By 1914 the Corps was on a high. Membership was well up, as was morale and confidence. There had been two good years of working and training together, all the murky past of 1909 was behind them and forgotten. There was a strong, effective leadership in Grace and Lilian. The halcyon days of peace were drawing to an end, but the camp at Pirbright in the summer of 1914 was truly memorable. Not only did the various Guards Regiments look after them more than in previous years, giving them greater support than ever before, but there was a marked feeling of respect for each other and what they represented, that perhaps had not been there before.
The FANYs worked hard at these camps. As Grace had laid down in the Gazette, 'it was not for shirkers'. They were up at 5 a.m., and before breakfast at 7 o'clock there was a Mounted Parade and Inspection, and the horses to be groomed, fed and watered. Immediately after breakfast there was a tent and equipment inspection, followed by a lot of First Aid training, - bandaging, identification of various conditions and wounds, stretcher bearing. Grace had also arranged for groups of FANYs to help out at the Guards Camp Reception Hospital, getting 'hands on' experience as opposed to purely theoretical.
Lunch was at 1 o'clock, with various lectures through the afternoon, until tea at 4 o'clock. After that, from 5 o'clock to 7 o'clock they practised cavalry drills, with supper at 8. From 9 until 10 there was Morse Code or Semaphore instruction, by which time they were all ready to fall into bed. The camps were a great success. They loved it, so different from the pampered life most of them lived normally, and it was their choice. Most felt they were doing something really useful. Grace wrote "Everyone loved the camps, we had a heavenly time, lots of hard work and discomfort, but unfailing cheerfulness, fun and good fellowship."
It was at this last pre-war camp, too, that Grace demonstrated yet again the capacity of her FANYs to exploit situations to their advantage, especially if it involved initiative and quick thinking. Some time before, she had attended a Hygiene and Army Sanitation course addressed by an RAMC. Officer, Major Smallman. Speaking to him after the lecture, she asked if he would visit them at their camps and see their work . He agreed, and came to more than one. He was impressed with their performance, and asked Surgeon-General Woodhouse, if he would inspect them.
On the day, an RAMC Sergeant Pepper, who had long been an instructor at FANY gatherings arrived very early, removing any identifying items such as his cap and tunic.
When the General arrived with Major Smallman, he barked at Grace. "What do you want to show me? I've seen hundreds of VAD shows." He added that he could "only spare half an hour."
Grace replied innocently "We're not VADs, so this will be a change for you. What would you like us to do?"
He hummed and hawed a bit, then told Grace he wanted so-and-so done. It was, in fact, an unusual and intricate bandaging procedure, used as a trick question in RAMC tests. Grace had never heard of it. However, using her amateur stage experience, she kept a confident smile on her face, and suggested that as he was pushed for time, he might like to inspect the Cookhouse. Here they had stationed the most attractive young FANY at the camp. He was almost immediately captivated by her blue eyes, and "face as sweet as God ever made" as someone wrote afterwards. She kept him talking for quite some time, before he returned to the bandaging squad.
Pepper had had ample time to show them how to bandage him, and brief them on the whys and wherefores. The General was at first unbelieving, then suspicious. "Why d'you do that?" he asked. The girls had all the answers.
"By Gad" he barked, "it's the first time I've ever seen that done properly."
"Yes" said Grace, "it's the first time you've been to see our Corps."
He still looked suspicious, peered at Sergeant Pepper. "Who's that feller there?"
"Oh" replied Grace artlessly, gazing back at him, "we get soldiers from the Guards camp to act as patients. They're very decent like that."
The General's 'half-an-hour' stretched over both lunch and tea, being shown the whole gamut of FANY activities. As he prepared to leave finally, the General turned to Grace and said, "Go up and see Arthur Sloggett at the War Office. Tell him I sent you. He should be able to fit you in somewhere."
Grace would never let an opportunity like that slip through her fingers. Within a few minutes, FANY Walton was galloping down to the railway station with a telegram. It read: -
Sir Arthur Sloggett War Office
When can you see me recommended ask immediate interview by General Woodhouse breaking camp Monday.
Grace Ashley-Smith, Lieutenant, FANY Corps.
It was a Saturday night, but was in time to be handed in at Waterloo.
On Monday a reply was received:-
Lieutenant Ashley-Smith, FANY Camp Pirbright
10 o'clock Tuesday – Sloggett
Grace was there at the War Office right on time. Sloggett told her they were having trouble getting the Red Cross and St John's Ambulance to work together. "Where can we put you?" he asked.
"Attach us to the RAMC," she replied confidently.
'Hmmm" he said, "Well, I won't forget you. I'll do what I can. Come and see me again."
After that triumph of ingenuity, there followed what to Grace was near the pinnacle of her ambitions. The FANY were attached to the Skeleton Army, as Britain's small, but highly trained Regular Army was known, The bare bones of Britain's fighting Army, out in the fields around Pirbright on their final manoeuvres before war struck, the FANY Corps alongside them,something no women's unit had yet achieved. The real zenith was reached that same fortnight, when they were invited to take part in the Guards' Church Parade, the first time women had ever been invited to do so.
Grace was over the moon. In her memoirs she remembered, " One of the Grenadiers was our 'marker'. Franklin and I went up to salute Lord Bernard Gordon Lennox, who was senior officer that day. Bishop Taylor-Smith preached, and I was thrilled and bursting with pride to be there at last with the FANY, the Grenadiers on one side, the Coldstreams opposite, the Scots Guards on our right and the Irish Guards alongside. There are certain supreme moments in everyone's life. That was one of mine. It was worth all the labour and slogging, and self-denial and discouragement - all the ups and downs, all the jeers and sneers and laughter – to be there at last – part of the Army – yes, and with the best of it!"
It was an extraordinary experience, the end of an era, lifting the chins, straightening the backs and raising the spirit of every Member of the FANY, just weeks before they marched off to the War to end all Wars.