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Olwen E Kramer (nee' 'Bobbie' Roberts)

I joined the British Red Cross in the autumn of 1938 having just spent a few weeks in London (I lived then in Southport, Lancashire) where I met two newspaper men, a father and son from Canada, and the talk was about impending war, that we would be ‘cannon fodder’ and that there was no preparation, for war. The uniform I first wore was that of the First World War: a cloche hat, ankle length great coat, black lisle stockings and black lace-up shoes. I attended First Aid courses and then in May 1940 I was called up and instructed to go to the local hospital which had been taken over by the military and converted into a reception (hospital) for the wounded from the fighting in France and Dunkirk. I remember those wonderful sunny and warm days with the reports coming through to the wards via the Tannoy of the retreat to Dunkirk. It was my baptism nursing the wounded.

Later, I was selected by the Commandant, with six or seven others, to run a reception centre, for medical cases, in a Victorian/Gothic pile outside Ormskirk called Scarisbrick Hall. I felt this was too easy a life and resigned and at this point was made VAD (a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse who mainly cared for the wounded) and moved to Northern Command HQ in York. I spent a month on night duty at the military hospital during the bombing of York and was then posted to Osberton Hall near Worksop — again to a reception centre. This inactivity, apart from endless parties (The Guards, Green Howards and Rifle Brigade were stationed around this area) did not suit me and again I rebelled. This time the reason for my discomfort was the endless discussion by the Government and the House of Lords regarding the official status of VADs. It was not the loss of status that bothered me, more the fact that I felt there were more important matters to be discussed in the middle of a world war than the status of VADs. This time I resigned on this point of issue and found myself back in Southport in June 1944 as a civilian - a terrible shock to my mother. However I was soon back in the hospital I had started from where serious head cases were being tended from the Normandy landings. Soon a circular arrived from Lord Louis Mountbatten asking for volunteers to join the 14th army out in South East Asia. Two hundred VADS were selected, of which I was one, and we set sail from Greenock on the Strathaird in late summer1944. The voyage took a month as Strathaird was first through the Suez Canal, and got to Bombay safely although some U boats had caused a threat, but we were in a strong convoy and got through.

I was in Chittagong in Bengal (now Bangladesh) and needed to get to Calcutta to collect props and perform a dance routine for an entertainment for the troops. Travel was normally by Dakota aircraft but I was offered a ride by an American pilot in his single-seater fighter plane. The flight took 45 minutes and was very uncomfortable as the canopy had to be open the whole time. I was able to fix my face before landing! Both I and the pilot would have been in deep water if anyone had found out about it — he took off immediately after I got out.

I was to spend two years in the East. First in Chittagong and then I was posted to Comilla. I returned to England in 1946 having married a captain in the RAMC and have spent most of my life since in London.

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