The February issue of the Gazette must have been late coming out, as Grace didn't return from her fund-raising marathon until March 10th. With a very good idea of just how well the tour had gone, she lost no time in making straight for HQ and …."saw Mr Cluff and told him about the collection etc. " . She wasn't one to let an opportunity like that go by! She was careful to note: "Also Headquarters!"

Though very anxious to return to France, there was still a lot to be done in London. Top of her list was to see Mrs Allen, the FANY benefactress par excellence, to settle details of the de Dion ambulance she was presenting to the Corps.

Added to that there was recruiting to be done, people to interview, letters to write, various Red Cross and other officials to meet and pacify and get round. "A genius at organizing" as Grace had been called, she hated the nitty gritty of administration. Her diary at the time was full of entries such as : "Busy all day, too tired to write – just the usual scrum". Or "Busy again, interviewing, writing, seeing people." And the next day: "Same old story!"

It all had to be done, and she got on with it

On 17 March, she and Mrs Allen set off into the country to Wargrave, to collect the de Dion. 'Uncle' went with them. Unfortunately, things didn't go smoothly. Cars in those days were not as reliable as today Starting out in' the Napier', Grace remembers, "the rim came off the wheel" An hour later, repaired, they tried again. The same thing happened.

They took a taxi instead, got there, checked the vehicle, accepted it, and set off back to London. Grace and Mrs Allen drove home in it. "a lovely day" said Grace, "quite a rest to be out in the country." She also recorded: "Car went beautifully. Lost taxi man!" It had already been said of the FANYs that they drove like 'bats out of hell' when their ambulances were empty, and Grace wasn't going to tar their reputation.

The following day she recorded: "No news of taxi man!" He wasn't mentioned again.

By this time Grace was getting really fed up, not feeling well either. "Sick of little things that all have to be done & so sick of Town. Will be glad to get back, but feel rotten." The stress and strain of her life was once again beginning to take their toll of her health. Even so, she kept going, a characteristic of hers, to finish anything she had set her mind to, come what may.

At least she felt now that things were coming together, and she was well pleased at spending a good deal of time with her mother, now back to her old, strong self, happily set up with Carrie and Isabel, and the two grandsons.

There was to be no immediate let up. Meetings with Mrs Watson at Red Cross HQ, and Mr Illingsworth of the French Red Cross. "Palaver!" she scrawled contemptuously in her diary, heavily underlined. She goes on: "Packing, - getting letters off & a/cs – INTERVIEWS AT HQ." She finished in capitals.

As time grew shorter, she moved into top gear. "Was out from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Cdn't [sic] get off sooner. Feeling tired." She was desperate to get back out to Binson, where Coley was in charge. So far no patients had arrived, and Grace wanted to find out from the French just what the delay was about.

At last all the preparation was over and on the 23^rd March her small contingent took off, four FANYs and Mrs Allen. They had with them the three cars/ambulances that Grace and Baxter-Ellis had managed to obtain. Unfortunately Baxter-Ellis was ill, and didn't return until mid-April, so missing the triumphal procession!

The party drove down to Folkestone where they stayed the night. Next day they crossed to Boulogne, complete with their Buick, Overland and de Dion, very welcome additions to the growing fleet of FANY vehicles.

Met by Captain Synge, who had got Grace a cabin to herself on her way home, they phoned Calais and two FANYs , a mechanic, and a Dr Fete came to join them on the trip to Binson. It was not to be an uneventful journey, but as usual they coped.

The hospital wasn't far from the Front Line, and as they approached they drove into an air raid close to a nearby Cavalry Remount Depot. A stray horse in the road panicked and kicked out at the Buick A young FANY called MacKenzie was driving, with Grace beside her. The windscreen was smashed. Not a good start. They drove on to an Army Transport garage to get it seen to, and while there the Germans launched another raid with "bombs dropped all round."

Back at Binson, Grace carried out a swift check all around with Coley, though she had developed a "fearful throat & cold. Was quite warm crossing can't understand it."

There was a Musical Evening being held that night, which Grace attended in spite of feeling very low. A surprise twist to the evening was the arrival of the Belgian Area Commander, General Thoof, to present her with the actual medal of the Chevalier de l'Ordre de Leopold II. He then made an impassioned speech - at which the Belgians were very good - praising the work of Grace and her FANYs .

A little later he broke it to her that Ruchard would definitely be closing, but wanted the Corps to take up other work for the Belgians. There had been rumours for some time, so the news was not unexpected.

However, what was unexpected, and not at all welcome, was a note from the Assistant Provost Marshall (APM), Vice Chief of the Military Police. Three of her FANYs - Marples, Moses and MacKenzie – had taken in a deserter, given him food and shelter, and warned him that the Military were looking for him. This was a very serious offence indeed in wartime. Moses, along with Mackenzie, was one of the younger FANYs, both very capable and helpful. Marples was older, more experienced, and should have known better. Human nature being what it is, they had all felt sorry for 'the boy'.

Grace played the delaying tactic game, but unsuccessfully. A few days later she was again approached by the APM, "still flapped" as she put it. The APM was deadly serious. Grace finally agreed to have Marples sent home, if necessary, to save the other two.

Part of the problem was solved soon after, when MacKenzie elected to go home. Grace wrote: "MacKenzie left us. I am so sorry, she is such a nice child – she is the first to go – wants to work for money now."

A week after that Marples was sent home after all, for "two months or so", to assuage the APM. She was accompanied by another FANY, Celia Meade who had already stepped out of line when Lean resigned, writing direct to Belgian General `Clooten. Grace recorded the incident soon after her arrival back in France: "Row about letter to [General] Clooten got up by Meade for Lean to stay on." But now, she had, according to Grace "smashed up the Argyle [lorry] through laziness and carelessness" and was sent home for good.

One of the other seemingly trivial incidents which took up so much of Grace's time and energies, - what she referred to earlier as being "sick of the little things that all need attention" - was a shaft going in the new de Dion just after they arrived at Binson. She had since constantly badgered various Army Transport units and garages to get a replacement, but with no success.

However, in the way that fate works, at one of their Sunday tea parties, she noted, an Air Force guest, "an aviation ground crew Chief, promised to make a de Dion shaft for us – funny little man." Funny little man he may have been, but he delivered on his promise within a week, which was more than the Belgian and British armies had done in almost a month!

Although the FANY had taken over Binson in January, it was not until the end of March that the first patients, some sick, mostly wounded, arrived. This was with practically no notice at 2 o/clock one morning, when over 100 were unloaded, creatimg major problems. However, the redoubtable Cole-Hamilton dealt with it in her usual determined and dedicated way, and when another 70-odd arrived a few days later she and her staff were ready for them. In the month following there were 30 serious operations, but only four deaths.

It wasn't a good time for Grace, constantly shuttling between Binson and Calais, with trips to French Red Cross Headquarters in Paris from time to time. Calais was under almost nightly bombardment from the air during that period, and to add to her problems, the "wretched throat and cold" had got much worse, and was constantly troubling her.

Being a true FANY she took all this in her stride. A brief entry in her diary , records succinctly "Train of French wounded arrived. Up all night." And the next day, "Fenced at night with Devienne. Got rotten cough keeps me awake at night never had cough before like this." Devienne was a French Fencing Master, and Grace happily took the opportunity to brush up her skills.

There were not only air raids to cope with. Calais from time to time was shelled by submarines. She describes one event in some detail:

"Busy day. About midnight terrible noise began – whole barrack shook. I jumped out in dark and got a black eye on edge of marble table. Most terrible noise I ever remember, then silence.

"We dressed and walked up and down –then went back to bed thinking it was aeroplanes but seeing no searchlights. Had just tumbled back into bed when cars ordered out to bring in casualties and dead.

"It was submarines! I went with Bowles- White & Moses – Hoole & Faulds & de Buisson. We came in about 3.30 Ellis and Mason had a fire going and hot tea for us.

"Citadel wall smashed, also the house next to General Clootens Etat Major. I went all over it, awful mess up. Very few killed & wounded, 4 at Baraques".

"Hasn't done my cough much good!"

That last remark was typical of the sort of sardonic, self-deprecating humour with which the girls shrugged off the dangers and ailments they faced almost on a daily basis.

Next day she was "frightfully tired" but had to go to French Headquarters about Passes. These were a constant problem for the FANY, being an independent unit. There were so many varieties of Passes, all considered important by the differing administrations and organizations they worked with. Later she recorded: "I wish this d____d cough would go & let me sleep. I am so tired of sitting up to cough under the blankets every half hour it makes me feel so cross."

She didn't realize, or refused to acknowledge, that she was becoming seriously ill.

A short time before this brush with a submarine, she had been involved in another bombardment by submarines. At the time, a particularly heavy flow of casualties was going through Calais. The FANY were working day and night. A shell landing close by enveloped her ambulance in a mass of falling overhead wires, sparks flying everywhere. Grace leaped out of the ambulance, and "a queer serpent-like thing coiled up all round me, and a flash of flame wrapt [sis]. round me." Fortunately she was well insulated by her bulky leather and rubber clothing, and all was well.

It wasn't doing her health any good. Towards the end of April a dreadful pain in her side and back developed, she could hardly move, and coughed all the time. She finally accepted she should see a doctor, but only asked for cough mixture!

Despite feeling terrible she insisted on going to Beauvais about Passes again. and then on to Montreul. There she walked into the Military Police HQ, and asked for the Provost Marshal, General Howood. That caused "an awful flap." She says, and was escorted to the Base Commandant, almost under arrest, because she had not got the "Adjutant General's White Pass."

It was 3 o/clock before she got away, "dead beat with hunger, had no breakfast" Despite being "dead beat" she insisted on going to Paris to see about "those wretched" Passes again. Then she was off to Binson once more, a trip which bucked her up no end, it seems. She recorded "Lovely run, trees not out yet. Filled up with petrol at Chateau Theiry. Troops all cheered wildly." Grace loved any demonstration of this nature.

She had heard that Rheims, was under bombardment, but being determined and obstinate, she headed for the town to see for herself. It was being shelled as they approached. At the time she was with one of the senior nurses, and Moses, their youngest FANY. She was all for driving in, but the nurse was very upset so they stopped at the outskirts. Grace wrote excitedly "I never saw such shells in my life, great columns of black smoke, like a great building sprung up & vanished – I was rather scared, too, but of course I pretended I knew all about it." She finished that entry with "Got awful pain in my side still."

The following day it came to a head. At a small local French HQ in Dormans not far away, a fit of coughing ended with "something seeming to burst inside me. It was agony. I wanted to scream. I don't know how I got to the car or home in it. It was torture." Finally she had the sense to send for a senior doctor. He took her straight to an operating theatre, and "cupped me six great glasses full of blood," and sent her to bed immediately. She had had a bad attack of pleurisy, but now the pains slowly subsided, she was being properly attended to, relaxing, resting and recovering.

She was going to need all the strength she could get. Ahead lay a pleasant surprise, despondency, and further confrontation with the British Administration office-wallahs protecting their territory!