- Contributed byÌý
- threecountiesaction
- People in story:Ìý
- Elizabeth Inskipp
- Location of story:Ìý
- Bedfordshire, London
- Article ID:Ìý
- A5180663
- Contributed on:Ìý
- 18 August 2005
This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Three Counties Action on behalf of Elizabeth Inskipp and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.
In 1941 s a member of the Civil Nursing Reserve I worked at Bromham Hospital caring for sick and elderly people who had been removed from danger area to the so called peace and quiet of the country. The accommodation was appalling — rows of beds in a long ward with a bathroom and lavatory at one end. Most patients were bed ridden and for those who were not there was little for them to do except sit around and talk about the war and smoke when they could get a cigarette. There was deadly rivalry over dog ends! The work was hard but we clung doggedly to our social lives, going to play darts at the local, or to a dance at a nearby village. It was quite usual to cycle six miles or more after a hard day, then dance until midnight and still be on duty at 7am next day!
London
In 1943 I worked at the Royal Free Hospital in London and the War really began for me. It was the time of the Blitz and as we were in Gray’s Inn Road we were quite busy. In the first week that I was there incendiary bombs fell on Mount Pleasant, the chief sorting office at the G.P.O. It was next to the rear of the hospital and I remember so clearly the firemen on tall ladders playing their hoses on the inferno below. They were truly heroic.
After years of war, air raids, flying bombs, rationing and other problems, the event I remember so clearly was the end of the war and the evening of VE day. The world went crazy and a group of us went to Whitehall and listened to Winston Churchill on the War Office balcony and cheered ourselves hoarse as he spoke. The press of the crowd was frightening but nobody cared. Then in a body we all went on up to the Mall to Buckingham Palace where the King and Queen cam out on to the balcony and waved and we all cheered and waved back. It was an unforgettable night, which remains forever in my memory.
I am now 88 but am grateful that I have these memories and many others.
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