Portrayal of women/ focus on class in Regeneration

As an adjunct to your homework- below is an article explaining the roles of the VADs during WW1. Read it and scan back over the first 184 pages.

How does Barker portray these VADs in Regeneration and how and why are the portrayals of Sarah Lumb and her friends different?
How do the VADs speak and what do they say? How do Sarah and her friends speak and what do they say?
Please make some notes in bullet points and be prepared to feedback in class on Monday 7th September. Of course, feel free to comment on the blog too!

DPO

In 1909 the British Red Cross Society was given the role of providing supplementary aid to the Territorial Forces Medical Service in the event of war. In order to provide trained personnel for this task, county branches of the British Red Cross Society organised units called Voluntary Aid Detachments. All Voluntary Aid Detachment members, who came to be known simply as "V.A.D.'s" were trained in First Aid and Nursing. Within twelve months they numbered well over 6000.
Following the outbreak of war in 1914 the number of Detachments increased dramatically. The British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem, a body which was also empowered to raise detachments under the War Office Voluntary Aid Scheme, combined to form the Joint War Committee in order to administer their wartime relief work with the greatest possible efficiency and economy, under the protection of the Red Cross emblem and name.
V.A.D.'s, who initially were mostly middle-class women eager to "do their bit," performed a variety of duties. At home the organisation administered auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes and much of the V.A.D. service consisted of general nursing duties and administering first aid. Qualified nurses were also employed to work in these establishments. In addition, clerical and kitchen duties were performed by V.A.D.'s, and as many men were engaged in military service, female V.A.D.'s took on roles such as ambulance drivers, civil defence workers and welfare officers.
V.A.D. Hospitals were mostly located in large houses which had been loaned for the purpose by their owners. For example, Howick Hall in Northumberland was loaned by Albert, 4th Earl Grey, and his daughter Sybil served there as a nurse. The 8th Durham V.A. hospital at Hartlepool was located in ‘Normanhurst’, a house which was donated by William Cresswell Gray, a great benefactor to the town.
Sybil Grey in V.A.D. uniform at Howick Hall(photograph courtesy of Mrs J Smillie)
Some of them were located in previously existing hospitals - for example Hebburn Hall, the former home of the Ellison family, which had been converted into an infirmary for the town in 1896. On Teesside the Ropner Convalescent Home at Middleton St. George, endowed in 1897 by Robert and Mary Anne Ropner (of the Stockton shipbuilding family), was pressed into service as the 24th Durham V.A. Hospital. The Richard Murray Hospital in Blackhill and Ashington Infirmary also fall into this category. In these instances it seems likely that the V.A.D. operation was in addition to the normal hospital facilities. Things did not always run smoothly; in 1916 a dispute arose between the War Office and the Matron of the Richard Murray Hospital in Blackhill. This resulted in the immediate closure of the hospital. It remained closed until 1919, much to the annoyance of the local population, who had seen it open in 1914 only to be immediately commandeered by the military.