Page 32 - Greystones Archaeological Historical Society

MRS LE BLOND’S WAR

delivery to the Front, and the ‘charming gardens’ of the chateau
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in which his section was quartered.
In late 1916 Lizzie returned home for what she herself
vaguely described as ‘family reasons’, although other reports
suggest that her departure was due partly to health concerns -
the strain of the work was beginning to tell on her – and partly to
a conviction that she could do more useful work back in London.
A frequent visitor to France before the war, her experiences
there had intensified her love for the country and the people, and
fostered a determination to do all that she could to encourage
Anglo-French friendship and understanding. Through her
involvement in the Ladies’ Alpine Club (LAC), she had already
set in hand a scheme to raise funds for a motor kitchen to be
sent to the Chasseurs Alpins, an elite infantry unit of the French
army, currently fighting in the mountainous Vosges region. The
fact that the regiment included many guides from Chamonix and
the Dauphine guaranteed a sympathetic response from British
climbers, and the appeal attracted generous support both from
the LAC and the Alpine Club. LAC members donated £150 10s
0d of the total cost of £788 8s 0d, while a further £32 was realised
by the sale of tickets for a lecture, Mountaineering from a
Woman’s Point of View, given by Lizzie herself at the Grafton
th
Galleries on 12 May 1915. The motor kitchen, especially
adapted for the rough terrain in which it would operate, and so
that it could, when required, be converted into an ambulance,
was displayed for a few days at the De Dion Bouton showroom
in London before being handed over by the British Ambulance
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Committee to the French Red Cross.

5 Day in, day out, p. 191.
6 Ladies’ Alpine Club Report, 1916, pp 21-22. On Lizzie’s involvement with the
LAC, see Rosemary Raughter, ‘Mountaineering from a woman’s point of view:
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