The Wards in War-Time by a Red Cross Pro

This Book Is About

My Thoughts On This Book

I got The Wards in War-time during Thanksgiving vacation. John and I stopped at Solvang, the little Scandinavian touristy town in California, on our way north to the San Francisco Bay Area. We were wandering the scenic streets, looking for something to do when I spotted The Book Loft. And that’s pretty much what we did in Solvang.

It began a trend that lasted us the rest of our vacation. We stopped at practically every independent bookstore and comic shop we encountered, or that friends told us about, between San Diego and Susun (located about two or so hours north-east of San Francisco and pronounced ‘sue-soon’).

The Wards in War-time was written anonymously in 1916 by a British citizen who had been a Red Cross volunteer working as a probationer in a military hospital during World War I (that’s what the ‘Pro’ is short for). Probationer is sort of a nursing trainee/sub-orderly kind of position. The book is a series of small stories, or sketches, told in the third person about the day-to-day running, and living in, of the military medical wards. They’re centered around Ward B at the Blacktown hospital in England.

I enjoyed The Wards in War-time, I found it entertaining, informative and comfortable. It was worth every penny of the $20 I payed at Book Loft (hey, it’s a foreign hard-back from the early 1900s). Reading the book was like listening to an interesting new acquaintance telling me stories and the writing has that dry humor typical of the British.

My favorite part of The Wards, and the part that sold me on the book, is the tale towards the beginning about messages written on fresh eggs. Apparently, during the first World War the British public were fond of sending new eggs to the military hospitals for their wounded heroes. Many of them wrote their address, psalms or little poems on the eggs.

The youngest of the men in Ward B got an egg with the name and address of a young lady. He eagerly writes her a letter amid visions of a romance with a pretty girl, only to get a letter back from an elementary school teacher thanking him, on the little girl’s behalf, for his letter. It’s so human and funny in that everyday kind of way. I was also intrigued by the idea of writing someone a letter on an egg’s shell.

It’s not quite a memoir, since it’s not really an account of the mysterious writer’s life or experiences but rather an account of the lives she/he observed. The author is clearly an educated person and, towards the end, I wondered if maybe they had worked as a journalist.

One of the fun things about an old book are the little signs of the previous people to enjoy it. The inside cover of my copy of The Wards has a woman’s name written in black pen (Anne something it looks like) and the note “x-mas 1916″, indicating the book was purchased new for someone as a Christmas present. Something else that’s cool about the book is that the letters and words are ever so slightly indented into the paper by the blocks during printing on the press.

The Wards in War-time is a book you’ll enjoy if you like hearing stories about everyday life, or if you’re interested in history (medical or otherwise), WWI, Britain or the military.

Rating & Levels For This Book

I Give This Book two Vikings out of five	Violence Level zero Burning Huts out of five	Romance Level zero Hearts out of five
# of actual vikings in book: 0 What do these levels mean? ”	Humor Level two Smiles out of five	Lust Level zero Kisses out of five

Author and Publishing Information For This Book

Author & Book Details Title: The Wards in War-Time Author(s): a Red Cross Pro (anonymous) ISBN#: None; published before creation of International Standard Book Number (ISBN) system that was initiated in the 1960s Genre(s): WWI British military hospital ‘memoir’ non-fiction Edition Reviewed: First? Illustrations: N/A Page Count: 343 Part of a Series: No

Publishing & Copyright Details Publisher(s): William Blackwood and Sons Copyright: 1916 In Print: No Original Language: English Published in Other Languages: No

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