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MARJORIE HEYWOOD (nee Wood)
NURSE

Marjorie was brought up in Mortonley, Yorkshire along with three brothers and two sisters. Her father was the manager of Thorncliffe Furnace and Coke Works. After school she trained as a nurse at Leeds General Infirmary and was there when the War started.

We were trained to keep the Infirmary going whatever and a Gas Emergency Centre was built. This was during the ‘black out’ and there were no lights. Under the private wing there was a set of rooms and every evening sister would go and light Tilly lamps along the wall, but once when she was on holiday I had to do this. I was getting sterile instruments on trays and in the midst of this I was told to get down as there was a bombing. However I was needed to treat injured patients. I started to stitch a man’s hand, then there was a more serious injury. This patient was put on a stretcher and I had to take one end and we then had a long walk along a corridor and up steps. Suddenly a man in uniform said ‘Halt, who goes there’ and worried that he could have been a German I said ‘who are you?’ and he replied in a broad Yorkshire, ‘I’m guarding t’infirmary’. The person at the other end of the stretcher chuckled as it was the chaplain.

I can remember a lovely girl was sobbing as her Mother had bought her a new coat that day and it was covered with blood. Another lady was in agony and they said to get her husband but she said not to worry ~ apparently she had sneaked out from home for a rendezvous. Though Leeds was not seriously bombed, one wing of the Infirmary was bombed and we were told to get back on duty as soon as possible.

Whilst at the Infirmary I met my husband, Michael. He was relief organist at St. Peter’s in Leeds and also at the Infirmary. When we were training it was compulsory to attend evensong in the Chapel and I sang from the gallery in the choir. Michael was asked to play as another organist said ‘all those girls frighten me’. We were married at the end of the War at St. Saviours, my home Church, by the Bishop of Ely who was Michael’s father. For some reason the heading in the newspaper afterwards was ‘Nurse to wed Bishop’s son on death bed’.

Marjorie moved to Teesdale when Michael became Bursar at Barnard Castle School.and also played the school organ. They brought up four children here and Marjorie became Matron at the Richardson Hospital. She was Division Commissioner for the Guides and later she became Vice President of the Friends of the Bowes Museum.

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