大象传媒

Mildred Joan Tulip I : my experiences as a VAD nurse

A few years before the war started, while working as an English teacher (Miss Nichols) at Hookergate Grammar School in County Durham, I joined the V.A.D. 鈥� voluntary aid detachment 鈥� meeting once a week in the evening, when a doctor would come to give us a talk on some aspect of First Aid and then we would practise techniques of bandaging etc. We each bought the appropriate uniform and we took Red Cross nursing exams. One year before the start of the war, those of us who had passed our exams were asked if we would sign 鈥榤obile鈥� papers. This meant that we could be sent wherever we were needed in war. After signing them, we were sent for one week鈥檚 experience to the Naval Hospital in Plymouth. I went there with my domestic science teacher friend Tod Imeary also teaching at Hookergate School who had joined the local VAD in Newcastle at the same time.

The Plymouth hospital was already prepared for war. Every evening they put up the blackout shutters and the whole atmosphere was of impending conflict. The work was interesting and I was very much struck by how well the hospital was run. At one stage I also learnt from one of the doctors that I was fortunate in my new role to have been brought up in Middlesbrough and to be lodging in Newcastle: he told me that coming from those big towns I should be immune from many common infections, whereas the nurses from the country wouldn鈥檛 be so lucky.

We had pre-arranged digs in Plymouth with Church of England nuns. They happened to have their own apple trees and made the maximum use of them: every pudding was stewed apple, and after four or five times this made me laugh 鈥� once I got the giggles so badly that I had to run off upstairs until I had recovered my composure. When we arrived at the digs, two big jugs of hot water had been put in our bedrooms and, without consulting each other, Tod and I each put the water into the tin enamel baths on the floor and had a bath. Meantime the nuns were telling us to hurry up as they were waiting for their meal and the bathing had made us late 鈥� it turned out that they hadn鈥檛 meant us to use the water until the morning. We got quite a scolding but again we laughed: there was quite a lot of laughing in those days just for relief from the strain.

In the first week of the war, aged 26 now, I received a telegram at my home in Middlesbrough asking me to report to the Military Hospital at Fenham Barracks in Newcastle at 7pm on Thursday evening. Eight of us, including Tod, received the same message to meet at the barrack gates. A military policeman took us down to the medical department where the MO (medical officer) was in a state of panic. His teeth were actually 鈥� literally 鈥� chattering, something I鈥檇 read of but never before seen, and his hands drummed on the table. He thought that petrol was stored underground in the barracks (I doubt if he was right) and that a bomb would blow the whole thing up. I did not see him after this first meeting: he must have left.

There were some men from the St John鈥檚 Ambulance Brigade who looked after us, having been called up just as we were, and who helped us get 鈥榖iscuits鈥� (mattresses), army blankets and sausage-shaped pillows. Men who were in the army had a 鈥榮mall kit鈥� with knife, fork, spoon, plate and enamel mug: we had none of these things, so at first we had to drink out of medicine glasses in the MI (medical inspection) room and to use scalpels etc in place of cutlery 鈥� as there were as yet no patients hygiene wasn鈥檛 a problem. But with no plates when we went to collect our breakfasts on the first morning, we had to carry it away in our hands 鈥� so the next morning we went to Woolworths to equip ourselves suitably. We also bought ourselves chocolate and fruit: at this early stage of the war there was still plenty of everything.

At first, we just treated patients 鈥� army men reporting sick - who came to the barracks to see the doctor and then came to us with a slip of paper on which the doctor had written down the treatment, e.g. 鈥榓craflavine 鈥� a yellow antiseptic 鈥� to left foot鈥�, or 鈥榮yringe to ear鈥�, or 鈥榯reat boils鈥�. We just had to work from that, without any other guidance or authority; and apart from the evening sessions and the Plymouth week we were altogether inexperienced. But we learnt fast: we had to!

Before long, the hospital was properly established in Fenham Barracks: the officers鈥� mess was taken over for the purpose. It had two wards, each with twenty beds. We had one ward as a medical ward, the other as a surgical one. There was an operating theatre too. At this stage of the war, we had no war wounded, only men sick with tonsillitis, gastric problems, earache etc 鈥� ordinary ailments 鈥� though we did have one case of pneumonia and one whose persistent cough turned out to be tuberculosis. The doctors who came to the hospital were usually waiting to be posted abroad - we were a sort of staging post for them from being a civvie doctor 鈥� so we didn鈥檛 work with any of them for long: they were passing through. I didn鈥檛 look after war wounded much even later, because although I remained at Fenham Barracks from 1939 through to the middle of 1942, to begin with we had the 鈥榩honey war鈥�; and also my duties were concentrated in the medical ward rather than the surgical one.

It may seem odd to report this, but the hospital in those early war years was generally a very happy place. When the soldiers were sent to us sick, they loved being between clean sheets at last, waited on by the nurses (who rather enjoyed the admiration they got from the men), not having to go back to the war until they recovered. The food they got was also better than they鈥檇 had, good food cooked freshly for them by VAD nurses in the hospital鈥檚 own kitchens. They were always asking for 鈥榤ore gippo鈥� (gravy) which we got for them if we could.

The majority of the men we treated got better and went back. Of course sadly some of them whom by now we often knew well went back and were killed. There was one patient who had a bad cough that didn鈥檛 get better and the doctor looking after him said, 鈥淵ou should never have been sent to the front. Who examined you?鈥� The man replied, 鈥淚t were you, sir鈥� 鈥� which the doctor did not like hearing. The man鈥檚 cough got worse and worse. He was specially treated in a side ward and he used to say to me every time I saw him, 鈥淚鈥檓 glad I didn鈥檛 have to go back to France nurse鈥�. He didn鈥檛 realise how ill he was and continued saying this till the day he died.

Later I met more people who had served in France, who had been evacuated from Dunkirk; and I had my photograph taken with them (I still have a copy of this). Although we were a long way from the Channel, up in the north-east, men from Dunkirk were sent to us as the policy was to disperse them round the country 鈥� perhaps to avoid presenting an obvious bombing target to the enemy.

At first we lived out in digs, billeted on people who did not really want to have us: we lived in the barracks later, Tod and I with others moving into what had been a sergeant鈥檚 separate house. This was nice, and a better place than that for some of the others who had beds in the hospital corridor. We had our own bedside mats, and bedspreads to cover up the army blankets, and things of our own to go on the dressing table to make it as much like home as we could.

Things changed at the hospital in 1942. Until then, the VAD nurses, with a VAD matron who eventually joined us, had been in effect running the hospital. But then Queen Alexandra nursing sisters were sent: this implied a demotion for the VAD nurses who were left without any authority. It wasn鈥檛 the fault of the Queen Alexandra nurses but it was very awkward for the VAD staff. Patients who sometimes came back to see us were very puzzled why we were no longer in charge of the wards as they remembered us. Tod in the meantime had left to nurse in India: I might have gone too but was married now and with my husband, George Tulip (see Mildred Joan Tulip III), away in the Eighth Army, I felt I should hold the fort in England and be here if he was given any home leave. I did leave the hospital however, to nurse in 鈥榮ick bays鈥� (houses taken over for the purpose), but felt that this work contributed less than my earlier work had done. I was glad that I soon felt useful again when in 1942 I was called to work at Blechley Park. [See 鈥楳ildred Joan Tulip II鈥橾

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