Letter from Louisa Garrett Anderson Page 4

Letter from Louisa Garrett Anderson to Alan Garrett Anderson. Written from 'L'Hopital Auxiliaire 173, Hotel Claridge, Av. des Champs Elysée, Paris'

Dearest AGA

I am going to Boulogne tomorrow morning & I don't know whether writing will be easy from there or not - altho' probably it will. I hope things are going well at home with you all - as well as they can with the great horror of this war over us all. It is so bad that one feels it can't go on much longer & yet neither side can afford to stop. I fear S Africa is rather a bad complication. Tell me about the Orient Compy when you write again & how ships are going, & if things are still as difficult as they were or settling down at all. Paris looks much more like herself than when we came - but most of the better shops are still shut & the banks open for a few hours only & the stock exchange closed. There have been no German air ships here lately but heaps of friendly ones. There is a terrible amt of work for us in Boulogne & we think of moving some of our stores & staff there into temporary quarters for perhaps a month. If we are actually installed there with beds, provisions, ambulance service, instruments, staff & are provided with recommendations from the staff of the Director General, I trust that the RAMC will allow us to work there. It is not a question of need unfortunately but of permission, to apply civilian help to the military hospitals which cannot [? undertake] the work.

The town of Boulogne is already overcrowded & all the bigger bldings taken by military and British Red Cross so I think we will go to Wimereux, a little place on the coast about 2m from Boulogne. We have the option of an empty Chateau there. It is not ideal but it is the only thing. We have 50 canvas beds, bowls, dressings, blankets, clothing (much of this Ivy's) packed and are sending bales by car & ambulance & the rest by train. Dr M & I are going on tomorrow morning & if we think the place is any way possible we will close with it & the baggage & the rest start on Sunday morning. We will keep open this place as our headquarters since for obvious reasons it is much better to have a place in Paris. We have 4 v. kind people with cars who are helping us to move & who will help tremendously at Wimereux by bringing wounded from the station to us & taking them back to Boulogne to the Hospital Ship - we shall only be a clearing hospital-dressing station & pass the men thro' quickly - at least that is what I expect.

I hope Mother is not minding my absence. I think she is rather interested in having us here & thinks it good for "the Cause" (as it is) but of course letters can't come daily & she feels it dull - or says so. I think Gladys is being a success. Has any financial arrangement been made with her?

Tell me about Colin when you write? It is nice that he shd like school - I hope he is doing alright. He is not as easy as Donald but I think he ought to grow easier & less dreamy & he is a dear child.

I am so thankful that they aren't 10 years older & of an age to be joining in this horrible business. It really doesn't seem worth while to have little boys, & train them when their lives are wasted wholesale like this.

I wonder if you and Ivy & perhaps M[other] wd come to Boulogne & see us if we stay there any time. I believe that passenger boats are running regularly & that there wd be no difficulty in coming over for the day - but you cd find this out. Please say to Ivy that our supplies of clothes are magnificent - & a gt comfort to us as the days are getting cold now & it wd be dreadful not to have enough things for the men.

We need more blankets for the Boulogne hospital & wired to England & have had 200 given us by return wire. People are really rather wonderful.

I am afraid the Boulogne people are inclined to be 'on the make' - over the letting of bldings & that we may have to pay an absurd rent for the empty house, but I think we ought to go there & must face the expense. In Paris we have been treated with extraordinary generosity by everyone, and press notices of the hospital have brought in a good many donations.

I am very glad to hear good a/cs of the Children's Hospital. Please also tell Ivy that Dr M & I think Dr Bolton wd be a first rate addition to the W[omen's] H[ospital for] C[hildren] staff. She is going to be proposed as surgeon to the Hospital & her name will probably come up at the next Managing Comtee meeting.

L & K
Yrs LGA

AGA - Alan Garrett Anderson - brother
Colin - Colin Anderson - nephew
Children's Hospital - the Women's Hospital for Children, founded by Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray in 1912
Orient Company - Orient Line

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