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At the start of the War I was a civil servant, in the Min of Ag which was evacuated to St Anne’s on Sea in Lancashire. I worked on subsidies for farmers which were calculated at £2 an acre. But I got really fed up of multiplying by 2, so in about 1941 I came down to London, made an appointment at the Royal Northern Hospital in the Holloway Road and was accepted to train as a nurse. It was what I wanted and for me it was great. We spent 10-12 weeks in a little School of Nursing, passed exams and then went on to the wards. It was partly just ordinary surgery — people still had things like appendicitis — but in casualty they dealt with war casualties, people who had been bombed or hit by shrapnel.

I was impressed by the north Londoners — they were very stoical, and there was always a laugh on the wards. I was promoted to staff nurse and went on to be a tutor — I just loved it and it gave me a lifelong career.

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