No Place for Ladies

Reviewed after receving an ARC of the updated version due to be released May 12th 2020, for Nurses Day, a portion of the proceeds being donated to Guys and St Thomas Charity.

Everyone knows about Florence Nightingale and her role in nursing through the Crimea War, what few know about are the other women who were in the Crimea, and the region at the same time supporting their husbands as wives "on the strength", other nurses running hospitals in other locations, or those independent sorts like Mary Seacole who moved herself out there and set up a business.

While I have connections to the British Army I had little knowledge of the Crimea itself or how the idea of wives travelling to war with their husbands worked, though I knew it had been common. 

What I enjoyed about this was that it covered these things in enough detail that it was interesting but not enough to feel like drowning in detail. 

 The problems faced by the wives left at home were covered in the early parts of the book, those who were married as the Army considered it legally and those who were married without their husband obtaining consent having very different experiences - a system which to a degree exists today, wives are recognised but anyone unmarried essentially doesnt exist as far the the British military system is concerned - and the origin of the still existing tradition of asking permission to marry from your superior officer. Those married without the army's permission recieving no assistance after their husbands left, while those married with permission could access some help.

The desperation of wives to travel with their husbands makes a lot more sense in the light of the problems faced by those left at home, but it was far from an easy experience for them. The military was characteristically unprepared for the scale of the deployment with problems moving supplies from the harbour to the front leaving items in ships holds for far longer than was ideal, weather - a harsh winter and the Great Storm of 1854 (described as a hurricane in the book) and of course the day to day harsh life of an army at war.

Once the book starts to cover the nursing aspects Rappaport makes it quite clear that the legend of Ms Nightingale is not the whole truth of her which is refreshing and as I worked for a period at a place she was known to have frequented due to family connections before she became so well known as a nurse particularly interesting to me. But regardless of her personal clashes with other people she did make a huge difference to the care of her patients in incredibly difficult circumstances.

There was also mention of James Barry the military surgeon who after his death it was discovered was actually born female and named Margaret Ann Bulkley, who himself (as that is how he identified and chose to be known) was the second highest ranked military medic who established a hospital for treatment and recuperation for Crimea wounded.

Overall the book is a good way to learn more about another side of war and a war which these days seems, to me, to be little known about barring Florence and The Charge of the Light Brigade. 

Well worth reading as an exploration of the lives which were lived relatively without acknowledgement at the time.

'No Place for Ladies' is a brilliant book, which aims to explore the place of women in the Crimean War, but in fact works as a primer for anyone who lacks familiarity with the conflict. Author Helen Rappaport does not delve deep into the political motivations of the war, but paints a strong picture of the key battles, the chief problems, and the social issues brewing back in Britain as the war is waged - all while showing the part that women played both on and off the battle-field. 

Books on 'women's history' are often let done by the lack of available historical resources available to researchers: often women did not write about their own lives, or their writings were not considered valuable enough to keep, and their voices are absent from men's accounts. From the beginning, this is not the case with 'No Place for Ladies'. Rappaport draws from the diaries of the lady-wives of officers, and from reports and personal accounts of the wives of soldiers. Nurses and doctors' memoirs, letters to newspapers, Queen Victoria's own correspondence; the books is rich with the voices of women, as well as the men who interacted with them. 

Importantly, while the work of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, and other medical women is a key part of the book, nursing is only one of the many roles women play in the war. While Rappaport focuses on British women, she is able to draw a line between how they were often undervalued and overlooked by the military machine with their French allies - whose women had very distinct and important roles - and even their Russian foe. 

One of my few disappointments with the book is that we see more of the rivalries and hostilities between women in the war than the ties that bind them. Importantly, Rappaport draws out the classism, racism, and religious divides that often split the women whose stories she tells, but I felt like there were too few stories that showed the opposite; a mention of how soldiers' wives living with their husbands on the battlefield banded together is immediately countered with an anecdote of one left to fend for herself as an outsider to the rest of her community. And Fanny Durbley, whose prolific diaries are most often drawn on, simply had no time or care for other women. 

'No Place for Ladies' has, as the author puts it, been reissued 'against the backdrop of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic'. It is easy to draw a parallel between the Victorian public's deep appreciation of the women nursing their soldiers and the current gratitude to NHS staff for their hard work and sacrifices. But there are parallels, too, to be drawn between the mismanagement of British troops, their wives and families, and the medical provision they needed during the Crimean War, and the mismanagement of the pandemic we're now seeing. Like all good history books, 'No Place for Ladies' allows us to reflect on how far we've come - and how little has changed. 

An ARC was generously provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Well researched and clearly written, this book reveals the highly interesting story of the women--army wives, lady tourists, and nurses, who participated in some way in the Crimean War. As someone who knew little to none about this conflict going in, this was a very informative read that really taught me a lot beyond the mythological 'lady of the lamp' story that every child is taught in school. A brilliant historical book, will definitely be reading more of Helen Rappaport's work.