大象传媒

56b - Enid's Story [concluded from Part One]

" The mental hospital was old - Victorian. I believe it鈥檚 a listed building now.
鈥楥os ours you see was a separate block in the grounds, and it hadn鈥檛 been built very long before the war, so it was modern and a nice veranda outside and we could push the beds out, out onto the veranda. Some of them had to stay out all night because matron was very keen on fresh air!
And the children, when we had the children they had 鈥�, some of those had to stay out; they were in cots with high 鈥�

The regular staff? We were all in the Civil Nursing Reserve, and quite a few of the sisters were retired and they came back. Matron had retired and the sisters, and the staff nurses they were fully trained, and of course we only had a short training. The fact that I had worked in the Queens Hospital in the evenings, I hadn鈥檛 had to go for any extra training but the others did, I think, I think it was six weeks before they could come to work.

Of course the older staff, they鈥檇 been trained many years ago. Our matron trained at The General, and of course you had to toe the line. A lot of little things we had to do, such as when we made the beds, the ends of the pillow slips, the open end, mustn鈥檛 face the door into the ward they must always be turned the other way. If you had three pillows in a pile, they were always with the sewn up end facing the door.

And one very funny thing happened, I was on night duty and one of our patients, he was Welsh we called him Taffy, he went out for supper, those were allowed to go into Stafford in the evening, perhaps to the pictures or something, but they must be in by ten o鈥檆lock and Taffy didn鈥檛 turn up. And so he must have been very, very late and the patients who were late, they had to report in the morning, report to the matron you see and she knew who was late coming in, and they had their uniform taken off them and they weren鈥檛 allowed to go out until she said and Taffy was made to stay in bed. And matron was doing an early round and I was still on duty and the laundry had been delivered and was dumped on an empty bed next to Taffy鈥檚. And the laundry was opened you know, the parcel was opened, and he was on his own, and I went back to see him and I knew the matron was on her way and to my horror he鈥檇 taken off his pyjama jacket and put on a ladies鈥� nightie which he鈥檇 found, a very frilly nightie, and he鈥檇 found a big piece of ribbon and tied it round his hair, and he was a typical Welshman he was a very dark man, and he sat very seriously sitting up in bed, and he knew that matron was coming to see him, and he knew that he鈥檇 been kept in bed you see, and she came round and of course she had one sister with her and I had to stand there as well, and Taffy sat there very seriously and I looked at matron and she was doing her best not to laugh, she was dying to but she couldn鈥檛, she couldn鈥檛 laugh, and she just nodded her head and walked away very quickly, and he looked so funny. He did that deliberately to embarrass her.
But he did, when he got in, I was still on duty at night then you see, and I was sitting in the sister鈥檚 office at the other end of the ward, it was a long ward down to the kitchen, and we 鈥�, I was with another nurse and we heard a rattling noise and so we went and got the torch and walked down quietly to see what it was, and saw a leg coming through the window and it was near the gas stove where there was a kettle on the gas stove was empty, and Taffy got in through this very small window. But he was in the Commandos and he knew all about getting into things! And he said he waited till the moon came up and then he knew exactly where the ward was and he climbed in through the window."

[Here Neville Usher, the interviewer, intervenes:] It must have been a culture shock in a way, because you had lead a fairly sheltered life at home apart from your youth hostelling. I must say here by the way for the purpose of the tape that Enid is my cousin, so I know a lot about her. And from your youth, Youth Hostelling, to suddenly go into that environment must have been a great culture shock.

"Yes. Mind you I had been in the Girl Guides and one or two other things you know. But no I think it was probably leaving home and being looked after by a completely new 鈥渇amily鈥� and all that you know. As I say, my billet people were very, very kind and Mrs. Bass was very, very helpful and she did her best to look after me.

I did think about staying on in nursing, yes. But I got married before the end of the war because Paul was going to India, and so we decided to get married before and he had made a sergeant, and I was able to draw, you know the money that I was being paid then would be a help later on.

When the war finished, I went back to the office. I well remember we had to, towards the end, the Ministry they had to come and check to see all the blankets and everything were there and that. So we got a blankets out of the cupboards which we hadn鈥檛 used because they were in an upstairs ward and to our horror we found that the moths had been at them and they were absolutely riddled with holes, so we arranged them in such a way that the decent part of the blanket was showing on the edge and we piled them up, and all the holes were in the middle and they didn鈥檛 see them.

I think without exception the sisters had been brought out of retirement, because they were all married. Oh one was a widow and she鈥檇 lost her husband in the First World War. And she had got a grown up daughter. But two of them lived in Stafford.

Afterwards we all went our separate ways, but my best friend she lived in Wales. A lot of them came from The Potteries you see.
The actual name of the hospital was the Stafford Royal Emergency Hospital.

I had some very good friends, they were very nice girls, the girls I worked with and we got on very well together, we had quite a lot of fun.
And we used to go out on our bikes when we were off duty for a ride. We were never allowed to go out with the patients you see, although we did this on the quiet quite a lot and sometimes we would lend another patient our bikes you see, and I remember going out and we had one or two patients with us, and we were going round these lanes, and suddenly matron came along in a taxi that she had, she always had a private car to take her round, and we didn鈥檛 hear any more about it, we were very relieved, but you were not allowed to go to the pictures or anything like that with them.
One of my friends she married one of the soldiers, and there was another one she went out with the white South African when he was able to go, but she didn鈥檛 marry him he went back. But she went out with him, and he went down to the hospital in Brighton for South Africans, he came back up to Stafford to see her, but I think he went back.

We did have entertainers. Actually a male voice choir from one of the collieries near, I don鈥檛 know which one it was, they came and entertained us, sang. And we also went over to the mental hospital where they had a film show over there, that was nice. One or two of the patients could play the piano, and we had a piano in the ward so he used to sit down and play for us. We used to have a dance as well, that was nice, usually, I think it was at Christmas time. One Christmas we had, matron was ill and she was away and we had a really good time that time, the Assistant Matron was very nice, she arranged everything for us, and the patients waited on us.
Do you know I really can鈥檛 remember how much we were paid. I mean they had to pay for my keep you see, I think I had about nineteen shillings left after they paid me. And then after that, we had to pay for the laundry for our uniforms and that was quite a lot of money. Mind you, you could get a decent meal for 1/6d. in the Co-op restaurant if you wanted to go out for a meal, and then of course there was the train fare home, and I used go to home every week you see.
Because if you lived a long distance, the sister would arrange for you 鈥� If you finished at half past five I think it was, you could catch a train home in the evening, next day was your day off, and the next day you would get back for about eleven o鈥檆lock in the morning but you had to work right through to half past eight at night you see. You had your time off, sister would arrange that for you.
You were told the week before when you were off duty.
We had to send a postcard, no phone, very few were, because not many people were on the phone, mother wasn鈥檛.
She left the house in 1978, and was never on the phone. The girls next door, she could always use the phone next door you see, and she used to phone Aunty Kate.

Of course you could put a card in the post one day, and knew that they would get it first thing in the morning.

Yes, looking back it was a happy time - you could cope with things much better then. I mean we had several patients who died, you know it was fairly sad really when we knew.
And of course when I was on the children鈥檚 ward there were some little children who were in a very, very bad way indeed. They had been neglected at home, it was very tragic to see them.

(We did go into Stafford occasionally) I think they had one raid only, because the GEC had a big factory there and I think that鈥檚 what they were aiming at, but that was the only bombing, they only had one bomb. And my billet people, they were 鈥�, oh they re-opened the prison in Stafford, Stafford Gaol had been closed for years and because the Winson Green was bombed and also a gaol in Liverpool I think, they had to move the prisoners down to Stafford, and Mr. Bass had to go with them. And there was a new estate on the edge of Stafford, and these houses were allocated to the prison officers, and so that鈥檚 why they were there. It was, a very terrible, horrible-looking place.
The other thing, the infirmary as well, some of our patients had to go over there for treatment.

I can鈥檛 remember VE Day, I think I went home, I think it was my day off or something. I know there was a parade through the town - I think I was at home that day."

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