Testament of Youth

Brittain’s year in Malta is set against the backdrop of “the War’s worst period of miserable stagnation” (262). The year begins in Southampton, on the south coast of England, where Brittain and a group of nurses board a tender that transports them to H.M. Hospital Ship Britanic. The journey to Mudros—located in Greece, where the nurses destined for Malta will have to change ships—is comfortable though restrictive; the Sister-in-Charge puts rule after rule in place, prohibiting all activities that might be considered fun. Brittain’s intense fear of being at sea is moderated by her luxurious surroundings. The ship crosses the rough waters of the Bay of Biscay, traveling around Gibraltar and the southern cost of Spain; for ten days, the Britanic sails peacefully through the Mediterranean towards the islands of Greece. In the harbor of Mudros, Brittain reflects on the irony of her proximity to Rupert Brooke’s burial site on the Greek island of Skyros; she is much nearer to his final resting place than that of her beloved Roland. When the nurses move to the smaller ship called Galeka—which will transport them to St. George’s Bay in Malta, where St. George’s Hospital is located—they are required to reside in wards previously used by dysenteric soldiers. At least 16 V.A.D.s come down with a mysterious illness after this voyage, one that garners significant interest from the medical community and requires several weeks of convalescence. 

As Brittain settles into her new life in Malta, she begins to feel happy though she maintains a feeling of anxiety over Edward, Victor, and Geoffrey. She spends much of her time in the open air as the hospital is an ex-barracks, and the general expectations around work and dress are much more relaxed than in Camberwell. Brittain is pleased to receive additional training at times, an unusual occurrence in the career of a V.A.D. who is often the object of much jealousy from professional nurses threatened by the competent volunteers like Brittain herself. As fall transforms into winter, the rainy season commences, and “tremendous gales left the sea with a swept and garnished appearance which filled us with dread for the ships in the Mediterranean” (280). Worse than the storms are the many instances of submarine warfare that impact both daily life and work life in serious ways; the transport of letters, packages, and supplies are endangered while sailors and passengers aboard torpedoed ships sometimes overwhelm the hospital staff. News of the sinking of the Britannic in the Aegean Sea shocks Brittain and others who traveled with her from England. 

Brittain often receives letters from her uncle, who continues to work in the City of London, and he explains to Brittain that the delay in defeating the Germans is due to poor leadership. Consequently, a change in government is underway back home. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Lloyd George, spirits are lifting. As Christmas 1916 approaches, Brittain remembers Roland, and her diary entries at this time are full of musings regarding the changes she has faced in the past year since Roland’s death. A letter from Edward at this time demonstrates to her that she is not alone in her reflections, and Brittain writes back to Edward telling him of a marvelous shooting star that lit up the night sky on the night of December 23rd “at the very hour of [Roland’s] death” (290). 

Brittain’s optimism and appreciation for life deepens as the Maltese spring approaches. She is eating well, her work is light, and she has a lot of free time with which she can explore the island and enjoy the natural beauty of her surroundings. Brittain often finds herself alone as Betty prefers for a more active social life, but two older V.A.D.s who had also attended Oxford often keep her company on her long walks. Brittain notes a mild scandal that takes place in a tent in St. George’s Bay between a V.A.D. and a naval officer, but her own interest in the opposite sex is non-existent as she is still very much in love with Roland. 

Throughout the spring, Brittain continues to exchange frequent letters with Edward, Geoffrey, and Victor. One of Victor’s letters gives an account of his experience at the Battle of Arras; reports in the newspapers of great numbers of wounded offer “a universal uneasiness” (307), and Brittain worries for Victor’s safety. Soon she receives word from Edward that Victor has been seriously wounded and that if he survives, he will be blind. Brittain laments the condition of the three friends, one of whom, Roland, is dead, another blind, and the third, Edward, subjected to permanent arm injury. On April 23, 1917, news of Geoffrey’s death arrives via cable, and Brittain sits on the rocks on the shoreline in St. George’s Bay to mourn for several hours; during this meditation on life and death, she decides to leave Malta for England, in order to see Victor and marry him if he would like to be married to her. A month later, Brittain receives permission to return to England, but she must travel overland as a sea passage is too risky. Her journey through Italy and France by train is dramatic and beautiful at times, uncomfortable and exhausting at others. Brittain arrives to her parents’ rented flat in London, and after a bath, a meal, and a smoke with her parents, Brittain sleeps soundly, knowing that the following day, she is going to visit Victor in the hospital and see about a new possible phase in her life. 

When Brittain arrives to the London hospital, she sees Victor, bandaged around the head and “exploring a big book of braille” (323). He recognizes her voice immediately, and they talk all afternoon. Brittain is relieved to observe that for all his bad luck, Victor’s attitude is accepting. Edward comes to London for a weekend visit soon after Brittain arrives to London, and Brittain notices that “the death of Geoffrey and the blinding of Victor ha[s] changed him” (324). After Brittain has been in London for a week, Victor’s condition worsens suddenly, and the Matron of the hospital insists that Victor’s father and aunt come immediately. Victor dies soon after their arrival, and five days later, he is buried in Hove. 

Edward returns to France at the end of June 1917, after Victor’s death, and he is dismayed to find himself back in action soon after his arrival. After an air raid in London, Brittain goes to find her uncle at his workplace in central London, and she finds him shaken but physically unscathed. Soon after the air raid, Brittain finds herself restless, and she seeks another foreign placement, this time in France so she can be nearer to Edward. In early August, Brittain sets sail for Boulogne and telegrams Edward to let him know she is in France. Brittain’s renewed readiness for “sacrifices and hardships as I had ever been in the early idealistic days” (336) enables her to continue thinking of the war in heroic terms. Brittain travels to Étaples, where the No. 24 General Hospital is located, and unpacks her belongings in the Alwyn hut she shares with another V.A.D., listening to the distant noise of guns. 

When Brittain begins work the next morning, she is shocked to learn she will be nursing German prisoners. Brittain’s experience with Germans is minimal, and she fears the worst having believed, on some level, the rumors of German atrocities against humanity. She follows the example of a Sister-in-Charge she calls Hope Milroy, who tends to the German patients with “determination and efficiency but never compassion” (342). Edward responds to Brittain’s descriptions of her work in a letter, agreeing that her responsibilities “show how absurd the whole thing is” (343). Brittain is moved from the German ward after only a few weeks.

Hope Milroy and Brittain become friends, and they take long walks together through the beautiful countryside. Together, alongside other members of the medical staff, they work tirelessly after the Battle of Ypres and Passchendaele, and Brittain learns that Edward “had been in the worst of the ‘strafe’ perpetually roaring around Passchendaele” (352). The rush of wounded men to Brittain’s hospital persists through September and into October, and at the end of October, Brittain receives a strange letter from Edward written in Latin. He is going to Italy with his battalion to provide reinforcement to the Italians, and Brittain feels as if her efforts in France are now pointless. When she is transferred to night-duty, her pessimism increases, to the point where she finds her mother’s written complaints of difficulties concerning her servants intolerable. Winter arrives with bitter cold and difficult memories of last Christmas. 

Edward reviews the previous year in a letter to Brittain on New Year’s Eve, lamenting the deaths of Geoffrey and Victor and the seeming endlessness of the war. Brittain’s own mindset is similarly negative, but she writes to her parents encouragingly, so that they might rise above their own dismal conditions. A letter from Edward mid-January requests Brittain to get leave so that they might meet at home in England; Brittain is successful in her request, but she falls ill, which compromises their short time together in London. Edward returns to Italy, and though her parents want Brittain to extend her leave due to her illness, she is too eager to “return from food-obsessed England to France” (369) so that she can do her part.

Brittain is posted to light duty, and her life as a V.A.D. resumes. Edward continues to write from Italy, describing the challenges he encounters. One evening, after Hope’s night-duty responsibilities are finished, Brittain and Hope spend a free half-day together; they walk to nearby Camiers, and on the way to Étaples in the semi-darkness, Brittain spots an uninhabited watch-tower that inspires a sense of terror. Her fear is realized in earnest when they return to their camp and find that “the great German offensive had begun” (373).

Brittain describes the days of the spring German offensive of 1918 in detail, and doubt exacerbates the stress of her dramatically heightened workload as the wounded pour into the hospital’s surgical ward. After two weeks, rumors of Germans in a nearby suburb terrify Brittain and her compatriots, and they worry that the nearness of the Germans indicate defeat. At three weeks of extreme strain and fear that the hospital will soon be bombed, signs of victory appear. Brittain sees a group of men marching on the main road, and she is struck by their “unusual quality of bold vigor” (384). One of the Sisters immediately recognizes them as Americans; Brittain’s relief at their presence causes her to break down and weep. 

In March, Brittain receives a letter from her father summoning her home to take care of her mother, who is now in a nursing home struggling with illness. Brittain is torn between her two opposing calls to duty, but she breaks her V.A.D. contract and says goodbye to her friends, feeling especially sad to leave Hope. On the train journey through France, Brittain notices that spring has arrived. 

Brittain arrives in London and goes straight to the nursing home in Harley Street in London to find her mother. She ensures that her father is settled in the flat in London before moving her mother home. Brittain spends the summer taking care of her mother and running the household. Her experience as a V.A.D. do not equip her for housekeeping. Worse, Brittain feels that the domestic work is squandering her hard-earned skills and her waning vitality, and she falls into a state of despair. News of the ruination of the Étaples hospitals makes her feel even more despondent, and she considers herself a traitor to her patients and to the other nurses she left behind. Brittain’s one consolation is the relative peace that seems to characterize Edward’s brief letters from Italy, but this sense of calm is shattered by news of an enemy offensive on the Italian front in mid-June. 

Brittain’s mother leaves London to visit Brittain’s grandmother and to benefit from a change of scenery, unaware of the news from the Italian front. Anxiety builds as Brittain and her father wait in London for word from Edward. A knock sounds on the door to the flat to indicate the delivery of a telegram, and as Brittain walks to answer it, she knows the telegram is announcing Edward’s death. 

That evening, after her uncle and her father have gone to bed, Brittain sits with the portrait of Edward hanging in the dining room. She weeps as she remembers his passion for music, marveling at “the last irony that he should have been killed by the countrymen of Fritz Kreisler, the violinist whom of all others he had most greatly admired” (401). Brittain and her parents receive scant information regarding the circumstances of Edward’s death, and she is not unsatisfied to know that he was shot by a sniper while gallantly leading his men during the offensive. Edward’s commanding officer was wounded during the offensive, so Brittain goes to find him at his hospital in London to learn more; he is reticent, but she persists in visiting him, sensing his explanation is incomplete. Eventually, Brittain accepts that she will never truly understand what happened during the counter-attack in Italy that took her brother’s life. 

The loss of Edward is harder on Brittain than the loss of Roland three years earlier, and she feels completely alone. The growing popularity of Spiritualism, séances, and mediums fail to reassure Brittain, who is certain that life after death is impossible. During a holiday with her parents to Cornwall a few weeks after they receive the telegram, Brittain begins writing a novel about her wartime experience, but she does nothing with the manuscript, full of “characters and places so easily recognizable” (409), at the advice of Roland’s father, a literary editor. Brittain decides to seek a third position as a V.A.D., but she learns that a new rule is in place that forbids V.A.D.s who have previously broken a contract to go abroad to serve; she finds herself in a civilian hospital in London she calls St. Jude’s. After years of military service, Brittain finds the tedium and the rigidity of civilian nursing oppressive; “unimaginative stupidities” (415) dominate her work hours. After a particularly infuriating run-in with a staff-nurse at St. Jude’s, Brittain decides to pay a visit to Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital in Millbank, led by the Matron who granted her permission to work in France earlier in the year. As soon as a vacancy appears at Millbank, Brittain transfers to the military environment she much prefers. Brittain describes her hours at the hospital as a kind of sleep-walking; she is so distracted by her own grief and weary disillusion that news of victory on November 11, 1918, inspire dismay. Her world is so changed by the events of the war that she feels it no longer belongs to her.