 The English writer Vera Brittain served in the VAD at Étaples at the time of the mutiny; she describes the atmosphere of rumour and secrecy in her book "Testament of Youth".Female personnel "were shut up in our hospitals to meditate on the effect of three years of war upon the splendid morale of our noble troops".Meanwhile, "numerous drunken and dilapidated warriors from the village battle were sent to spare beds... for slight repairs."