大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War Website by a volunteer from Derby CSV Action Desk on behalf of Mrs Green and has been added with her permission. She fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I was a ward maid for 5 years during the war at Harlow Wood Orthopaedic Hospital. It was a nice place to work surrounded by pine trees. They used to bring the injured there and I would give them whatever help they needed with feeding etc. Often in the evenings after they had had their supper I would take orders for fish and chips and walk into Mansfield to get them. They would wrap them up well for me as it was about a half hour鈥檚 walk.

Once I saw a doodlebug go over in the direction of my Mum鈥檚 and I was worried for her but it landed in a field and didn鈥檛 do any damage.

I met my husband at the hospital. He was a dispatch rider and he was injured in Germany, he had no idea what happened but he ended up in a ditch. After a while in a German hospital he came to England and Harlow Wood where he had his kneecap removed and he also had to have skin grafts on his face. He was demobbed after leaving hospital as he was only capable of light work, and we got married and lived in Sandiacre.

Earlier in the war he had been on a ship which was torpedoed. He had a lot of paper money strapped to him which he had previously found and, fearing the weight of it would cause him to drown, he let it all go!

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