大象传媒

I served as a Queen Alexandra nurse from 1942 until late 1945. My first posting was to Lucknow, which had a memorable old-style Military Mess - finger bowls on the dinner table, strict rules of conduct and turbanned waiters. Whilst there I served on the hospital trains between Sirajgani in East Bengal and Lahore - a distance of some 2,000 miles - mainly with Indian and British troops, alternating. It was a time of civil unrest; we had bricks thrown through the windows; sometimes we were unable to leave the train when it stopped at a station for fear of violence by the locals. There was also the risk of disease; cholera was identified on one of my trains, and an Indian M.O. and I had to inoculate all those on board. Then there was the Bengal famine; I remember speaking to the Staff Sergeant about the body of a young girl lying at the entrance to the cantonment.

These were all very strange new experiences indeed, for a country girl brought up in Much Wenlock.

I had a spell in a tented hospital at Maina Mutte near Comilla, here our sleep was disturbed by laughing hyenas. Our sleeping accommodation was a raised platform in a basha hut (bamboo) for 2 Sisters, it had straw on the floor. I was at this hospital for 6-8 weeks.

I had a long spell at 62 I.G.H. (Indian General Hospital) at Dacca in East Bengal. Here I was put in charge of two wards of Chindits - not the easiest of people to manage after their exploits behind the Jap lines - but very soon they became my best two wards, most co-operative and eager to tell of their experiences in Burma. The work here flucuated with the progress of the campaign, periods of normal routine alternating with emergencies when the hospital filled overnight with wounded, and men slept on the beds and on the floor between the beds.

These were periods of great mental and physical stress for the staff - and we were generally understaffed. But we valued highly the help we received from the I.N.S. (Indian Nursing Service), the V.A.Ds, all the R.A.M.C. personnel and the civilians who came in volunteering to help. There was a marvellous spirit of co-operation amongst all the staff; and we sisters took on unusual responsibilities, and enjoyed an extraordinary camaraderie with the M.O.s. And, even when there was no emergency the work was still heavy and varied - not so many wounded, but a constant flow of men suffering from malaria, dysentry, typhus and other tropical ailments (sometimes two at once) and all of them in poor physical shape. We were under pressure to rehabilitate them, and get them back to their units.

Finally, I had six weeks in a small-pox isolation hospital in the Assam jungle, so isolated that six weeks was the limit for the staff. Here I remember being warned about the presence of kraits - that very deadly small snake - another of the dangers of living in India.

My last posting before repatriation in 1945 was at Ranchi. My first meeting with the soldiers of the King's African Rifles (K.A.R.) was on the 1st of September, the time when they held their gymkhana. Another sister and I had to staff the first-aid ambulance.

There was a K.A.R. band at the gymkhana and as I walked past the K.A.R. Officer invited me to conduct the Band, he gave me his baton and set me going on "There is a Tavern in the Town". The bandsmen were delighted and so was I. I had to return to my post, of course, but not before learning the name of the Officer - Capt. Geoff Elcoat of the 4th K.A.R.. This first acquaintance developed in the usual way at the Officers' Club and various hotels in Ranchi, where I and my friends met Geoff and his friend Horace. The upshot was that after being repatriated I married Horace (Capt W.H. Fletcher) in December 1945 and lived happily ever after.

At the end of it all, we of the Q.A.I.M.N.S(R) felt that we had played a worthy part in the Burma Campaign.

I am the proud owner of the Burma Star, and as a result of my story "A Nurse amid the Hell of War" being published in the Journal of the Burma Star Association I was made an honary Chindit; the first woman to receive this honour.

The story of my life after the War can be found at A5883816 "After the Turmoil of War".

The story of my late husband's war service can be found at A6374351

Story: This story has been submitted to the People's War Site by Muriel Palmer (volunteer) of Age Concern Shropshire Telford & Wrekin on behalf of Marjorie FLETCHER (author) and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fullyunderstands the site's terms and conditions.

see more of Peggy Fletcher鈥檚 stories and photographs:

• "AFTER THE TURMOIL OF WAR"
• "CAPT WH FLETCHER'S WAR WITH THE 4TH KING'S AFRICAN RIFLES"

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