Description
Object description
One leather bound scrapbook / photograph album monogrammed M.E.B 1914. Contains, newspaper cuttings, amateur photographs, medals, medallions and badges relating to the service of Muriel Elspeth Butler a nurse, later Sister and Matron, with the British Red Cross from September 1914 in France and Belgium but predominantly from November 1914 at hospitals in London at 10 Carlton House Terrace, later 83 Portland Place and 30 Hill Street, London.
Album 1: Photographs include staff and patients at the Red Cross station at 19 Rue Guimard, Brussels, Belgium (October 1914), along with newspaper clippings relating to the establishment of the detachment of English Red Cross nurses, the German occupation of Belgium and tourist postcards of peacetime scenes in Belgium and Denmark. Newspaper cuttings related to the German removal of British Doctors and Nurses from Brussels to England via Copenhagen in October 1914. The collection includes a letter written to Butler by her father in September 1914 during her time in Belgium.
The majority of the album's coverage however depicts scenes in the officer's hospital at 10 Carlton House Terrace London which was established by Lady Ridley in November 1914 in the house which was owned by Viscount Ridley. Included in this series are a number of very good views of the wards in various grand stately rooms as well external 'lean-to' areas constructed over the 1st floor terrace with commanding views over St James's Park, the Mall and Admiralty Arch and buildings. Patients are seen with varying degrees of injury in beds on the ward and relaxing, enjoying the outdoor areas. Nursing staff are depicted in portrait, in natural pose, and also at work. Viscount and Lady Ridley are also featured. Newspaper exerts report various actions by which MEB's brother Captain John Paul Hardinge Butler, of the Royal Rifle Corps was awarded the VC for his actions in 1914 in the Cameroons, Nigeria.
In most cases for photographs depicting people, staff or patients the subject is identified. Often a hand-clipped notice of the death of a patient is carefully fixed near the relevant photographs.A poem has been written dedicated to one of the patients known only as 'Humpty Dumpty'.
The album includes various amateur drawings, some depicting scenes (comical and otherwise) in the hospital. Probably drawn by staff or patients. The album also includes a medal ribon from a 1914 Star, a Princesse Marie-Jose medal, a button with the Danish message 'Min Gud MIt Land Min Aere' and a printed booklet '10. Carlton House Terrace. Complaints Book. 1915.' a comical book believed to be fictitious. Loose are pages from the 'Times History of the War' relating to the war in West Africa; Fourth Supplement to the London Gazette, 30th May 1916; newspaper clipping entitled 'Sister - A Military Hospital Sketch'
Physical description
Album 1: Red leather album, gilt edged leaves measures 310mm x 260mm x 50mm. Monogrammed with 'M.E.B. 1914'.