Great War battlefield survivors - Part 4

Mary Dexter's War - September 1914 to May 1918



'Psycho-Analysis' - The Medico-Psychological Clinic, London


In November 1916, Dexter writes:

" It is just a month today since I began my course at the Clinic (her mother adds 'Medico-Psychological Clinic'). The lectures are even stiffer than I expected - but so interesting it is worth the hard work. It is curious to think that a year ago I had never heard of Applied Psychology - and now I would not go back to nursing for worlds! I am awfully looking forward to having patients of my own - Dr. Murray thinks I can by Christmas-time.

" Some of our lectures have been on 'The Psychology of the First Five Years'. One subject was 'The Subnormal Child' - another 'The Psychology of Children's Misdemeanors'.

" The fundamental cause of war-shock goes back to childhood. The reason why one man gets it and another, under the same conditions, doesn't, is owing to some streak of weakness in the subconsciousness, dating back to conditions of early infancy. Our doctors are not expecting to attempt a complete cure for every war-shock patient who comes to the Clinic - that would involve a course of thorough-going analysis, which would take too long. In many cases it is much better to do a temporary cure in a quick way - and unless the previous causes of war-shock are renewed, it may prove a permanent cure. You understand that the cases of war-shock we shall deal with will often be men who have never been wounded.

" Dr. Stoddart [an MD] lectured on the Neuropathic Patient the other day. We are having a course on the 'Psychology of the Subconscious' and one on 'Normal Psychology' from reflexes and sensori-motor arcs to the measurement of mental ability, etc., and the relation of Social Psychology to Individual Psychology. Also some lectures by Dr. Mackintosh on 'Type and Temperament' and 'Heredity'."


In January 1917, Dexter has passed Normal Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Biology, and has more courses ahead :
 
" I have three patients now at the Clinic. Also a private case which I am taking under Dr. Murray ..."

" I go now to Dr. Murray twice a week for my own [control] analysis, which I want to get through as much as is possible this winter. Otherwise things would come cropping up later. Also it is very helpful to me to see her in connection with my patients. Every student has to be analyzed before being allowed to become an analyst. No amount of study can take the place of it - it is a necessary part of the course."

In early February 1917 she writes about a 21 year old Gallipoli shell-shock patient:

" I have been trying the word-reaction tests with him - and got exactly the results I knew I would. I made up the lists of words, with words sandwiched in which have to do with his Gallipoli experiences. At any word, such as rifle, sand, ship, waves, bugle, tent, shells, etc. there is no reaction-word at all - his mind is a dead blank."


The Medico-Psychological Clinic

In his 1998 article 'The Organizing of Psychoanalysis in Britain' R.D. Hinshelwood provides some background on the Clinic at which Dexter trained ...

Two friends involved in the suffragette movement founded the Medico-Psychological Clinic: Jessie Murray (1867-1920) was qualified as a medical doctor and obtained further medical training in Psychology. She then went to Pierre Janet - a pioneer in dissociation and traumatic memory - in Paris and continued her studies in London. Julia Turner, her trusted friend and also trained in analysis, was the secretary and treasurer of the Clinic at the beginning.

Murray was interested in clinical work providing 'an eclectic mix of psychotherapies' close to her University College London academic base. 'Eclectic' seems to have included 'Psychological Analysis (from Pierre Janet and others); Psycho-Analysis (from Freud, Jung and others); Therapeutic Conversation and Persuasion; Re-Education and Suggestion in the hypnoidal and hypnotic states'. Back then, even psychological and 'psychic' research societies sometimes intermingled - the field was that new, undeveloped and unorganized as a profession.

Adjoining houses on Brunswick Square (Dexter refers to 'No 33, No 34' - they are now gone) were used for the clinic and for boarding some patients ('the hostel'). The hostel was used to house some daily therapy military patients ... particularly when financial circumstances and wartime fuel shortages made this necessary to maintain the appropriate frequency of sessions. Compared to the quantity of people with wartime psychological injuries, the availability of supportive psychological care was unfortunately quite limited. The Clinic's own growth to meet the demand was restricted by funding challenges, and wartime labour shortages - which slowed remodeling its facilities, including the soldiers' hostel.

With Jessie Murray's death from cancer in 1920, the Clinic lost its driving force and folded soon after. Some loyal Freudians were quite zealous and dominant - pushing out the 'Jungian rump' of the coalescing psychoanalytic profession in Britain. Over time, many of the former Medico-Psychological Clinic therapists 'saw the light' of Freudian psychoanalysis. While this did not necessarily maintain Murray's original goal of providing a variety of therapies, the post-war Freud-dominated development of the British based profession did include many female practitioners who had first been attracted to Murray's clinic ... As you realize, professions which barred women or made their entering practice unnecessarily difficult were pretty common back then and psychoanalysis in England was a rare exception.




I could find no photographs of  Dr. Jessie Murray or the Clinic.



Mary Dexter's mother includes no photos from this period.





Sadly, it looked as if there would be NO Freudian or Jungian illustration for this section ...



... until I found this American recruiting poster from the Great War ...







Sometimes a torpedo is just a torpedo, Dr. Strangelove.




As the Clinic went through growing pains, Dexter's war service temporarily took another detour.

September 17, 1917 ...to ... May 24, 1918 ... Mary Dexter was again close to The Front helping the wounded.
She was driving an ambulance as part of a private British all-female ambulance service
... and consequently signed to a six-month term as a member of the French Army.




Field Ambulance Service, France

While waiting for the Medico-Psychological Clinic to expand ... having previously returned from the Depage Hospital in Belgium and recovered from Scarlet Fever ... and wanting to get closer to the Front ... Mary Dexter joined the Hackett-Lowther Unit for an initial six-month term. The Hackett-Lowther Unit was a private ambulance and canteen service run by two women and 'the only' female unit at the Front. The British would not permit women so close to the front, and they were surprised to drop by the French facility and see women there.

Croix de Guerre
Croix de Guerre


Hackett Lowther French Army canteen Cugny France, Great War


The French tolerated women closer to the Front ... and of course French female civilians often found themselves 'at the Front' as it swayed back and forth. The Hackett-Lowther personnel were officially organized and paid as French soldiers with a French military commander, mechanic, cook and orderly.

Dexter was trained in, and performed functions such as, removing ambulance tires and vulcanizing their inner tubes, soldering, regular ambulance maintenance including daily lubrication work. She was given a General Motors (GMC) ambulance which was governed at 25 mph.

She came to know the GMC's idiosyncrasies ... later a British general's wife (her inexperienced second driver) was crank-starting the GMC and ended up with torn arm ligaments when she didn't release the crank the instant the motor fired - as previously instructed by Dexter.

During cold weather, the ambulance radiators were drained overnight as no anti-freeze was available.


Mary Dexter and the GMC ambulance





The following poem is from "Friends of France - The Field Service of the American Ambulance described by its members" (1916). Written by a man who later acted in Charlie Chan movies ... it captures the essence of Dexter's Field Ambulance experiences perfectly:

Ambulance drivers and other vehicles were prohibited from using vehicle lights at night to avoid attracting enemy artillery fire. French words and expressions were regularly blended into Dexter's letters.


Un Blessé à Montauville
by Emery Pottle



" Un blessé à Montauville - urgent ! "
   Calls the sallow-face téléphoniste.
The night is as black as hell's black pit,
   There's snow on the wind in the East.

There's snow on the wind, there's rain on the wind,
   The cold's like a rat at your bones;
You crank your car till your soul caves in,
   But the engine only moans.

The night is as black as hell's black pit;
   You feel your crawling way
Along the shell-gutted, gun-gashed road -
   How - only God can say.

The 120's and 75's
   Are bellowing on the hill;
They're playing at bowls with big trench-mines
   Down at the Devil's mill.

Christ! Do you hear that shrapnel tune
   Twang through the frightened air?
The Boches are shelling on Montauville -
   They're waiting for you up there!

" Un blessé - urgent ? Hold your lantern up
   While I turn the damned machine !
Easy, just lift him easy now !
   Why, the fellow's face is green ! "

" Oui, ça ne dure pas longtemps, tu sais. "
   " Here, cover him up - he's cold!
Shove the stretcher - it's stuck! That's it - he's in! "
   Poor chap, not twenty years old.

" Bon-soir, messieurs - à tout à l'heure! "
   And you feel for the hell-struck road.
It's ten miles off to the surgery,
   With Death and a boy for your load.

Praise God for that rocket in the trench,
   Green on the ghastly sky -
That camion was dead ahead !
   Let the ravitaillement by !

" Courage, mon brave ! We're almost there ! "
   God, how the fellow groans -
And you'd give your heart to ease the jolt
   Of the ambulance over the stones.

Go on, go on, through the dreadful night -
   How - only God He knows !
But now he's still ! Aye, it's terribly still
   On the way a dead man goes.

"Wake up, you swine asleep ! Come out !
   Un blessé - urgent - damned bad !"
A lamp streams in on the blood-stained white
   And the mud-stained blue of the lad.

" Il est mort, m'sieu ! " " So the poor chap's dead ? "
   Just there, then, on the road
You were driving a hearse in the hell-black night,
   With Death and a boy for your load.

O dump him down in that yawning shed,
   A man at his head and feet;
Take off his ticket, his clothes, his kit,
   And give him his winding-sheet.

It's just another poilu that's dead;
   You've hauled them every day
Till your soul has ceased to wonder and weep
   At war's wild, wanton play.

He died in the winter dark, alone,
   In a stinking ambulance,
With God knows what upon his lips -
   But on his heart was France !




French Army aid station at Montauville France
An illustration from 'Friends of France'.




Fuel for ambulances was of poor quality, often adulterated with oil or kero, and issued in metal cans. Creature comforts near the Front - such as heat, shelter, the ability to bathe, and adequate rations - were often lacking.

The 'neighbourhood' the ambulancières first lived and worked in was mainly a vacated war zone. Located just behind the current active front, it included the old trenches and the former No Man's Land.
Pre-war farmland and small settlements had been destroyed ... with special German scorched-earth 'extras' as a bonus when they left.

The Germans had left their old-fashioned trenches and had fallen back into newly-completed defensive facilities ... just a little closer to home and with the latest design features. Their new line was designed around the modern Great War concept of 'defence in depth' ... i.e. a deep 'battle zone' which would be more costly for enemy forces to attack through and cross. For example, reinforced concrete machine gun pill-boxes and bunkers concealed in interesting places. The Germans could now do a much better job of stopping attacks with fewer troops.


Hackett Lowther staff unit
An 'OK'  but cold cubicle occupied by a Hackett-Lowther driver - probably Dexter.


Paris Creil Cugny France, Great War
For scale: It is about 170 kilometres from Paris to St. Quentin.
Dexter's Hackett-Lowther outfit was first stationed at Cugny ... near Flavy (blue arrow).
You can see the Front, 5 miles to its east running through St. Quentin.
Later, the unit was moved back to Creil (green arrow).

March 21, 1918 - the German 'Operation Michael' began ...
a final very successful offensive which failed only because it had no specific goal except 'Victory'.
Eventually the German soldiers and their supplies were exhausted,
and they had travelled beyond the range of their commanders' orders and their supply lines.
  The offensive reversed many hard-won Allied gains and, in this sector, pushed the Front west to Montdidier - between the arrows.


Mary Dexter, GMC ambulance, trench boots
Dexter was proud of her French Army standard issue trench boots
and that may explain the pose.


Dexter experienced a number of German air raids and artillery barrages. The facilities they left behind at Cugny (blue arrow), including both the canteen and cubicle pictured above, were destroyed by aerial bombing after they left. She was at Creil (green arrow) when the massive German spring offensive of March 1918 began and ten days later, the fighting was still fierce.


March 31, 1918

" An order came for a lot of cars for 3 AM this morning, and I nearly had to go, but Miss Lowther managed so that I didn't. I slept all night like a log and was dead to the world - and am myself again this morning. I couldn't go to mass this Easter morning, as I must not be out of reach in case my car is wanted suddenly. There must be a number of the big cars always available during these rush days."

" On the whole, the organization is fairly good, I think, though at times bad. It is very trying to take a load of dead soldiers to a hospital and be told they have nowhere to put them, the mortuary being full - and after a long wait to see the bodies laid in a dreadful little wash-house."


April 18, 1918

" Just a short line, as I shall be on duty in a few minutes. I slept late this morning and Mrs. T. like an angel brought me breakfast, for I was really rather tired. I was on steadily for twenty-four hours up to last evening - on all day yesterday and all the night before - and before that I had been on practically all day for two or three days running. We are constantly unloading trains and barges on the river which come in at short notice. Several of our big cars are out of order, and three of the Fords too, so that all of the work just now falls on a few."


French Army hospital train, ambulance transfer
From 'Friends of France'

April 20, 1918

" The ground was white with frost this morning. I have just heard that there will be another p
éniche (barge) to unload on the river this afternoon, which means that I'll be on all day, having come on at 8 AM. I have had two such bad cases - one man with an amputated arm, who screamed at every movement of the car, though I crawled - most nerve-wracking, as the road was very bad. And a dying man - the doctors told me he had a bullet in his head, and couldn't live more than a few hours anyhow, and they put him in my car because she has the smoothest springs. It is a dreadful feeling, that a man may be dying in your car at any minute."


On May 7, Mary Dexter 'put her back out' cranking another ambulance stalled on a hill during an emergency hospital evacuation. She was ordered to avoid her ambulance driving duties for a while. Meanwhile the Medico-Psychological Clinic in London was nearing completion ... and her 6 month term in the French Army was ending.

Dexter subsequently reluctantly resigned from the Hackett-Lowther unit and sadly drove her GMC one last time ... She was encouraged by Lowther to return on her next (1919) summer vacation from the Medico-Psychological Clinic ... 


Not knowing how much things in Germany had deteriorated ... in May 1918, shortly after 'Operation Michael' ...
Lowther (and many of the Allied leaders) expected the Great War would continue well into 1919.


On the other side  ...
German soldiers were absolutely amazed by the quality and quantity of supplies and food they captured during 'Michael'.
They had thought that all other parties to the war had become as desperate as they, and the German civilians at home, were.




From Mary Dexter's last published letter:



May 30, 1918, London

" The London specialist found my vertebra still out, half an inch or so. He put it back and I am all right now - but he says I must take a rest this summer.

...

" No. 33 is nearly ready - doors are being opened through into No 34. We hope that before very long we may be occupying the whole block of houses. I found the Common Room buzzing with new young students, and am keen to start work again.

" When they have gotten it all well under way in London, and I've had more experience, I should love to go and work under our doctors 'out there' - for my own American boys as well. That would be a realization of what I am beginning to dream of - war-shock work in France!"




Mary Dexter - a few background details ...



Henry Dexter was Mary's grandfather.

Morton Dexter - Mary's father - graduated from Yale, and then the Andover Theological Seminary in 1870. Morton Dexter travelled 'in Europe and the East' for two years after his graduation. He served as pastor of the Union Congregational Church in Taunton Massachusetts from 1873 to 1878. He left this work to join his father at The Congregationalist.

As mentioned earlier, Emily Loud Sanford was Mary's mother. She was married to Morton in 1881, and the daughter of the Honorable John Elliot Sanford - a lawyer and Massachusetts state politician. Morton and Emily had two daughters. Mary was the younger of the two and her older sister does not appear on genealogy sites.



The Congregationalist


After his father's death, Morton Dexter became a member of the firm publishing The Congregationalist and the publication's editor.

Eventually retiring from The Congregationalist, Morton Dexter then travelled to Europe several times as he investigated, verified, and rewrote his father's nearly complete draft of a work on the Pilgrims. This authoritative volume "The England and Holland of the Pilgrims" was published in 1905. He was also elected a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and involved with the National Council of Congregationalist Churches. In poor health, his last days were spent Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard - where his summers were often spent - and he died there in October 1910.

*  *  *


After the Great War,

Mary Dexter married Guy Napier-Martin (born 1883, originally of London, England) in 1919.
Their first and third children survived infancy: a boy and a girl.
Their second child, Claudia Mary, was born on November 10, 1921 and died the next day.




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