originally published in 1917 but, surprisingly, it's been reprinted. I'd love to know why.
...nope, no pus, just a lot of very hard work. An entertaining quick read. Originally published in 1917 but, surprisingly, it's been reprinted. I'd love to know why.
January 17, 2018
An interesting account of an orderly in war hospital during the great war.
By today’s standards some of the language used to describe people of different races ect would be unacceptable but one has to bear in mind the time period in which this book was written.
By today’s standards some of the language used to describe people of different races ect would be unacceptable but one has to bear in mind the time period in which this book was written.
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June 2, 2012Available at: http://ia600400.us.archive.org/29/ite...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews