Chapter: STURGE HOUSE, BOW ROAD



This branch of the Men's Social Work of the Salvation Army is a home
for poor and destitute boys. The house, which once belonged to the
late Dr. Barnardo, has been recently hired on a short lease. One of
the features of the Army work is the reclamation of lads, of whom
about 2,400 have passed through its hands in London during the course
of the last eight years.

Sturge House has been fitted up for this special purpose, and
accommodates about fifty boys. The Officer in charge informed me that
some boys apply to them for assistance when they are out of work,
while others come from bad homes, and yet others through the Shelters,
which pass on suitable lads. Each case is strictly investigated when
it arrives, with the result that about one-third of their number are
restored to their parents, from whom often enough they have run away,
sometimes upon the most flimsy pretexts.

Not unfrequently these boys are bad characters, who tell false tales
of their past. Thus, recently, two who arrived at the Headquarters at
Whitechapel, alleged that they were farm-labourers from Norfolk. As
they did not in the least look the part, inquiries were made, when it
was found that they had never been nearer to Norfolk than Hampstead,
where both of them had been concerned in the stealing of L10 from a
business firm. The matter was patched up with the intervention of the
Army, and the boys were restored to their parents.

Occasionally, too, lads are brought here by kind folk, who find them
starving. They are taken in, kept for a while, taught and fed, and
when their characters are re-established--for many of them have none
left--put out into the world. Some of them, indeed, work daily at
various employments in London, and pay 5s. a week for their board and
lodging at the Home. A good proportion of these lads also are sent to
the collieries in Wales, where, after a few years, they earn good
wages.

In these collieries a man and a boy generally work together. A while
ago such a man applied to the Army for a boy, and the applicant,
proving respectable, the boy was sent, and turned out extremely well.
In due course he became a collier himself, and, in his turn, sent for
a boy. So the thing spread, till up to the present time the Army has
supplied fifty or sixty lads to colliers in South Wales, all of whom
seem to be satisfactory and prosperous.

As the Manager explained, it is not difficult to place out a lad as
soon as his character can be more or less guaranteed. The difficulty
comes with a man who is middle-aged or old. He added that this Home
does not in any sense compete with those of Dr. Barnardo; in fact, in
certain ways they work hand in hand. The Barnardo Homes will not
receive lads who are over sixteen, whereas the Army takes them up to
eighteen. So it comes about that Barnardo's sometimes send on cases
which are over their age limit to Sturge House.

I saw the boys at their dinner, and although many of them had a bad
record, certainly they looked very respectable, and likely to make
good and useful men. The experience of the Army is that most of them
are quite capable of reformation, and that, when once their hearts
have been changed, they seldom fall back into the ways of dishonesty.

This Home, like all those managed by the Salvation Army, is spotlessly
clean, and the dormitories are very pleasant rooms. Also, there is a
garden, and in it I saw a number of pots of flowers, which had just
been sent as a present by a boy whom the Army helped three years ago,
and who is now, I understand, a gardener.

Sturge House struck me as a most useful Institution; and as there is
about it none of the depressing air of the adult Shelters, my visit
here was a pleasant change. The reclamation or the helping of a lad is
a very different business from that of restoring the adult or the old
man to a station in life which he seems to have lost for ever.

 During one of his sessions, Prior describes participating in an attack in a detached and taunting manner. When Dr. Rivers presses him about his feelings, Prior responds frankly and aggressively that the experience was "sexy" and he felt a "burst of exultation" at seeing wounded soldiers on the ground. He reveals that during the attack, he was knocked unconscious by a shell. He awoke in a crater with his soldiers and they drank from his flask and laughed when another soldier slid down into the crater. Despite his injuries, Prior woke up speaking and was not sent for treatment at the time. When Dr. Rivers suggests that he and Prior are on the "same team," Billy retorts that they are not. Another patient, Wilfred Owen, comes to visit Sassoon in his room, asking him to sign five copies of his book of poetry. Owen is intimidated by the lieutenant's "good looks," aristocratic bearing, and poetic talent, which exacerbates his nervous stammering. Sassoon is welcoming and kind, asking Owen to sit down with him after he enthusiastically recites lines from the lieutenant's poems. Owen articulates his feeling that the war is blurring into the wars before it. Disturbed but in agreement, Sassoon intimates that he has also imagined himself in the future, looking back at the ghosts of this war. After an awkward pause, Owen asks Sassoon to contribute poems to the Hydra, Craiglockhart's literary magazine of which Owen is the editor. Sassoon agrees and invites Owen to bring him copies of his own poetry. Owen is embarrassed, admitting that he does not write about the war because he prefers to keep poetry his refuge from the "ugliness". Sassoon teases him about this but still encourages him to bring his poems, no matter what they are about. Sassoon and Anderson play a round of golf. The medic has an embarrassing outburst of rage when he misses an important shot and threatens to hit Sassoon with a club. Sassoon reacts politely, laughing off the incident, but both officers are disturbed by Anderson's anger. They have lunch afterward, careful not to talk about anything but golf. Anderson reflects that talking about the war would force intimacy into their relationship. He has read Sassoon's published letter and although, like Dr. Rivers, he agrees with the lieutenant's assessment of the war, Anderson believes that the conflict must be seen to completion. Billy Prior wanders into a bar in town where he orders fish and chips. He overhears four female employees of a munitions factory laughing and telling stories a few tables over. One of them, Sarah Lumb, approaches Prior and teases him about eating so quickly. The other women excuse themselves, giggling, and Sarah and Billy look for a place to have a drink. As many bars don't allow women, they walk towards a hotel. Sarah explains that she is earning five times as much as she was before the war. Prior reflects that the war has expanded the world for women while shrinking it for men. They arrive at the hotel bar and order several rounds. Sarah reveals that she lost her boyfriend in the attack at Loos, during which British gas blew back into British trenches. She refers to the incidents of the battle obliquely, simply saying that her boyfriend was at Loos. She is haunted by the absurdity of his death, caused by his own country's weaponry. After several drinks, she further intimates that her mother doesn't believe that men and women can really love each other. Billy says he doesn't know whether they can, either. Furthermore, Billy is surprised at the amount Sarah can drink. They walk to a graveyard where Billy tries to have sex with Sarah on a tombstone, but she pushes him away. He decides in his mind that the more aggressive he is, the longer he will have to wait, so he gives her a teasing kiss and walks her home. They agree to meet again the following Sunday. As Prior walks back to Craiglockhart, he checks the time on his watch and realizes that he will not make curfew

