It’s in the Daily Mail so it must be true: Sex and the Somme: The officially sanctioned brothels on the front line laid bare for the first time

From a diary by a British Corporal fighting in Northern France during the Great War: ‘we had heard of the renowned Red Lamp with a big No 3 on it, but never thought of the reality of the thing. My first view, I shall never forget.
‘There was a great crowd of fellows, four or five deep and about 30 yards in length, waiting just like a crowd waiting for a football cup tie in Blighty.
‘It was half an hour before opening time, so we had to see the opening ceremony.
‘At about five minutes to six, the lamp was lit. To the minute, at six the door was opened. Then commenced the crush to get in.’

This establishment — marked by its red lamp — was one of the legendary maisons tolérées, or legalised brothels that dotted the towns of northern France.
They housed professional prostitutes who worked under the discipline of a madame and were subject to regular medical inspections. By 1917, there were at least 137 such establishments spread across 35 towns.
Outside these settings, vast numbers of amateur prostitutes also plied their trade in streets, hotels, cafes and bars. It’s not known precisely how many British soldiers indulged.
One snap-shot study, carried out by British medical officers in Le Havre, suggests it was a vast number. They counted 171,000 visitors to the brothels in just one street in this port town in 1915 alone.

Extraordinarily, visits to French brothels by British soldiers were officially sanctioned. It was traditional for the British army to accept the local customs wherever they were stationed.

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