WOMAN AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 123, 18 February 1920, Page 5

WOMAN AND THE WAR

WELLINGTON LADY'S RECORD MAJOR (MRS;) SIMEON, W.A.F. Not many people are aware Hint Mrs. b.-K .Simeon, who returned to Wellington from England quietly a few days ago, has to her credit the most distinguished war servicc probably of any woman who left New Zealand to help things along in the hour of the Empire s r' e ti rv ®' meon ft' lo wife of Major u. K Sinieon, of (he Sauioan Force and the ISew Zealand Uifle Brigade, who .wns tor eight years before the war in the employ of (he Tramways Department), rose 1? i l> P u ty Assistant Commandant of the nomens Air Force, and had under lier control at one time as many as MOO young women. But that is anticipating an interesting story. When her husband returned from Samoa and went into camp with the New Zealand Kifle Brigade, Mrs. Simeon (who had been nn active worker in the local Women's National Reserve) determined to do her utmost to get something to do in Egypt, which at tho time was the assembling ground for all the New Zealand forces, bo she paid her own faro to England, arrived there on August 23, 1915, and at once took up night duty in the munition workers canteens at Enfield, At thoso great works toil ceased not for the whole twenty-four hours. Mrs. Simeon had joined the British Red Cross as 600n as she arrived, and in due course was sent out to Egypt by the hospital ship Carisbrook Castle, and on arrival there was appointed to a position on the nursing staff _of the General Hospital at Alexandria, the palatial 'building erected by the Germans—with Egyptian money. Sirs. Simeon joined the staff there in October, 3915, and stayed for a year. Her liveliest, if _ most dangerous, experience at Alexandria was being isolated for six weeks while nursing typhus patients. I There were not many cases of this terrible disease, fortunately, and they managed to stamp it out before it got a hold. Her appointment to the General Hospital at Alexandria was made by the War Offico, and the same authority transferred her in October, 19J.G, from Egypt's burning strand to the snows of Bangor, in Wales. .There the administration at the Military Hospital wag not all that it should have been, and as the result of an inquiry (at which Mrs. Sinieon gavo important evidence), the officer-in-chargo and the steward lost their positions. In May, 1917, Mrs, Simeon ww sent to France, and for four months was concerned with cerebro-spinal cases at a special hospital in Rouen, a very trying experience, for which she was awarded an honourable service certificate by Dowager Queen Alexandra. Sho was then transferred to a surgical hospital in t'he same interesting old city, but being worn out with the strain, she on No. rember 17 went to Abbeville with an ambulance draft, and thence to England on sick leave. She. resigned (from tho War Office) on February 1 IDIB, still •remaining a member of Ladv Cantley's Division of the British Red Cross. On April 26 she resigned fnm the B.R.C. and joned the Women's Air Force, then forming, and almost at once 'becamo quarter-mistress of the central area depot at Birmingham, where members of tho W.A.F. were clothed.trained, and thoroughly drilled in all their duties before being fsnt out to tho various aerodromes. Their duties we« multifarious—they were trained in short-, hand and typewriting, cooking, aero-en-gine fitting, carpentering, acetylene welding, photography, wireless telegraphy, meteorological recording, doping, laundry work, tailoring, and technical store work. "They were a splendid body of women," said Mrs. Simeon, "keen on their work and amenable to discipline. I tell you there was no slackness about my girls. I had them clicking their heels —as fine, sturdy, able, sensible lot of young women as you could wish to see. Clean! 'l'hsre was no cleanliness like tho cleanliness of our kitchens and messrooms, and, morally, tho record was excellent. •"

"In September, 1918, I was deputed to to Scotland, when they were establishing a ltoyal Air Force depot at Glasgow for the whole of Scotland. It ivas my job to raise the women's branch of tho force, and I used to go out recruiting in cars of an evening, Jiarangui.igthe young women to come along and fdo their bit.' It was a great success, and I obtained my rank of major, with the position of deputy-assistant commandant of the W.A.F." Mrs. Simeon has flown in the air many hundreds of times as a passenger. On her tours of "Inspection of tho various aerodromes, sho would invariably fly from point to jxrint if the -weather suited. She is probably the only New Zealand lady who has flown from England to Paris, and she was allowed tho "nose" seat in a big Hnndley I'age machine, a privilege not usually accorded to lady flyers. Then in a 'Bleriot she was carried along tho French front by a French flying officer. Mrs. Simeon was demobilised on December 13 last. When she left, London there wero still 500 women employed in sorting out the > Royal Air Force records. It is her intention to write the "history of tho Women's Air Force, nnd probably, from the foregoing sketch, there is none more capable of doing it justice. Mrs. Simeon stated incidentally that she has a number of portraits of graves of New- Zealanders who. died in Alexandria, which majvbo of sentimental interest to those who lost their dear ones there. She would bo very glad to pass thein on to tho next of kin concerned. Major (Mr.) Simeon, who was always an enthusiastic soldier, before nnd after the declaration of war, went to Samoa as a captain, returned in February, 1915, nnd joined up with the N.Z. Rifle Brigade, with which ho saw; servico at the end of the sarno year against the Sennssi forces in Egypt. Early in 191G ho went to France with the brigade, went through Armentieres and the Sonnne without a scratch, and gained his', majority. Ho then had: a spell in England as brigado quartermaster at Codford and Sling; ■went back to France in March, 1918, and was quartermaster at Etnplej, shortly nfter Colonel Mitchell's time as officer commanding. Major Simeon was on leavo in Glasgow when the armistice wns signed.