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Lexie Edgar

This story is taken from an interview with Lexie, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Deirdre Donnelly, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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I took a first aid course with St John Ambulance in 1939, and joined 40 men here.
In Londonderry they set up First Aid posts, we trained people. We went round factories and trained people there.

Latter part of 1940 we formed a group and manned first aid posts until midnight.
There was a lot of boats coming in with injured people, so we formed a group for that. Any hour of night we were called out. Sailors were taken to the rest centre in Great James street. Londonderry was always a harbour, with sea people coming through. We checked the bandages and dressings, and if they were more severe they were taken to the county hospital.

The museum in Brook park was opened with 100 beds in it. We were very busy every night, even in little boats down to Moville. The big ships couldn’t come up.
Amputations, a variety of internal injuries. In the war we treated about 400 casualties.

I was in our first aid post in Brook Park. We were at Messines park within 10 mins of the explosion. About 6 fatalities. One fellow was very serious. He heard the plane, looked out the window — that was when the bomb went off, and he was absolutely covered with glass all over! We treated him. A girl, a WREN, was blown out of her window. We got her in a field in front of her house, unconscious, still on her bed. She was alive, in complete shock, she had passed out.

That was a sea bomb, the stray plane came over about midnight, thought he was over the shipyard and missed.
Long’s shop down the road, there was AAA up there, they fired on him as he passed, and he let the bomb drop any old place.

I worked in a grocers shop in town. I went home 6AM from Brook Park, to be at work when the shop opened at 8am!

Both sides of the Foyle were full of warships and subs.
We had a very busy time. We had some fun with the council, they started the Civil defence Force. They supplied us with black battledress and beret. We objected to the badge, we wanted the St John badge, we were all qualified first aiders. We threatened to leave, so they let us keep our badges.

V funny — anything we got here, we got a group of German seamen in. we had the ambulance sitting, and the Govt had converted large vans. The Germans refused to get in. they walked up to Brook Park in their bare feet. They formed up in 2s, and we walked at front and behind the pairs to guide them.
We had an interpreter come to Brook park, and rigged them up socks and shoes.

I went down with a doc and 2 others. A RN sub came up Moville, as far was they could go. We had to take the man up the river on a wee boat.

Sailors were flown to Belfast, to the Royal.
2 ambulances in front of me were called to Belfast — the biggest calamity of the war after Coventry.
We had 40 strong of St John men in the city. You had to pass a very strict exam. They passed all this in 3-6 months. A good flow of people and volunteers. No money — you had a wash, and went home or to work.

The old jail on Bishop St was a training centre for the Civil Defence.

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