The “Alice Society for Aid to Sick and Wounded” had sixteen trained nurses ready for work at the beginning of the war. Through the voluntary help of some of the best doctors and surgeons, who arranged classes at different places for the instruction of all those who were anxious to help to nurse during the war, the number of nurses was increased by degrees to one hundred and sixty-four. These were sent to the different hospitals in Hesse, to ambulances near Metz, to the hospital trains, and the hospitals on the steamers.
In her own palace the Princess arranged a depot for all necessaries required for the sick and wounded. Later on another was established in the Grand Ducal palace. Besides the many regular nurses, a number of women and ladies joined together to serve out refreshments, during the night as well as the daytime, to the wounded, who were constantly passing through Darmstadt and halted at the railway station. Similar committees were, thanks to the Princess’ own initiative, formed all over the country.
One of the hospitals at Darmstadt, erected by the English National Red Cross Society, and supplied with English surgeons, received the name of “The Alice Hospital.” Under a special arrangement it was subsequently taken over by the Hessian military authorities. In this hospital, as in others established independently of the “Alice Society,” women and girls of all classes lent their aid.
Simultaneously with the aid to the sick and wounded, those who had been rendered widows, orphans, or destitute by the war were cared for through the Princess’ exertions; and “The Alice Society for the Education and Employment of Women” did good service. Out of this Society sprang the “Alice Lyceum,” which was intended for the intellectual culture of women of the higher classes. Lectures were to be delivered in it on all the interesting subjects of the day. This Lyceum continued for some years to attract a more or less numerous audience. In the first winter of its existence lectures on English and German Literature, the History of Art, German History, and Natural History were given. The lady at the head of it was Fräulein Louise Büchner. Its subsequent failure was caused by numerous external difficulties, and not because the original idea for which it had been founded had proved otherwise than sound.