大象传媒

I was conscripted in December 1942, and registered for duty in Denmark Street London. I joined the Royal Army Medical Corps, and worked in the administration of the Army Blood Supply Department, which was located at the Bristol Transfusion Centre. We contacted blood donors and arranged donations. Prior to D-Day extra blood was collected, this was stored in glass bottles, which were transported, in straw hampers to field hospitals in France after the landings in Normandy. Newspapers were also added, (unofficially) to the packing around the bottles to provide home news to the forces. After the war ended, many blood donors were informed where their blood had been used.
We were billeted in a Manor House 6 miles outside Bridgewater, in Chilton Polden. At night cows came in to inspect us and there were plenty of mice. We went on route marches in the area.
At the end of the war, we were demobbed in stages from HQ Southern Command at Wilton near Salisbury. Joining the army was the fist time I had lived away from home and this gave me a wonderful sense of freedom.

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