´óÏó´«Ã½

IRENE CROSS (nee RILEY)
CIVIL NURSING RESERVE

Irene was born in Darlington, though the family were originally farmers at Bowes living at 2 Milestone House. When her father died they came to Barnard Castle to live and her Mum went out to work to keep Irene and her sister, Doris. After school Irene worked at the glove factory, then moved to Mr Dawson’s shop near the cinema, which was a café and cake shop with its own bakehouse.

I was encouraged by my friend, Freda Brown, to volunteer to be a nurse and so went to Bishop Auckland to train. The uniform was Air Force Blue and I was given a rain coat with a badge, a blue velour hat with a red band and badge, a blue dress with white cuffs and collar, an apron and a veil ~ the laundry shop on The Bank washed my uniform. After training I came to the Richardson Hospital when it opened.

The hospital was not operational before the War, but during it when the military took over, it had an operating theatre. Operation were performed by an air force medical officer and Dr Bower, a local doctor. The nurses took turns to work in the theatre, preparing and handing out the instruments. There were cubicles for sleeping in the Officers’ Wing and other ranks had billets through the garden. I remember three photographs on the wall, two of when Princess Royal visited during the War ~ she was very nice. One night there had been an exercise when something had gone wrong and there were bad burns to treat and another time they were all taken ill on the camps. It was shift work, including night work.

I lived at home and belonged to the club in town and went dancing. There were nurses from Newcastle and Morpeth who were billeted out in houses in the town. We had fun through the War years and I remember going on holiday to Whitby with Betty Stammer (see P. and it cost 6s. I was on night duty when I heard about the end of the War and everyone was very excited. When the Richardson Hospital was going to be handed back to the town, for a short time Betty and I were transferred to Chester-le-Street and billeted together. I loved nursing and could have stayed on in the forces, but instead worked at what was known as ‘the work house’ in Barnard Castle, where one patient said to me ‘I remember you at the Battle of Mons’!

Irene was working at Glaxo when she met her husband who was the RSM (Regimental Sergeant Major) at Deerbolt Camp. She then followed him in his Army career, travelling to Austria, Germany and Hong Kong. They returned to Edinburgh, followed by the Ministry of Defence in London. They retired to Barnard Castle.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.