Unwelcome Inheritance

I gave the copy of the will to my father.

"I won't say 'thank you, Ruth'. What this is, is a heavy responsibility that your mother and I don't want..."

"But it is a lot of money," Angela said.

"Yes, Angela, it is. But it is also a responsibility for over two hundred people's employment and the work that goes with that. Ruth knows that neither I nor her mother need money. We have enough to live comfortably. While the war continues I will be very busy here and have no time to look after estates. But this is morbid. Ruth won't die, and I have a package from the War Office for her. If it contains what I think, Ruth won't be going back to France. Angela, can you get the package addressed to Ruth, please? It's on the desk in my office."

Angela was back within less than a minute. She gave the package to me. I opened it carefully. The first things out were a couple of bright red brassards with a crown, inscribed 'On War Duties'. I passed one to my father.

"I've never seen these in red," he said. "In blue, or green but not red."

The next item was an identity card with a photo of me. When I looked at it, I nearly dropped it.

I passed it to my father. He read it.

"Commandant and medical director, Ruth?" You have come up in the world."

"But the rest, Dad?"

He laughed.

"They've made you a full Colonel? But you still have to salute me, Ruth. I'm now a substantive Brigadier."

I gave him a passable imitation of a military salute. Then all four of us laughed as the two VADs tried to salute me too.

There were many sheets of paper in the package. I needed my father's understanding of the army to translate some of the abbreviations but in outline what it said was:

1.I would be appointed as a colonel immediately and start work after my 14 days' leave. Enclosed were instructions to a military tailor for my uniform. Neither I nor my father knew how a woman could be a colonel, but apparently I would be, or actually was now.

2.A unit of Royal Engineers would arrive on that day to erect huts and equipment. They would be sited beyond the Ha Ha, not in the formal gardens. A plan was enclosed.

3.The Army would pay me a rent of two thousand pounds a year while the facility was needed.

4. I would have eight VADs initially, increasing as more patients arrived. Basically there would be one VAD for every patient.

5.I would start with two senior nurses and I could choose who I wanted. More would be assigned as more patients were in residence, one for every six VADS.

6.There would be a resident doctor and other medical staff, all responsible to me.

7.The first eight patients would arrive a fortnight after the Engineers and that would increase monthly until the full capacity of about eighty patients was achieved.

8.There would be a small army unit resident to maintain the facilities. That would be commanded by a lieutenant, probably one who had been disabled for front line service.

There was much more. I and my father spent about two days going through it all.

I wrote to the army asking for the two senior nurses who had been working with me in the field hospital in France. They, like me, had been working for more than two years. I knew them liked them, and was aware they were very experienced and efficient.

I decided that I had to move in to the Dower House as soon as possible to be ready when the army arrived. I went back to London, to stay one night in the London house.

I was wearing my red brassard as I walked from the station to the house. I met Sergeant Abram who saluted me.

"A red brassard, Miss Ruth?" He asked. "I've never seen one. I know blue is for privates not in uniform, war workers etc. Green is for NCOs, foremen and supervisors. Red is for officers and yellow, supposed to be gold, is for staff officers. So what are you now?"

I laughed.

"Apparently, Sergeant Abram, I'm a Colonel."

"You are? Congratulations."

"And congratulations to you, Sergeant, on your marriage to Marie."

He grinned.

"She's wonderful, and I'm very lucky. My office is now your kitchen, so I see her during the working day."

"That's where I'm going now, Sergeant."

"Then I'll escort you. With that brassard you shouldn't have any problems from white feather ladies, but some of them are idiots..."

They were. One group objected to my brassard, claiming that I had no right to wear it and I must have borrowed my husband's.

Sergeant Abram was brusque with them.

"Colonel Miss Harold is an officer in her own right, and what are you? Public nuisances. Get out of our way!"

+++

The military tailor was embarrassed. He had never measured a woman for a colonel's uniform before. He was even more embarrassed when I kissed him on the cheek when the measurements were completed,

My first uniform would be sent to the Dower House by the end of the week and the other two a few days later.

+++

I asked Marie and Jessica to pack all my clothes in a trunk and send it by rail to the nearest station to the Dower House. It would be collected and I would have in within two days.

I went to the solicitors to change my will. It was obvious that my parents were worried about the potential responsibilities despite my chance of dying having been much reduced by an appointment in the UK.

I wanted to leave what had been James' estate to Amelie, and what had been Alfred's to Caroline.

"A good decision, Miss Ruth," the solicitor said. "Mr Simons has already transferred his estate to those two ladies. If he survives the next seven years, no death duties will be payable. In the meantime he is acting as their manager but has a right to remain for the rest of his life. In practice all it means is that any substantial changes or expenditure have to be countersigned by Amelie and Caroline."

+++

The evening I was back in Alfred's room but this time I didn't feel his presence. I was too busy thinking about plans for the arrival of the Army engineers.

+++

A month later the hospital was operational. I was pleased that I had two of my experienced nursing friends from France. They were training the VADs, inexperienced but very willing. The first injured officers had arrived and were undergoing remedial treatment and care. It hurt me sometimes to be fierce with them to get them doing things that were painful, and I nearly cried the first time one of them after an hour of me pushing him to his limits, thanked me and insisted on hugging me. He knew I was acting in his best interest although he could resent me during the exercises.

My dreams of Albert were fading. I had too much to do and too many injured young me to care for.

+++

Two months later I was surprised to be grabbed and kissed by one of our first patients.

"Why, Rupert?" I asked when he let me go.

He laughed and pointed to the white feather in his hat band.

"I was in the town today when I was approached by a group of white feather ladies. They insisted on giving me one. I thanked them and put it in my hat band. That annoyed them. I pulled up my trouser legs to show my wooden legs."

Rupert demonstrated showing his wooden legs.

"I said: Thank you for proving that I have mastered them to the effect that you think I am fit enough to be back at the front, Ladies. Without legs, I wouldn't be much use there again but it is great that you think I'm fully fit."

Rupert kissed me again. I let him because I was enjoying it.

"They wanted to take their feather back again but I wouldn't let them. I told them it was a sign of the good work done at your hospital, Miss Ruth. But they wouldn't let me go until all of them had kissed me for fighting for King and Country. But I would far rather of kissed you, Miss Ruth, and now I have."

And now Rupert did again, His arms went around me. My arms went around him and we kissed until we were both breathless.

"After that," Rupert said, "I'm going to have a beer to celebrate."

"To celebrate getting a white feather?" I asked.

Rupert grinned.

"No, Miss Ruth. To celebrate kissing you three times."

He kissed me again to make it four. As he walked off, my experienced eye saw the difference in his walking caused by two wooden legs. To someone who didn't know him, the way he managed was impressive and might almost be seen as normal.

+++

The work on the two estates was progressing. The traction engine contractors had ploughed more land and dredged and extended the mill pond. I was paying them to train the farm workers to use the new traction engines gradually being delivered. The recovering officers were also working on the estates as part of their rehabilitation. None of them was as effective as a single male farmworker would have been, and most even not as much as the women, but two or three working together could do one farm worker's work.

The traction engine contractors had also done some work on Gerald's land but not much because most of it was used for army training. That estate might produce about ten per cent more crops than before the war. My two might have an increase of nearly fifty per cent in 1917 and more in 1918, despite the continuing loss of male farmworkers to conscription.

I had two ambulances to carry the wounded from the railway station and the War Office had found me two battered Ford Model T cars which had been renovated by the Army engineers. Rupert, with his wooden legs, drove one of the Fords. He had been medically discharged as a substantive major. I arranged for him to stay on, as a civilian, employed as the hospital's driver and instructor for all the injured who wanted to learn how to drive.

Former Major Rupert, as a civilian now, no longer had to salute Colonel Ruth. He did, but this time with a kiss every time we met. Everyone knew that Rupert loved me, and I loved him. Gerald, Amelie and Caroline all approved of Rupert. He wasn't Alfred, but he was much more demonstrative than Alfred had ever been. After he had been on leave for a couple of days I wasn't surprised to get a letter from my father in Lydd to say that Rupert had been to see him to ask for permission to court me. Apparently Rupert is a younger son who would inherit a small estate in Scotland unless his two older brothers, still serving in France, were killed. If so, his inheritance would be substantial but he would rather have his brothers.

I didn't care how small or large Rupert's estate might be. I already had responsibility for substantial lands. I could see the advantage of having a partner who had experience of managing estates. When Rupert proposed I said yes immediately. We will marry on Valentine's Day 1917.

I would have a husband who could help me to run and improve the two estates I had never wanted to inherit...