Autumn 1915
A new patient asked us the other day to tell him what were the 'rules' of the hospital. It was a temptation to reply off-hand that there are no rules. Indeed, this would only have been an almost excusable exaggeration of the actual state of affairs, for at the 3rd L.G.H. the manufacture of rules has been wisely reduced to a minimum. Those of our patients who have experienced the rigid restrictions of the conventional Military Hospital have more than once expressed surprise at the ease and comfort which obtain here, and which seem mysteriously to be secured without any visible disciplinarianism.
There is no real mystery about the matter. It is an open secret that upon this subject our C.O. holds the broadest views. There would probably be no rules here whatever if he had his way, for he pins his faith on the theory that to trust this community to obey the unwritten laws of commonsense and good form is a sounder policy than to assume that any actual printed code ought to be framed. It is an axiom with him that only when an unwritten law is infringed need a written one be devised; and patients who mistake the freedom of the 3rd L.G.H. for laxness, and who take advantage of it improperly, are acting with wanton unfairness to those who come after them, inasmuch as they may leave a legacy of new limitations which by rights need never have come into existence.
The Hospital is sometimes referred to, in the press and elsewhere, as an Institution. In a complimentary sense the word is true; the 3rd L.G.H. is, in fact, a great institution, one of the most remarkable brought forth by the war. Nevertheless, 'Institution' is a noun which sounds oddly inappropriate to those who dwell within these walls, for here there is no atmosphere of institutionalism. Throughout the whole small but complex world of patients, sisters, nurses, officers, orderlies, and miscellaneous staff there is a bond of friendship, co-operation and mutual comradeship which make for the pleasantest sense of discipline without stringency. With no impropriety it may be expressed by saying that the man who manages the swill-tub is tacitly recognised as being as essential to this big machine's successful running as are the celebrated surgeons who labour in the operating theatres, or the C.O. and the Matron at their desks. Each, in the popular phrase of the hour - a phrase which will become historic - is 'doing his bit'; doing it not because of the fear of any iron regulations, but because loyalty to the hospital, and through the hospital to Britain and the Empire, has evoked from every man and woman concerned the spirit of willing service.
Patients and staff alike will therefore do well to combine with the C.O. in the agreeable task of minimising the necessity for formal legislation. No one can tell how long the European conflict is going to continue, but whether its duration be extended for years or only for a few months, its close we are confident, should see the 3rd L.G.H. still enjoying the benefits of the happy rule based on a firm belief in the practicability of rulelessness.
There is no real mystery about the matter. It is an open secret that upon this subject our C.O. holds the broadest views. There would probably be no rules here whatever if he had his way, for he pins his faith on the theory that to trust this community to obey the unwritten laws of commonsense and good form is a sounder policy than to assume that any actual printed code ought to be framed. It is an axiom with him that only when an unwritten law is infringed need a written one be devised; and patients who mistake the freedom of the 3rd L.G.H. for laxness, and who take advantage of it improperly, are acting with wanton unfairness to those who come after them, inasmuch as they may leave a legacy of new limitations which by rights need never have come into existence.
The Hospital is sometimes referred to, in the press and elsewhere, as an Institution. In a complimentary sense the word is true; the 3rd L.G.H. is, in fact, a great institution, one of the most remarkable brought forth by the war. Nevertheless, 'Institution' is a noun which sounds oddly inappropriate to those who dwell within these walls, for here there is no atmosphere of institutionalism. Throughout the whole small but complex world of patients, sisters, nurses, officers, orderlies, and miscellaneous staff there is a bond of friendship, co-operation and mutual comradeship which make for the pleasantest sense of discipline without stringency. With no impropriety it may be expressed by saying that the man who manages the swill-tub is tacitly recognised as being as essential to this big machine's successful running as are the celebrated surgeons who labour in the operating theatres, or the C.O. and the Matron at their desks. Each, in the popular phrase of the hour - a phrase which will become historic - is 'doing his bit'; doing it not because of the fear of any iron regulations, but because loyalty to the hospital, and through the hospital to Britain and the Empire, has evoked from every man and woman concerned the spirit of willing service.
Patients and staff alike will therefore do well to combine with the C.O. in the agreeable task of minimising the necessity for formal legislation. No one can tell how long the European conflict is going to continue, but whether its duration be extended for years or only for a few months, its close we are confident, should see the 3rd L.G.H. still enjoying the benefits of the happy rule based on a firm belief in the practicability of rulelessness.
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