大象传媒

鈥淭his story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anita Howard from Essex Action Desk CSV on behalf of Edith Lomax and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.鈥�

I was aged 19, working in an office in Lancashire when war was declared in September 1939. I had always wanted to be a nurse but had met with parental opposition due to the poor pay and hard work involved in nursing.

However after Dunkirk in 1940 the mood of the country changed and on June 6th 1940 I enrolled as a student nurse at Bury General Hospital, about 7 miles from Manchester.

Shortly after I had started nusing, the nightly air raid warnings began when the sirens sounded. We had to pull all the beds into the centre of the ward, (although the windows were shuttered at night) and place each patient鈥檚 gas mask on his or her bed and fill the bath with cold water in case the mains were hit. This continued for a few months without much enemy action in our area, as the Germans were busy bombing Liverpool.

This all changed at Christmas 1940 when the Manchester Blitz began. On the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of December the city was bombed from 6 pm to 6am every night. I was on night duty and we could not go to the shelters as we had to stay with the patients. It was frightening to hear the bombers overhead and the sound of the bombs exploding nearby. Luckily our hospital wasn鈥檛 hit but a hospital 6 miles away had a direct hit on the nurses鈥� home and many nurses were killed.

After this the raids became less frequent and nights were more peaceful. We were always busy as people had accidents and illnesses even in war time. One incident I remember was when the Drill Hall in Bury caught fire and, as ammunition for the Home Guard was stored there many firemen were brought into hospital with serious burns.

I continued my training and in May 1943 I became a State Registered Nurse. I held several posts including Junior Night Sister but in June 1944 I started Midwifery Training in Bolton and later in Blackpool. I was in Blackpool on V.E. and V.J. Days and joined in the celebrations along the promenade.

I became a State Certificated Midwife in September 1945. Although the war brought hardship, fear and tragedy to many people it gave me my chance to follow the career I had always wanted and paved the way for a long and rewarding career in nursing.

Edith Lomax October 2005

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