The hospital at Wimereux was lighter than it had been for many weeks, for the winter weather had caused a lull in the fighting. In February it was evident that the constant rains and the state of the ground at the Front would make any advance impossible for weeks to come. The patients coming down to the base were chiefly medical cases or had slight injuries, which made their early transfer to England possible; and the work assumed more and more the character of a clearing station.

In conversation with the Assistant Director of Medical Services, it was learnt that fifty thousand additional hospital beds were to be set up in England that spring, and that the supply of doctors—especially of doctors who could organise—was far short of the Army’s requirements. The organisers had now to consider whether the Corps could be of greater service in England than in France. General W——, with whom this question was discussed, stated that the pressure of work would probably lie in England, and that the services of the Women’s Hospital Corps would certainly be acceptable there.

‘You must not give up military work,’ he said to Dr. Garrett Anderson and Dr. Flora Murray. And with real kindness he sent a despatch to the Director General about their work, and advised them to ask for an interview with him at the War Office.

Preceded by General W—’s despatch and their letter enclosing various introductions and asking for an appointment, Dr. Garrett Anderson and Dr. Flora Murray arrived in London. Here rumour met them with reports of the intentions of the Director General and of his favourable disposition towards them, and it was with a not unnatural thrill of anticipation that they entered the War Office.

Surgeon-General Sir Alfred Keogh, G.C.V.O., G.C.B., opened the interview by saying that he had heard a great deal about their hospitals, that he had heard nothing but good, and that he expected them to manage a larger formation than a hundred beds.

‘Who is running you?’ he asked.

‘Nobody. We run ourselves.’

‘Yes! but who is behind you? What lady?’

‘There is no lady.’

‘Who gets your money?’

‘We get it ourselves.’

‘Well, but who is your committee?

‘We are the committee.’

‘Ah then,’ he said, with a twinkling eye, ‘then we can talk.’

It was a very pleasant talk, in the course of which the Director General said that he required large units, for small ones were no good to him at that time. And he arranged to take the women doctors on ‘in the usual way’ and to give them charge of a hospital of five hundred or a thousand beds. The staff was to consist of women, with as few R.A.M.C. men as possible. The task of finding doctors and nurses was to rest with the organisers. In the meantime, he asked them to close the hospital in France and to bring the Unit over to London.

Dr. Garrett Anderson and Dr. Flora Murray returned to France next day, and the business of closing the hospital in the Château Mauricien began at once. A number of the nursing sisters who had done arduous and devoted work in Paris and Wimereux expressed their intention of joining the Corps in its new hospital, and were consequently hurried off to England, so that they might have a rest and recuperate before the next demand was made upon their health and energy. The quartermaster and orderlies, full of delightful enthusiasm for the future, made short work of the packing and all the winding up of affairs. A large part of the equipment, especially such things as coloured blankets, linen and extras which add to the comfort of wards, were reserved for use in London. The rest was taken over by the Ordnance, to the annoyance of the quartermaster who had to receive it, because it was not according to the scheduled pattern.

Dr. Garrett Anderson and Dr. Flora Murray took an early opportunity of calling upon the Assistant Director of Medical Services, who greeted them with his usual kindness.

‘Come and tell us how you got on with the Director General—what is he going to give you?’ he asked.

‘He is going to put us in charge of a hospital of five hundred and twenty beds in London,’ replied Dr. Garrett Anderson.

‘Good God! he isn’t?’ gasped the colonel, falling back in his chair with surprise. Then, recovering from his astonishment, he added kindly:

‘Well, when I think of it, I expect you’ll be able to do it.’

His congratulations and advice were most friendly.

‘You must insist upon one thing,’ he said. ‘They must give you good warrant officers. Otherwise you’ll have awful trouble with your discipline.’

‘We never have had any trouble,’ said Dr. Flora Murray.

‘I know you haven’t,’ he answered. ‘We have often spoken of it, and wondered how you managed; for you have never come to us for help. But now it will be different. You’ve always been ladies; now you’ll both be colonels, and you’ll see what a difference it makes.’

There remained only the final arrangements to be made. The requisitioned articles were returned and the house was handed over to the maire, who remarked regretfully that he had never made so little out of any one before! The farewell calls were paid, a farewell dinner was given, and the Belgian staff was paid off and disposed elsewhere.

On the day when they were ready to cross the morning boat was not running; for the Germans had just announced their submarine campaign in the Channel. The night boat, however, was sailing; and quite late, with the connivance of the purser, the little party, which included Dr. Garrett Anderson, Dr. Flora Murray and two others, managed to get on board, and lay very low in a corner. But at 11.30 the Transport Officer came stamping through the saloons, shouting that all civilians and ladies were to go ashore, and they were hastily turned out on to the muddy quay in the pouring rain. After a delay of forty-eight hours places on board a hospital ship were courteously placed at their disposal, and they finally arrived at Dover on the 19th of February 1915.

On reaching London they learnt that Sir Alfred Keogh had made public his intentions with regard to the future of the Women’s Hospital Corps the day before. Speaking at a meeting at Sunderland House, in favour of the extension of the London School of Medicine for Women, on the 18th of February 1915, he said:

The audience, which was composed largely of people interested in the development of the work of medical women, received this announcement with every sign of pleasure and approbation. Sir Alfred Keogh was cordially congratulated by the other speakers upon the wisdom and courage with which he had made himself responsible for an innovation of such magnitude and importance. His action was destined to lead subsequently to that extensive development of Women’s Services which proved so valuable and so necessary in the conduct of the war.