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Premonitions of war were felt in Cheltenham long before they were felt by the general public.

The Cheltenham Ladies College set up a volunteer fire brigade with a drill procedure in place by 1909 in the event of any future enemy invasion. In 1910 a College branch of the Red Cross was formed with the aim of letting women 鈥榯ake their share of the burden of national defence.鈥� Regular inspections of training procedures were carried out between 1910 鈥� 1914 either as a pretend patient or a trainee nurse.

Students were entered for First Aid and nursing exams and by 1914 over 400 pupils held certificates. A classroom was set up to act as an operating theatre and the laboratories were used to prepare anaesthetics for the Royal Society War Committee. Other duties would see the girls learning how to carry stretchers safely and how to set up an outdoor field kitchen as if they were nursing on the front line.

In 1914, these skills were needed in reality as the first wave of front line casualties reached the Red Cross hospitals.

Eversleigh boarding house was turned into a Red Cross Hospital. Each ward was named after a College boarding house and was fully staffed by Guild members and staff who volunteered to nurse during their free time away from teaching duties, often giving up all their holidays and weekends. In many cases girls also volunteered to work at the nearby St Martin鈥檚 Red Cross Hospital as soon as they left college. All the training they had done while at college was put to good use as they tended the large numbers of wounded who arrived from the battlefields of France and Belgium.

At a time of food shortage, feeding over 500 boarders on a daily basis was a problem and the college became smitten with 鈥榓llotment fever鈥� as many boarding house gardens and various parts of the playing field were dug up to grow vegetables. All the girls were responsible for helping with this instead of playing all the usual sports. Rubbish from the boarding houses was collected and sorted for recycling by the girls such as paper, bottles, tins and meat bones. The effects of the restricted war-time diet on the girls were carefully monitored with regular weigh-ins, a reduction in prep where possible and more time allowed for sleep.

Girls were expected to contribute their own money towards buying items to place in 鈥榗omfort鈥� parcels which were then sent out to the troops in the trenches and in the Royal Navy. The contents ranged from knitted mittens and electric torches to chocolate and tobacco. Letters of thanks were received from soldiers, which were read out at prayers so that the girls could see how much their contributions were appreciated.

The principal at the time, Miss Lilian Faithfull, was often called upon to break the news of the death of a relative to a girl, as well as to try to comfort the bereaved. She was often deeply impressed by their fortitude: 鈥淥ne day I heard the news of the death of a student鈥檚 brother, and, realising what it would mean to the sister, was so much of a coward that I feared to send for her. I need not have been afraid. An hour afterwards she passed me in the hall, and as I called her she turned round, her face alight and smiling, and all she said was鈥�, 鈥業 am far too proud to be sad.鈥欌��

She wanted the girls to have a place of sanctuary, a place of quiet for private prayer and thought, so she set up a prayer room near her own office. A book was placed in it with the names of all the brothers and fathers who were fighting, and the room was in constant use.

Location: The Cheltenham Ladies College, Bayshill Rd, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL50 3EP
Image: Girls at the Ladies College also had to learn to set up an outdoor field kitchen just as if they were nursing on the front line. Photograph courtesy of Cheltenham Ladies College.

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