´óÏó´«Ã½

When war was declared on September the third, I was called on, as a member of St John’s Ambulances, to man a first aid post at Shiremoor Modern School. When there was an air raid, I had to cycle to the first aid post. What I did not like was the searchlights: I always sure they were looking for me.
In 1942 I volunteered for the ATS. I did my training in the Royal Scots barracks, where I never got the hang of the marching: the squad went one way while I went the other. I did better as a medical orderly - they even made me a lance corporal. From Scotland, I went to a huge camp at Chilwell, Nottinghamshire. It took me all day to get there and when I arrived at 13:00hrs, it was cold fish pie ugh! While I was there, I worked in an ATS hospital, working alongside VAD nurses. My day began at six am, having to clean and tidy my room; woe betides if a speck of dust was found. From Chilwell, I went Melton Mowbray - who should I meet there but Peggy Brown, a friend from Backworth, who was also in the ATS*?
My final posting was to Fenham, Newcastle. My time there was spent in a medical room given medication and sometimes I went out with a doctor to visit girls who had taken ill while on leave. Through the day, I went to Tynemouth Hospital because I was a civil nursing reserve. At that time, the Germans were machine-gunning the fishermen, so we had a lot of patients. I was billeted in lodgings in Brighton Grove (Fenham in Newcastle) — there were 6 of us in one room, and I was in the double bed.
My boy friend came home after four years in the Middle East — he had been in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers and fought at Tobruk and in Italy - we got married soon after he came back.

* Peggy Brown has also published a couple of stories on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website

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