Blue lamp room
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by
josiepegg
Sorry to lower the tone here but I have found mention of a "Blue Lamp Room" attendant (entry for 10th June) and the only reference I can find via Google is for an officers brothel.
https://talk.operationwardiary.org/#/subjects/AWD0003rgc
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Blue lamp rooms ww1 Part of an Article:-
"The use of brothels by the British mirrored society back in the UK. Soldiers and officers had different brothels that they used. The soldiers used so-called ‘Red Lamp’ brothels while the officers used ‘Blue Lamp’ brothels, that were better furnished and more comfortable that ‘Red Lamp’ brothels. One soldier who used a ‘Red Lamp’ brothel claimed that all a room he used had in it was a stretcher, one thin sheet and one blanket. Officers, however, could expect champagne at ‘Blue Lamp’ brothels and some even employed cooks to provide officers with some decent cooked meals. The Germans had a similar arrangement and when the front line did finally move some distance in 1918, British officers used the brothels previously frequented by German officers and the British soldiers had to use the German soldiers’ equivalent. The brothels were legally called ‘maisons tolérées’ and the ones used by the British were liberally spread around northern France".
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ral104
moderator, scientist
They sound semi-official, don't they? I wonder if the RAMC man who was posted as a temporary attendant was actually stationed at the brothel itself, or whether he was there to deal with any unfortunate consequences of using it. And I wonder whether that service extended to the people working there as well as the clientele.
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josiepegg
I expect the RAMC attendant was required to check that the girls were healthy and not likely to pass on any nasty diseases to the officers
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ral104
moderator, scientist
Right, that makes sense.
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