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PHOEBE ANNE PHILLIPS

The middle daughter of three girls, Phoebe was the practical one. Her father had been the local blacksmith and also ran an ironmongers and newspaper shop — a busy place that served a farming community as well as paper mill and grain refinery workers, in a village called Ivybridge, in South Devon.
Ivybridge is just ten miles from the city of Plymouth which was severely bombed during the war years. The enemy was attracted by the Naval Dockyard at Devonport plus various other military establishments in the surrounding area.
Phoebe was brought up with a strong sense of duty and had joined the Red Cross in 1930. Therefore, when war was declared it seemed obvious to increase her nursing skills and contribute to the war effort.
Locally, she drove a formidable van which undertook ambulance duties, picking up the wounded after German bombing raids. Getting the wounded to the hospitals was no easy task as roads were often littered with fallen trees, damaged buildings and smouldering wreckage. The van was also somewhat temperamental and the girls often had to resort to pushing it out of difficult situations, or to get it started.
The insignia on the van reads ‘BRITISH WAR RELIEF SOCIETY; USA TO GREAT BRITAIN’ and includes both the American and the British flag — so, possibly the van was donated by the Americans.
Phoebe went on to be promoted to Cadet Unit Leader and undertook numerous exams and tests to ensure she kept her Red Cross knowledge up to date. The following is a sample of the certificates we found after she died in 1999 at the grand old age of 88.
Qualified to Administer First Aid to the Wounded.
Home Nursing.
Air Raid Precautions.
Social Service.
Anti Gas Training.
Voluntary Aid Delegation of Administration and Organisation.
Plain Cookery.
Election to a Member of the Red Cross. Society.
Awarded the Defence Medal,3 WS Chevrons.

Oh, by the way — After the war, Phoebe never did drive a vehicle again or hold a drivers licence!!!

Written by Paula Phillips.

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