Tilly and Sophie, following their first three months of training, were now on different wards. They missed one another’s company during the day, but were pleased when their night duties coincided and they could spend their free afternoons together before starting the night shift at eight o’clock. So it had been on the afternoon they visited Sophie’s home.
Tilly had mixed feelings about night duty. One advantage was that it gave her a chance to study in peace. As well as their practical experience on the wards the trainee nurses would be required to pass a written examination on such subjects as the importance of hygiene and nutrition; the functions of the heart, liver and lungs and the various systems of the body – the circulatory, nervous, lymphatic and digestive systems; the important discoveries in medicine; the use of morphine and other pain relieving drugs; and, the most significant to their present situation, the treatment of injuries and wounds and the correct methods of bandaging.
Sometimes, though, despite drinking numerous cups of black coffee, Tilly found it hard to concentrate on the words and diagrams on the page. There was a mysterious, ghostly atmosphere in a ward at night. The only light was from the lamp on the desk where she sat alone, apart from a glimmer of moonlight stealing through the chinks in the window blinds. Strange shadows seemed to hover over the beds and it was hard sometimes not to allow one’s imagination to take control of one’s senses. There were sounds, too, at night, that one might not hear in the noise and bustle of the day; the creaking of bed springs; a muffled cough or sigh; the noise of snoring, sometimes peaceful and rhythmic, or often the laboured breathing of the men who had suffered damage to the lungs. Sometimes there would be a cry for help or someone in need of comfort – for a sip of water, maybe, or a patient requiring a bedpan – calls that Tilly answered promptly.
She had been told to call for assistance if she was in any doubt; if a patient should attempt to leave his bed or if there was an emergency with which she could not cope. Sister Berryman or another senior nurse would be on duty in the little room down the corridor. There might be a sudden death in a ward in the early hours of the morning when the human body is at its lowest ebb and its hold on life at the weakest, but so far this had not happened to Tilly.
She was finding it harder than usual to focus on her studies that evening. She kept thinking about the hours she had just spent in the Ashtons’ home, not only of the friendship and the warm welcome she had been given, but of what she had learnt about the fraught situation developing in that district amongst folk who had once been friends. And it had been inevitable that they should discuss the war in general terms.
Karl Ashton had talked about the strength of the German army, of how German lads, when they left school, were sent to an army camp for two years to become fully trained soldiers, ready for any eventuality. Some would have been eagerly awaiting a chance to prove their worth, and that opportunity had been realised in the August of 1914. That was the reason that many of the German lads then living in Bradford had answered the call from their native land. And what were Britain’s chances against such a highly equipped fighting force? The British army consisted largely of young men who had joined the cadets whilst at school, and volunteers who had had no training but who craved a bit of excitement. There was, of course, the main body of the British army, largely composed of men whose families had been sending their sons into the army for generations.
‘We were successful in the Boer War,’ Tilly had reminded her host.
‘Yes, that was true, eventually,’ he said. ‘You can understand, though, how Martha and I felt about Stefan going; he has had no training. Apart from the fact that it is all so futile…such an evil to peace-loving folk. All we can do is pray for a swift conclusion to it all. And we do pray every day that this will happen – don’t we, Martha, my dear? – not just at church on Sunday. As well as a personal prayer for our dear son, of course… And now we will remember to say a prayer for your brother, too, and your friend, Dominic.’
Tilly closed her eyes there and then as she sat at her desk on the raised platform at the end of the ward, overlooking the double row of beds. ‘Please take care of Tommy and Dominic,’ she prayed silently, ‘and keep them safe…and Steve Ashton as well.’ She did not know him but a little prayer could not go amiss.
She turned again to her books. Some of the diagrams were gruesome, appearing even more so in the lamplight – drawings of skeletons; pictures of the workings of the heart, the brain and the digestion systems in lurid colour – although some of the sights she had seen in the flesh were far worse. She felt her eyes closing and her head dropping forward as her tired mind closed down, probably for only a few seconds. This was liable to happen occasionally through the long lonely hours of the night, although one was supposed to stay alert at all times.
She came to suddenly at a sound from one of the beds, something between a muffled cry and a snore. She thought it came from the right-hand side of the ward, three beds down, where the young private, Billy Giles, was sleeping. He was the youngest soldier on the ward at that time, suffering from congestion of the lungs as well as internal injuries and a head wound. He was cheerful and optimistic, though, during the day at least, although he was often known to call out in his sleep. He had quickly become a favourite on the ward, looking much younger than his years. Tilly found herself hoping that his injuries would force him to be invalided out of the army, so that he did not have to return to the Front. Surely he had done enough for his country, having joined up as soon as war was declared.
As she watched his bed she saw – or, later, imagined she had seen – a shadowy figure hovering near the bed, and then fading away. She blinked, realising she was not yet fully awake. She decided it must be a trick of the light; the blind was moving a little in the draught from a badly fitting window. She watched and listened for a moment, but there was no further sound or movement from the bed.
With a sigh she closed her text books; her mind would not take in the workings of the human body any longer. She reached into her bag for her copy of Under the Greenwood Tree, one of Thomas Hardy’s less serious novels, recommended by Dominic. She hoped its light-hearted story of the lives and loves of folk in a country village would help to lift her spirits.
At last the dawn light began to filter through the window blinds, and the men in the beds gradually started to stir at the sounds of early morning. The noise of clogs clattering on the pavements outside and the shouts of workers as they hurried to their early morning shift at the mills, a horse-drawn milk-cart passing in the street, and the rattle of a tramcar. Then the day nurses arrived on the ward to take over from the night staff. Tilly felt compelled to check on Billy Giles before she went off duty. She went over to his bed and placed a hand on the shape of his shoulder beneath the bedclothes. ‘Billy…’ she said quietly, not wanting to startle him. ‘It’s time to wake up. Are you ready for a cup of tea?’
He did not stir. He was lying on his side, his face partially hidden, but she could see that his mouth had dropped open; what was more, his eyes were open too. She gave an involuntary gasp as she realised that Billy had died during the night. She felt her hands start to tremble. It was not, of course, the first death she had witnessed on the ward, but it was the first that had happened whilst she had been left in charge. She knew, though, that there was nothing she could have done. The sound she had heard in the night must have been his last gasp of breath. And the shadow she had seen hovering near his bed? She had no rational explanation for that and she felt it would be wiser to keep it to herself. She clenched her fists tightly, breathing deeply to try and get a grip on herself. Then, gently, she reached out and closed his eyelids.
‘Is everything all right, Nurse?’ Sister Berryman appeared at the side of her. ‘I just wanted to check on Billy before I go off duty. Oh dear…’ she whispered as she looked at the motionless figure.
‘I’m afraid he must have died during the night,’ said Tilly. ‘I’m so sorry. He must have gone peacefully. I wasn’t aware that anything was wrong.’
‘It is quite all right, Nurse Moon,’ said the sister. ‘You are not to blame at all. We knew that Billy was very ill. We did all we could for him, but I’m afraid it was not enough. His injuries were too severe.’ She looked at Tilly’s stricken face and smiled sadly at her.
‘When you have seen as many deaths as I have, my dear, you will find you get used to it… No… that is not strictly true,’ she contradicted herself, shaking her head. ‘I don’t think one ever gets used to losing a patient, especially one like Billy, so young and vital with everything to live for. But one learns – regrettably – to become a little more detached. One has to or it would be impossible to cope.’
‘Yes, I understand that, Sister,’ said Tilly. ‘I am trying, but it tears me apart sometimes. I have a brother about the same age as Billy – he’s my twin brother, actually – and there’s…my young man as well. They’ll be going overseas soon.’
‘We all have someone out there,’ said Sister Berryman, a trifle brusquely, as though she wanted to put an end to the lapse into sentimentality. ‘Off you go now, Nurse, and have your rest. I will see to things here. Go along now; we will take care of Billy.’
‘We lost a patient during the night,’ Tilly told Sophie when they returned to their sleeping quarters. ‘Billy – you know, I told you about him, how he was always so cheerful. It was uncanny…’ She went on to tell her friend about the strange feeling she had had and the shadowy image she had seen hovering over the bed. She had intended keeping her night-time vision to herself; it might only have been an illusion conjured up by the mind’s eye on waking suddenly from a brief moment of sleep.
Sophie did not try to tell her she had imagined it. Instead she nodded understandingly. ‘I’ve heard of this sort of thing before,’ she said. ‘Apparently it’s liable to happen to nurses on night duty. They see shadows and ghostly images, especially if there is a death on the ward.’
‘You mean…it might be a departing spirit?’ said Tilly wonderingly. ‘I realised afterwards it must have been at the time that Billy died…that I saw it.’
‘Who knows?’ Sophie shook her head. ‘But the dead can’t harm us, can they? Come along; let’s try and get some sleep. All I know is that I shall be glad to get back to the day-time shift at the beginning of next week.’
‘So shall I,’ agreed Tilly with feeling.
Billy’s death was only one of several that she witnessed on the ward – some at night, others during the day – during the months leading up to Christmas. The war news was still grim. As well as the conflict in Europe there was fighting against the Turks at Gallipoli, which had ended in disaster for the Allied armies. This had led to the dropping of Winston Churchill from the War Cabinet, followed by his resignation from the Government. Still on a personal note came the tragic news that Nurse Edith Cavell had been shot as a spy by a firing squad. And the romantic poet, Rupert Brooke, whose poignant poems had brought momentary hope and consolation to thousands of soldiers, had been killed on his way to the Dardanelles.
Tilly and Sophie were both looking forward to a few days’ leave, sometime around the Christmas period if not on the actual day. It was more than likely that Tommy and Dominic would be home at the same time as Tilly. She and Dominic were still planning to get engaged, knowing, though, that this would be followed by a separation of who could say how long.
As the days grew shorter and autumn gave way to the start of winter, the two young women made full use of their precious free time to get out and about in the city of Bradford. As it was Sophie’s home town she took the lead, although she confessed that it was the first time she had really thought seriously about the magnificence of the architecture in the city. Residents are often inclined to take for granted the splendours of their own surroundings.
One of the most splendid buildings was the City Hall with its ornate clock tower soaring 220 feet above the skyline, and modelled on the bell tower of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. And rivalling that building in magnificence was the city’s Wool Exchange, where the wool merchants met to bargain over the myriad samples of cloth and yarns. It had been built in the style of the earlier great Flemish cloth halls, symbolising the wealth and importance that Bradford had gained by the mid-nineteenth century through its wool trade.
Unfortunately, this had not been gained without a great deal of misery and suffering and social unrest in the city. A health inspector who visited the town in 1844 condemned it as the filthiest place he had ever visited. In stark contrast to the magnificent architecture were the appalling conditions in which the poorer folk were forced to live. Many cottages for the mill workers were built with single brick walls with no running water or drainage. The slightly better-off folk lived in back-to-back houses of which there were 40,000 by the end of the nineteenth century. There were 150 beer taverns, many doubling as brothels, and countless filthy lodging houses. Life was indeed grim for the mill workers earning in many cases less than one pound a week, whilst many of the mill owners lived in luxurious mansions outside of the city.
The most shocking state of affairs had been the way child labour had been exploited in the mills. Children as young as five were forced to work, not only in mills but in the coal mines. Many mill girls worked thirteen hours a day. The statue to Richard Oastler, the factory reformer, with a group of little children surrounding him, which had been erected in Northgate in the centre of the city, was a poignant reminder of those dreadful times.
Oastler was not the only reformer. Not all the mill owners exploited their workforce. There were other factory owners, such as Titus Salt and John Wood, who were concerned about the well-being of their workers and campaigned to change the system; and educationalists like Margaret McMillan and William Edward Forster, both Bradford folk, who were pioneers in bringing about compulsory education for all children.
Conditions in the city had gradually improved although the contrast between the living conditions of the poor and the middle classes was still apparent. The start of the war, however, had brought a much-needed boost in production for the mills as the government placed orders for uniforms and blankets.
The philanthropists of Bradford had seen the need for parks and open spaces where the ordinary people could escape to for a while from their often drab and depressing living conditions. Peel Park, named after Sir Robert Peel, had been opened in 1865 by the Bradford Corporation, a condition being that ‘no intoxicating liquor should be sold and no games played on a Sunday’.
But on the occasions that they had a free Sunday afternoon, Lister Park was the favourite haunt of Tilly and Sophie. It was in Manningham, quite near to Sophie’s home, and they would go there for tea if time allowed. There was a lake, a botanical garden with a stream running through it, and a miniature reproduction of the Yorkshire waterfall, Thornton Force. And whilst listening to a brass band concert at the ornamental stone bandstand, the two girls almost forgot their anxieties about the terrible state of the world.
There were numerous places of entertainment in Bradford: concert halls, theatres, music halls and – more recently – cinemas where the new moving pictures were shown. Tilly’s and Sophie’s musical tastes differed somewhat, but during the latter half of 1915 they visited a variety of different venues. At St George’s Hall they heard the Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra performing works by Mozart, Elgar and their own Bradford born Delius. This had been Tilly’s choice, but Sophie enjoyed immensely her first introduction to what she called ‘proper classical music’.
The Alhambra had opened the previous year, a few months prior to the start of the war. It was a glittering palace with three distinctive domes, and despite the outbreak of war it had got off to a good start, becoming a favourite escape from reality and the worries of everyday life. It was at Sophie’s suggestion that they went to a variety show there. The singers, dancers, funny men, ventriloquist and conjuror reminded Tilly of the Pierrots back home. But the star of the show was the famous Vesta Tilley, the male impersonator, who almost brought the house down with her performance of ‘Burlington Bertie’. And both girls laughed till their sides ached at the antics of Charlie Chaplin in the moving picture The Tramp, which they saw at the first cinema to be built in Bradford, the Theatre de Luxe.
These outings were brief respites from the daily toil at the hospital, which was becoming increasingly arduous and distressing. Several of the soldiers, like young Billy, were too badly injured to survive. For others, whose injuries were less severe, there was the possibility that after a period in a convalescent home they would be sent back overseas. They had lived to fight another day, as the saying went, but Tilly found herself asking, time and again, what was the meaning of it all?
She was delighted to learn that her short period of leave was to include the important Christmas Day and Boxing Day. What was more, both Dominic and her brother had been granted leave at the same time.
