War Classics (16 page)

1
.  Christina is describing the military hospital complex at Le Tréport. The luxurious Trianon Hotel was converted into a hospital, and numerous tents and huts were erected in the surrounding grounds.

2
.  The provision of hostels like this was one of the most significant yet little-remembered services provided by the YMCA during the war. Relatives of the dangerously wounded were able to visit their loved ones free of charge.

3
.  These directions would take Christina to the original military cemetery at Le Tréport, beside the civilian cemetery, and here she would find her ‘Scotch soldiers’. The cemetery she had visited on the previous day was Mount Huon Cemetery, which lies high on the cliff tops. It was created beside the military hospital as the original cemetery could no longer cope with the vast numbers of deaths taking place here.

1  Christina as a baby, 1889.

2  Keith family group,
c
. 1905. William, Louise, Barrogill and Christina are standing. Katie and Peter are seated. Patricia is leaning against her mother, while Mildred sits on the floor and Julia on a chair. Edward has not yet been born.

3  Christina’s graduation.

4  The School in Dieppe. ‘In happier days an artist from Paris had built it for himself, with its wide windows looking far across the English Channel and its red roof snugly sheltered by warm wooden gables.’ (Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham YMCA/K/8/1/112)

5  Sub-directors of Education at Dieppe, 4 February 1919. Sir Graham Balfour is seated third from the left. Henry Brooke, Christina’s ‘Chief’, is second from the right in the back row. (Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham YMCA/ACC15 F1/7/4)

6  Hotel for relatives of the wounded, Le Tréport. ‘Near the foot stood the house where I was staying – it had been used during the war to put up the relatives of the dangerously wounded.’ (Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham YMCA/K/8/1/92)

7  General Headquarters, Dieppe. ‘I was installed in a beautiful big room on the first floor, directly opposite the Education Chief himself. My room possessed two windows facing the sea and a large stove.’ (Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham YMCA/K/8/1/93)

8  Arras railway station. ‘There was not much left of Arras Station, which apparently had had a direct hit.’ (Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham YMCA/K/8/1/254)

9  Arras. ‘The houses were broken, of course – in some a wall had been torn sheer away and we looked into the privacy of every room, standing just as its owner had left it. Broken homes – but not deserted.’ (Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham YMCA/K/8/1/318)

10  Telegram informing Christina’s sister Louise of the death of Daniel Gordon Campbell. ‘My eyes had turned to the horizon again, to the heights that once were St Eloi. Someone I knew lay there, who had been a Canadian, and it was too far for me to go.’

11  Photograph of memorial to the Canadian regiments killed at Vimy, sent to Louise. ‘The great high cross, with Canada in white letters, stood high on the crest of the ridge. The Hut Lady and I sat in the shadow of the memorial and looked towards St Eloi.’