Poste de Secours - Help in the Somme

In 1919, Daisy and Ethel Mary Crocker helped organize Postes de Secours in 18 villages around Moislains, Arrondissement de Péronne, Somme, Hauts-de-France.  They also founded and endowed a pouponierre (rough transaltion - childrens nursery/orphanage).

​Most of the Somme was occupied and devastated during the war, 1914 - 1918. These four years were even spoken of at times as “the crucifixion of Picardy”. Albert, Péronne and Montdidier were reduced to a pile of rubble. 28,000 hectares of land and 381 villages were included in the red zone, a zone that was considered to be uninhabitable, but as the villagers returned, provisional housing usually in the form of wooden or corrugated iron huts, quickly began to be built. The area was in great need at the end of the war. 

Learn more about the need and their work by clicking "Read More"

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A description of a poste-secours - "Deep down in the recesses of the fort is the poste de secours. The vaulted gallery is lit with electric-light, for the dynamos are still running. As the men come in they are helped to a seat on a box or a pile of coats. Those that can stand are stripped and their wounds promptly dressed. Another, with a severe head wound, takes his seat at the operating table, and is skillfully attended by the doctor in charge"

Credit World War I: a French underground hospital at Verdun. Oil painting by Ugo Matania, 1917. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY