With necessity forcing Society to allow women into many new lines of work, breaking down barriers which could not later be fully reconstructed, World War I changed the landscape of the working world. In this month’s stories, we see that impact on the lives of both individuals and groups of women who, prepared to show how capably they could support the war effort, becomes heroines in the very shadow of the guns.
We begin with BAND OF SISTERS by Lauren Willig, a novel based on a true story. When charismatic Smith graduate Betsy Rutherford calls on other Smith graduates to join a unit to help French civilians displaced and injured by the war, a disparate group of eighteen volunteers head for France as the Smith College Relief Unit. Though scholarship student Kate Moran never felt she fit in, she reluctantly yields to the pleas of her former best friend Emmeline Van Alden to join the unit. Arriving in the decimated French countryside, they find their headquarters a burned-out ruin and the villagers they seek to help living in cellars, their gardens destroyed, their wells poisoned. If frequent German shelling and harassment from male bureaucracies that don’t believe they belong in France aren’t enough, the constant stress reopens old rifts and rivalries from their undergraduate days. But stress also refines, as Kate and the other women navigate fear, resentments and appalling living conditions to offer life-saving medical treatment and provide essential food and comfort to the beleaguered civilians.
Another group of women fighting against prejudice to serve in a very different field is portrayed in THE GIRLS IN NAVY BLUE by Alex Rickloff. When the US Navy finally admits females in 1917, three very different women enlist as yeomanettes: beautiful suffragette Blanche, determined to prove women deserve the vote, German immigrant Marjory, who wants to show the loyalty of German Americans and preacher’s daughter Vivian, who joins in a desperate attempt to escape her former life. In this dual-timeline novel, Rickloff’s account provides fascinating details about the work done by this little-known Navy unit. In the modern-day timeline, after inheriting her estranged aunt Blanche’s beach cottage in Norfolk, Peggy begins receiving a series of postcards from Blanche to Viv – dated 1918. As she delves into the mystery, she discovers the fuller story of the service of her aunt and her two friends – and uncovers unexpected links to the present that will upset everything she thought she knew about her family.
Our last two stories concentrate on nurses who answer the call to treat wounded at the very edge of the battlefield. IN FALLING SNOW by Mary-Rose MacColl introduces us to Iris Crane, an Australian nurse who goes to France to bring home her fifteen-year-old brother, who ran away to enlist. But once overseas, she meets Dr. Frances Ivens in Paris, who convinces her to stay and help establish a field hospital at the old abbey of Royaumont sponsored by the Scottish Women’s Suffrage Federation, a hospital that will be staffed entirely by women. This story, based on the actual hospital at Royaumont, alternates the account of the daily life under fire of Iris and her friend, ambulance driver Violet, as they deal with the injuries and agonies of the men and boys in the trenches and that of her granddaughter Grace, who has continued her grandmother’s love of medicine by becoming an obstetrician. MacColl’s story illuminates both the achievements of the Royaumont medical staff and women’s struggle to manage marriage, family and career in both eras.
Our final novel details the development of confidence and independence of an orphan abandoned in a cardboard box as a baby in THE NURSE’S PROMISE by Rosie James. Angelina James owes her life to the orphanage that raised her and the man who found her and brought her there, a wealthy businessman. Discovering the institution was about to close, he becomes its benefactor and takes a life-long interest in the baby he rescued. Wanting to pay back, Angelina becomes a nurse, and when war breaks out, she volunteers for a front-line unit, caring for the soldiers injured in fighting for England. The constant danger of bombardment and the strain of trying to treat the ceaseless flood of severely wounded soldiers tests Angelina to the limit. But as danger increases, so does her resolve to provide care and fulfil her ultimate dream of becoming a doctor. James’s novel provides another detailed picture of the heroism and service provided by World War I frontline nurses.
We today have the privilege of sitting in the comfort of our own homes while these talented authors immerse us in the world of women who broke barriers, opened occupations formerly closed to females, and demonstrated a girl could be as unflinching under fire and as committed to duty as any male soldier. Bravo to the ladies!
About Julia Justiss
Real, intense, passionate historical romance
Award-winning romance author Julia Justiss, who has written more than thirty historical novels and novellas set in the English Regency and the American West, just completed her first contemporary series set in the fictional Hill Country town of Whiskey River, Texas.
A voracious reader who began jotting down plot ideas for Nancy Drew novels in her third grade spiral, Julia has published poetry and worked as a business journalist.
She and her husband live in East Texas, where she continues to craft the stories she loves. Check her website for details about her books, chat with her on social media, and follow her on Bookbub and Amazon to receive notices about her latest releases.
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