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Mrs McGolrick served as a nurse during the war and was posted to a number of military hospitals, including ones in France, Syria, Iran, India, and East Africa. The following is an excerpt of an interview with CSV Oxford Volunteer Matthew Smaldon. Mrs McGolrick fully understands the site’s terms and conditions, and the story has been added to the site with her permission:

'I was posted to Karachi — that was only a thirty bedded hospital. We expanded to about two thousand beds, for the soldiers from the Middle East. Suddenly [in 1942] we had an inflow of Polish refugees. They had been run over by the Germans, then the Russians, and they’d trekked through the Caucasus to Basra, and they were put on a ship and came down to Karachi. The healthier ones were sent to colonise over in East Africa. I went with a hundred over to East Africa, but we couldn’t get in to Mombassa because they were filling up a ship to go out to the Middle East, with nurses and troops. We went down to Dar-es-Salaam, and then our ship went down to Durban — it was empty. On the way down a Jap submarine appeared — well, they said it was ‘a hostile ship’. I was the only girl on board, and I went up to the bridge and the captain let me do the zig-zag thing [to avoid the submarine], which was fun.

Then I was posted to the Burma border, and we were rather too near to the fighting. So we moved again and CCS (Casualty Clearing Station) went in. Mountbatten was there that day - the day we moved - and the British and Americans laid on a big do for him. He said - ‘Gentlemen, you forget there’s a war on.’ - They had caviar sent from Russia and all that nonsense.

We were posted on a Maharajah’s estate, at the big hospital there, at least two thousand beds. Of course we had to have a lot of coolies, who were laying airstrips for the RAF who were dropping supplies to the Chindits. We had one ward with 365 beds, under canvas, just with hurricane lamps and primus stoves.

I was never much in danger, except that I was nearly shot one night. We were under canvas. I was going to do a round one night, of the wards, with a Chakdah [area of Eastern India] man, who was supposed to look after you, with a hurricane lamp; and I came out of the tent and two bullets passed over my head. They said for me to go down to the casualty, and there were two dead men. There hadn’t been a Jap prisoner before then and I thought ‘Oh, these are the first Japs’, but they weren’t. They were the maharajahs guard — they were flat on the ground. That was the nearest I got to being shot, or sunk by the submarines, or bombed.

All the wards were under canvas in India, except when they had little basher huts, and they were beautifully made, with grass tops. Eventually we had a little hut, but you had to have camp beds, canvas baths — everything was canvas. And the food was ghastly. Soya sausages — sausages all squashed up — and tinned herrings. You had plenty of fresh fruit, but otherwise nothing — it was very boring. But the maharajah gave some wonderful parties. We had dancing girls, and elephants. Elephants going up the steps like Sandhurst. It wasn’t all hard work!

But we worked very hard when two girls and I were responsible for 360 Indians. You only had one bottle, one basket of medicines, and only one glass. Different medicines went in it, and everyone opened their mouths, but it never touched their lips. You couldn’t have done otherwise. You see a lot of them had tapeworms and things — they would be proud of them in the morning — they’d show you.

There was nothing nicer than to work with marvellous girls, and the troops were wonderful - they helped you in every way. If you had ill patients, they’d say,
‘Sister, don’t worry, I’ll sit by him, and let you know if he gets worse.’ And I loved nursing the troops, yes. He was so good you know, the old Tommy, so helpful.'

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