She said a fond and grateful farewell to Elizabeth – who was years later to become Godmother to her younger son – and returned to Edinburgh to see her mother, who, largely due to the care of Carrie, was now much recovered. It was then that the three girls decided it would be best if their mother moved south, to be more accessible to all of them. Their Mother agreed, albeit reluctant to leave her beloved Scotland.
Grace and Isabel travelled back to London to begin the arrangements. By now Grace was desperate to get back to France and find out what was going on. Rannie's regiment was back across the Channel again, something else for her to worry about, for she had heard little from him since then. Millions of wives were in the same position. There was nothing she could do but accept it, and get on with her own life as best she could.
France beckoned, but first she spent time at FANY HQ writing up for The Gazette where they had been operating and what they had achieved since the war began. Then, satisfied, refreshed and eager, she once again set off across the Channel.
There she lost no time in catching up with what had been going on. Lamarck, their 'flagship' if you will, was still going strong, but with the shadow of possible closure hanging over it.
The first British Convoy, also based in Calais, was highly regarded now, after being inaugurated in January with so much trouble and Establishment opposition.
Camp du Ruchard was still meeting the needs of the hundreds of Belgian convalescents based there. The Belgian Military were finding it difficult to believe just how well the patients responded to the care and dedication of the five FANY staff who ran the canteen. It was a huge success.
Glad as she was that all these established units were doing well, Grace was slightly disappointed to find that in her absence no new initiatives had been implemented. However, now she was back she decided that would have to change.
She wasted no time. In view of the success of the new British Convoy, she determined she would have the same sort of set-up for the Belgians. Her energy and tactical approaches to Authority were in no way diminished by her recent indisposition, and it wasn't long before she got the green light from the Belgians to go ahead and form a new unit.
Apart from Lamarck, the Belgians had another hospital in Calais at the Gare Centrale, known as L'Hopital de Passage. This was a sort of clearing station for wounded arriving by train, canal barge or ambulance from other hospitals.
It was October before all the details had been worked out, and the new FANY Unit 5 was set up, and was the best equipped FANY unit of the war. The housing for the drivers was the most comfortable and well furnished of any; the vehicles were all brand new, supplied by the Belgians; there were well equipped workshops, and a washing bay. It became Grace's pride and joy, and she regarded it as 'hers' for the rest of the war.
It was this Unit that was involved in a face-to-face standoff with the British Army backed Red Cross the following year, in an attempt to stamp out the FANY for good. But it hadn't come to that yet.
During the negotiations for her Belgian Convoy, she became involved in a request by the Belgians for girls to help out in a Field Hospital at Hoogstadt. As this was only 4 miles from the Front Line, special permission was required for women to work in such a dangerous environment. Hoogstadt was unsafe at the best of times, but there was a good deal of extra military pushing and shoving along the Front, and in theory women were no longer allowed to work so close to the firing line.
Being the sort of woman she was, Grace looked on this as just part of the job. She checked it out personally, as was her way, and chose Doris Russell-Allen as one of the staff, 'Bobs' Baillie, and Nora Cluff, who was to become her life-long best friend.
The posting was to last 6 months - 6 months of "cold, wet and rats" according to the girls. The work was pretty hard, too, and dangerous. They drove camouflaged Army vehicles to places like Dunkirk and La Panne to collect food and supplies for the hospital. There were air raids almost every night, and the 'coffin cart' was a frequent visitor.
Unfortunately things did not run smoothly. The Commandant of the hospital was apparently thoroughly obnoxious and rude. The girls thought they weren't appreciated. Two of them applied for transfer. This upset Grace slightly. Getting permits to work in that area had been difficult, and required special sanctions. The Authorities were not happy, now, at having to replace them. As a result of delays involved there was apparently some ill-feeling, Grace wrote later: "[the girls] felt they were not wanted and thought I was riding roughshod over them in expecting them to stay."
Eventually, it all blew over. The girls were withdrawn in December, when the hospital was closed. Grace was upset over the whole episode. She was angry that 'her' girls had been treated badly by the Commandant of the hospital. But she was disappointed – in fact she herself described it as "a bitter blow" – when as a result, barriers were put up against Convoys being allowed to operate so close to the Line. In spite of the problems, however, the girls had been a tremendous help, and carried out a huge number of trips to and from the supply depots, in dreadful weather and over appalling roads.
It also highlighted the versatility and adaptability of the FANY to undertake any sort of duties at short notice, a flexibility completely lacking in any of the Services attached to the British or French military.
Another instance of this capacity for swift reaction arose when the YMCA suddenly found itself unable to staff a major canteen serving over 4000 British troops. It was known as the 'Dundee Hut'. Staffing arrangements had fallen apart, and the FANY were asked if they could help out. The 4000 customers were living under canvas surrounded by 'a sea of mud', and were desperate for any sort of haven.
Grace agreed immediately, Where their own British soldiers were concerned they would seize any opportunity. With her record of competence and ability and experience there was only one candidate to take over and run something of this size, - Cole-Hamilton, or 'Coley', currently running Ruchard with such success.
Handing over to Australian FANY, Adele Crockett, she and FANY Ida Lewis took on the daunting task of catering for 4000 unhappy Tommies, and became known to all and sundry as 'The Sergeant' and 'The Fair Corporal' respectively. Between them they soon had the place under control, largely through cheerfully dispensing vast quantities of tea!
The duties at Ruchard and the Dundee Hut may not have been quite the kind of service that the FANY had been trained for, and expected to be doing, but they were not only being of great help to Allied troops; but more important, were making a name for the Corps for their flexibility of decision making, and expertise and competence in anything they took on. And unfailing cheerfulness.
But in a way, these projects, however effective and useful, were in effect only sidelines. The large British and Belgian ambulance convoys, and hospital running, was the way ahead. Unfortunately, it was now definite that Lamarck was to close , and Grace was determined it must be replaced by something equally stretching and high profile.
Lamarck closed finally on October 30th, almost 2 years to the day from the time that first small contingent of FANYs, the Band of Hope, marched through the imposing gateway to see the scruffy, malodorous buildings that awaited them. Vastly different now, it had been a huge success for the Corps, and over 4000 sick and wounded had passed through it.
In the summer she had written in The Gazette, "As progression is our watchword, new developments must be looked for." It was increasingly obvious that this hadn't been done while she was away ill. Hoogstadt and The Dundee Hut were useful, but Grace wanted something really worthwhile to replace Lamarck.
With FANY Units working for the British and the Belgians, Grace approached the French in early autumn. She had recently been decorated with Chevalier de L'Ordre de Leopold II, a very prestigious Belgian honour. Aware of the French fondness for medals and decorations of any sort, she made her way to Paris and called on the The Societe de Secours aux Blesses Militaires (SSBM) at their HQ, and persuaded them that the FANY had something to offer.
It was too much to expect an immediate reaction. They had an almost pathological objection to Frenchwomen doing this kind of war work, but as Grace pointed out in her very persuasive way, the FANY were all British. She also reminded them that in Calais FANY convoys were carrying all British, Belgian AND French casualties, and ferrying their doctors and nurses from hospital to hospital. Not only that, but during air raids and naval bombardments, it was the FANY cars and ambulances which provided all transport for both French and Belgian civil and military authorities, in Calais, a French Port.
This was a successful ploy, and before she left she had got grudging approval for the employment of the Corps by the SSBM, details to be worked out and discussed later.
To Grace's surprise, the SSBM came back to her quite soon, with a proposition. They would give the FANY Corps a 200 bed hospital to run, 20 miles from Rheims. It was a Cistercian Monastery in a place called Port a Binson, part of it still occupied by members of the order.
The Corps would supply staff for nursing, and drivers and transport, medical equipment, and beds. The SSBN were providing lighting heating, food and, most important, doctors.
This really was a major breakthrough, not only with regard to the size of the operation, but the fact that Grace had managed to overcome the French Establishment prejudices and objections. It would be some time before it opened, but, the walls had been breached. It was theirs.
Though it had been used by the French as a hospital since 1914, they had recently evacuated it completely. When Grace arrived there with Coley and her advance party, they found it in a filthy condition. That wasn't until January 1917, the cold bitter, the whole place bleak, unwelcoming, unfurnished and desolate.
In her usual cavalier fashion Grace had agreed the terms, signed up for it, without properly considering the costs involved, and the staggering amount of work and investment ahead.
But before that could be tackled, Grace faced a more immediate, and bitter, series of battles within her own bailiwick. At FANY Headquarters in London, Mr Cluff the Treasurer and Janette Lean the Secretary were out for her blood. There were fierce, venomous hostilities ahead.
But, up on Cloud 9, she celebrated, if that is the right word, while visiting old friends in a Belgian Field Artillery unit in the Front Line. There, after a warm welcome, good food and wine, the Officer Commanding allowed her to fire two 75mm shells at Les Boches, while the whole crew watched with a mixture of elation and admiration, as she sent the two deadly missiles hurtling across No-Man's-Land into the German trenches, one for each of her brothers they had killed.
She always said it was the most satisfying thing she had ever done!
A week later a large cardboard box was delivered to her in Calais. It contained the two shell cases from her exploit, one neatly engraved:
'Tire sur les Boches par Madame McDougall 5 Septembre 1916'
What she didn't realize then, was that the explosions at the German receiving end would be insignificant beside the explosion at FANY HQ when they heard about Port a Binson!