大象传媒

I had at this time joined the Red Cross with my friend Sally Black. We went every week for training in how to treat minor injuries etc. which eventually allowed me to man casualty stations. Before doing this I had to complete twenty hours in a hospital. I chose Roehampton Hospital - where they treated the limbless- to do this training. This is where I fainted for the first time. I was asked to help support a man who had gangrene in his leg. All the other nurses were wearing masks but not me as I was in the ward just rolling bandages and they didn鈥檛 have time to get me one. The smell of the gangrene was so bad. I was asked to help while they changed his sheets and make him comfortable. It was my job to support and help to turn him. The patient, who was in terrible agony kept moaning and asking us not to drop him. I can remember clinging on to him for dear life and at the same time I could feel my self beginning to faint. The next thing I knew I was in Sister鈥檚 room sitting on a chair. She said I was still clutching him for dear life, as I was passing out. She sent me straight back on the ward as soon as I came round though. The patients were all very sympathetic which made me feel less ashamed.

This was at the time when all eligible girls were called up, either into the forces or into war factories or reserved occupations. As I was 16, I decided that if I didn鈥榯 want to go into a factory I had better think of something else and leave the Hairdressing. I was lucky enough to get a job at the Ministry of Information, which had taken over the London University in Gower St. off Tottenham Court Road. I was put into the American Dept.; it was a lovely job for a girl coming up to seventeen, who hadn鈥檛 taken her Matriculation because of leaving school too early. My job was to cable-ese stories and reports from home and American correspondences. I learnt to put them into cable-ese (which means abbreviating the sentences) to send by Western Union to Papers and magazine all over the world.
It was a department where I had the privilege of meeting and seeing some very eminent persons in the literary and political world such as publishers (Hamish Hamilton was one) writers, correspondents, authors, Ministers - and even film stars such as Clark Cable, David Niven.-- and I loved it. Brendan Bracken was head of the Ministry of Information at that time.

The Ministry set up a 鈥淗ome Guard鈥� which the staff could volunteer to join. The idea was to keep watch for any incidents during the air raids such as incendiary bombs, injuries etc. and report to our superiors. It was also an exercise to relay information in the event of an invasion by the enemy. I joined and one of my first assignments was to learn the Morse code and Semaphore (with flags) and the Aldis lamp. We used to go on the roof of the Ministry and signal with flags or the lamp to the other Govt. buildings round London. I can remember we had to do an exercise in communicating to each other in Oxford Street. To be quite honest I didn鈥檛 understand the operation and thought it a waste of time. I also joined as an air raid warden at home and took turns patrolling the streets in the evenings. We had to check that the blackout was in place in the houses and tell the occupants if it wasn鈥檛 and generally help during an air raid. We were given steel helmets, Stirrup pumps (which was a portable hand operated water pump with a footrest) and looked like a pump used for inflating cycle tyres, but it was essential to extinguish small fires and of course we were given a torch.
I was also attending casualty stations in Balham and Tooting to help with the injured. There were a lot of shrapnel wounds. I can remember seeing a bus which had fallen into a big crater in Balham and we took several patients from there.

In spite of the war, we still found plenty of time to enjoy ourselves - tea dances at the local church halls, where we would entertain troops on leave and away from home. We were still able to go to the cinema. When the sirens sounded, we would all rush out to the nearest air raid shelter.

During my holiday one summer, a friend and I went camping on a farm for a week to help the farmers, who were always short of labour because of the call-up of so many young men. This was somewhere in the Norfolk Broads, Laleham I think. We camped in tents and each morning we were taken by lorry to different farms, where we helped with various jobs, such as hoeing, digging, planting etc. It was very hard work for 6 or 7 hours a day but a lot of fun and we felt very pleased that we could help the war effort in this way.
I remember it was a very hot summer and we got very sunburnt. People of all ages up to about 50 took part. We did get paid for it, only a pittance, but we didn鈥檛 mind that. We had a lovely time after work, especially in the evenings when we had music and dancing.
When I got back to work, I was asked to write a short article on our experiences - which I did. It was sent abroad (I was told) to Russia and America as an 鈥榠nterest piece鈥�. I received 拢5 for it which I framed for years, I was so proud

In London they had the Stage Door Canteen which was a great favourite with the American troops and I went there quite often with friends, supposedly, to make them feel at home but most of them were quite brash and didn鈥檛 need much encouragement from us.

One of the American correspondents came into the office one day and brought each of us ladies the first pair of Nylon stockings to reach England- they were wonderful and greatly cherished. When I washed them they stretched to nearly double the size but were okay when I put them on. Later he brought us in the first Home Perming kit produced by Toni.

During one of the lunch breaks, myself and a friend went into an art shop to buy something. At that moment a bomb dropped (doodlebug) very near and we were blown right across the shop. My friend landed on her bottom with a picture frame over her head. It could have been funny if it hadn鈥檛 been so frightening. When we came out all we could see was rubble, injured people and a dead horse. Funnily enough I didn鈥檛 have much reaction until later in the afternoon, when all of a sudden my knees went to jelly.

As a VAD nurse I manned a First Aid Post in my spare time patching up people mostly with shrapnel injuries etc. This was in Balham and I remember seeing a big red London bus which had tipped up into a bomb crater.
In spite of the frightening aspects of the air raids we still found plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. I was just the age to flirt with boys. I met a very nice Canadian Air Force bloke and went dancing with him, and showed him around London etc. He was very polite and caring. I began to think we would become a pair. But he got posted away and eventually we lost touch with each other. There were plenty of Dances going on at Church Halls etc. and we used to entertain the service men on Leave and far from home. Mind you, no hankey pankey although some of them did 鈥榯ry it on鈥�.

I began to realise that although I loved working at the Min. of Inf. I wasn鈥榯 involved enough in the wartime action. So I decided to ask my friend Sally if she would consider joining with me as a full time Red Cross V.A.D. She was game -so off we went.

. We were sent to a hospital in Shrewsbury for 10 days for further training and to be briefed on what was expected of us. Then we were all sent on to various hospitals. Sally and I were lucky to be able to go together to an army hospital in Oswestry. It was really a Camp Reception Station (CRS) where cases such as minor injuries, illnesses such as infectious diseases - Measles, Chicken Pox, etc. and also Venereal diseases, were dealt with. Sally and I were attached to the Army. Other Red Cross nurses would be attached to the Navy and the Air Force.
We had to buy our own uniform (unlike the ATS). We were given 拢15 towards the cost which was only a fraction of the full cost, but it was a very smart uniform. Off duty we wore navy blue suits with white blouses and navy blue ties, and of course the regulation blue dresses and white aprons while on duty. We hated the head dress, which consisted of a very large, heavily starched square handkerchief, which had to be changed into a cap with pleats evenly arranged at the back to form a half circle. It was fixed on to the head with hair pins. How we cursed them.
As we were at a Reception station, we did not keep any seriously ill patients; they were transferred to the main hospitals. We had a lot of drunks on a Saturday night who had to be pumped out and also a lot of minor wounds caused by skirmishes with the American forces who were stationed in the area and had a lot more money then our soldiers which caused a lot of jealousy. So many of the patients were very young recruits (17 onwards) and quite often we would help them write letters home, as some of them were quite illiterate.

I was eventually put on to the Officers ward and for most of the time we nurses had to keep them at arms length, because if we got close to the bed they would pull us over. All in fun of course. This happened to me once just as sister came in. You can imagine my embarrassment. Having reprimanded me, she admitted that it had happened to her more than once. But, it was all done in fun.
We VADs were allowed to use the Officers mess off duty as the authorities seem to consider we were in that category- we ordinary nurses had no marking on our uniforms to indicate any rank. We did have sergeants who wore the usual stripes.
It appears that one day some smart alack questioned what rank we were, if some of us wore stripes. We hadn鈥檛 considered that we as nurses could be categorised. Anyway as we were stationed with the army they decided to align us with the ATS privates and we were no longer allowed in the Officers Mess which had been our privilege up to this point.
We thought this very unfair, as we had to pay for all our uniform which the ATS got free, and we were only attached to the army, not belong to it. From that day on we had to learn to salute when we received our pay and had to act like the lady privates in the army.
Our title was Red Cross VADs, so you can imagine how the initials was interpreted....鈥榁irgins Awaiting Destruction鈥�. I think there was quite a bit of jealousy between the ATS and us, as we seemed to be the favourites of the Army Officers.
Before we were de-ranked- so as to speak -I met my husband Len in the Officers Mess.
. He was at the bar drinking a glass of Orange Juice - not beer as you would imagine - which surprised us. He came over to ask me for a dance. .
I had been dancing with several Officers that evening besides Len and when we came out of the cloakroom after the dance, I saw Len and another Officer coming towards me to take me home. Len got to me first and that was that. He asked me to go out with him the next night but I had already arranged to go to a concert with a girl friend as Leon Goossen, a famous Oboe player at that time, was giving a performance. I don鈥檛 think he believed me because he turned up at the YMCA to see if it was true as he thought I was making an excuse not to go out with him.
Len was very kind and also very protective of me - and I fell in love.

During our stay at the camp ENSA came to put on a show at the Garrison Theatre. ENSA became famous during the war for entertaining the troops all over the war zone, home and abroad and many famous stars joined as it was run for professional artists. For some reason, I heard that they were auditioning for a leading singing role and being very keen on singing I went along. I was lucky to be picked as leading lady for this show from a host of hopefuls who went to the audition. I was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of taking part. Unfortunately, a few weeks before the show I became ill with Bronchial Pneumonia and couldn鈥檛 carry on. You can imagine how I felt - still I suppose it was meant to be. I managed to attend the show and was presented with a lovely bunch of flowers. The show was put on by Val Parnell (I think that was his name) and he did a lot of shows after the war.

This was in 1944 and Len and I were able to stay together in Oswestry until the war ended; we were married in June 1945. My mother also married again the same year in January, but I wasn鈥檛 able to get leave to be at the wedding. The same applied to my brother John who was also married before me, in the same year. That was war for you.

When we married we found a flat in Oswestry so that we could live out of the camp until we were demobbed when the war ended. Married women were demobbed first so I stayed on at the flat until he was posted to Wales, prior to his demob, which didn鈥檛 happen until many months later.

So ended the long years of war. Years in which I grew from being a young teenager school girl - naive and innocent in so many things outside my own small world of family and friends - to be suddenly plunged into a world of fear, bombing, hatred, sacrifice, death and misery, excitement and love etc. It was a time of fast maturity from childhood to adulthood and the end of the war began the start of great changes in the world and the need for so much re-adjustment by all of us.

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