Gabriele Wills~Author of Elusive Dawn~ Guest Post

Gabriele Wills is the author of The Muskoka Novels, a wonderful series that captured my imagination with book one, The Summer Before the Storm, which I reviewed HERE. The second book in the series, Elusive Dawn (what a wonderfully evocative title!) continues this series and I am very excited to review it later this week.

I would like to thank Gabriele Wills for sharing her thoughts in this guest post...

Intrepid Women

By Gabriele Wills

The “girls” of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) laughed uproariously when they read a British newspaper article during WWI about women motor drivers, which declared, “Women’s outlook on life will be distorted by the adoption of such a profession, her finer instincts crushed,” and that she would be robbed “of much feminine charm”.   The FANY was a corps of plucky young women – most in their early 20s - who volunteered to drive ambulances and run field hospitals in war-torn Belgium and France. They were well bred, often aristocratic, and cultivated an image of fierce independence, self-confidence, gaiety, flair, and audacity.

Although the Belgians gratefully accepted the FANYs’ services shortly after the outbreak of war in 1914, it wasn’t until 1916 that the British allowed them to set up a convoy in Calais. They had to deal with skeptical military personnel, and male drivers who resented them encroaching on their territory, and doing it without pay. The locals were impressed by the eccentric and fearless English mademoiselles, who drew a crowd when expertly changing tires or repairing their vehicles.

The FANYs’ work was difficult, dirty, and dangerous. They maintained their cars mechanically, but also had to cleanse them of blood and other bodily effluences. They transported wounded, ill, and dying men from trains and barges to hospitals and ships, often at night and in all weathers, frequently driving through bombardments. One FANY was seriously wounded when a torpedo exploded in front of her ambulance, killing the orderly beside her, but she managed to crawl 200 yards to a hospital, refusing aid until the men in her charge had been treated. During one of 197 air raids on Calais, shrapnel so narrowly missed injuring some FANY that it shredded bits of their clothing and was embedded in their bedroom walls. 

Those on night duty in winter had the arduous task of hand cranking every vehicle hourly to keep them from freezing up. During a major offensive, like Passchendaele, they worked endless days without sleep or time for proper meals or even a wash, snatching naps on stretchers in their ambulances while awaiting yet another train. They assisted when an ammunition dump outside Calais was bombed, creating a crater “big enough to bury a village”, dodging live shells that littered roads up to five miles away. The place was an inferno, and armaments kept exploding, raining shrapnel down around them.

But the “girls”, as they called themselves, also had fun when off-duty, and were renowned for their hospitality - hosting teas, dances, and entertainments for officers, many of the women being accomplished musicians. They borrowed horses, sometimes riding out with officers and participating in races on the beach. Some romances and marriages ensued. In her memoir, FANNY Goes to War, Pat (Waddell) Beauchamp describes encountering the Prince of Wales in Calais, and receiving a delightful smile and “wonderful salute”.

It’s amazing to realize the many hardships that these gently reared ladies endured - with stoicism and grace - in their bid to “do their duty” like their brothers and sweethearts. FANY members earned 136 medals and decorations during WWI, including Pat Waddell, who lost a leg in the line of duty.  

Janet Lee’s War Girls gives a comprehensive account of the corps during WWI. The FANY is still in existence, and you can see vintage photos on their website. Their motto is “arduis invictus”, meaning “unconquered in hardships”, which is indeed apt.

I pay tribute to these intrepid women in Elusive Dawn through my fictional WATS (Women's Ambulance and Transport Service), heavily based on FANY history.  Victoria Wyndham, the heroine of The Muskoka Novels, becomes a WATS, and penned the following ditty to the popular wartime tune, “Sister Susie’s Sewing Shirts for Soldiers”, which encapsulates the WATS - and FANY - experience:

Cousin Katy’s driving on the wrong side in Calais,

She responds to calls for help with never a delay,

Bombs and shells may fall but she’ll keep driving through them all,

She’s a WATS and that’s what WATS do – heed the battle call.

But in her scratchy khaki she still likes a dance or two,

For she’s a lady fair and there is nothing she can’t do.

Cousin Katy cleans the carburetor,

Vulcanize, decarbonize, oil, grease, and then much later

She dances and she sings until the telephone rings, then

Cousin Katy cranks and cranks and cranks the cranky car again.

She drives and drives through darkness that is dangerous, undaunted,

Taking troops and top-brass anywhere where they are wanted,

Meeting ships and trains, soon she’ll be flying aer-o-planes!

She’ll defeat the Hun with her grease gun and never she complains.

But when she’s not in breeches, and underneath her car,

She likes champagne from crystal, and a taste of caviar.

Please come back to Bags, Books & Bon Jovi later this week to read my review of Elusive Dawn by Gabriele Wills. To whet your appetite... click HERE to go to the author's website to read an excerpt. I hope you enjoy it as much I did!