大象传媒

My sister and I were at Southampton Hospital the day that war broke out. It was a Sunday and we were packing drums and making swabs. Listening to the radio came the news that war had been declared. Soon we were issued with gas masks and tin helmets for our protection.

Rationing came in fairly quickly too. As nurses were were given little jars of butter and sugar once a week. The patients had ration books. They had to take pots with them for their meals.

We were paid 拢1.50 a month. We were in residence, so this also covered our uniforms and food and board. Raids on Southampton started in 1941. Craters in the road, landmines coming down by parachute, houses with their roofs blown off. So frightening. My father, who was a fire officer, had a car. Sometimes we would spend nights n the New Forest to get away from the bombs. We felt safer there.

On the wards we saw many casualties. We had to do the best we could to make them comfortable. They had blood and soil all over them. Most were near to death. Doctors would give them a shot of morphine, putting a sticker on their head to say this. Two operating theatres were kept very busy. Many died; those who recovered were transferred away. There was no immunisation, apart from smallpox. Hygiene was difficult with all the dirt and dust around.

Raids on Southampton came to an end in 1942. I finished training to be a midwife and went up to London, spending six months in Willesden. Then to Hillingdon. Americans who came over got many women pregnant, so babies were still being born. I applied to Tooting Hospital to do fever training. Whilst at Tooting, doodlebugs would come over in threes. You thought they were overhead; when the engines stopped you wouldn't know where they were going to fall. Anti-aircraft tried to shoot them down, but loads of shrapnel fell and caused more problems. An unexploded bomb fell in our courtyard. Had to carry the children to safety. Another bomb fell opposite the hospital on a cemetery. It destroyed many graves; bones went up into the trees.

Young children were most vunerable to TB, dipheria and leprosies. Dipheria was the most dangerous as it effected the heart and chest. Many children got very ill.

It was quite a journey to visit home in Southampton. If a siren went off the train would stop, becoming a sitting duck in open countryside. Using the underground to get to Waterloo, people would sing to keep their spirits up. Once I was on the tube underneath the Thames when a raid was on. Everyone was together; though some had had terrible experiences, they kept going.

I went to the Isle of Wight in 1944 just before D-Day, to do TB training. All the side roads were blocked; there were tanks as there as well. Ryde had more naval vessels than people. The island was bombed, just like the mainland, with some devastation. I caught a nasty cough, so should'nt be nursing TB. I was asked to knit jumpers for sailors on HMS Hood. I received a letter of thanks, but later heard that the Hood had been sunk.

Next I went to Wimborne Cottage Hospital, staying for two years. I became a ward sister. On VE-day we went into Wimborne square for a celebration.

After the war, when the NHS started, I joined the army as a nurse. I spent time in hospitals all over the Middle East; Egypt, Libya and Tripoli. I was there for four years. Though we were peace keeping, there were bombings and other action to be seen.

(PK)

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