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This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Dorothy MacKenzie for Three Counties Action on behalf of Jessie P Aylett (nee Smith)aka JP and has been added to the site with Jessie P Aylett’s permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

I was stationed with the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service in the 98th British General Hospital in Bari Italy. During 1944-45, romance was certainly in the air for we had 12 weddings during that year. The Colonel of the 98th BGH walked up the aisle to ‘give away’ 12 Nursing Sister brides.

As we were still at war the bridal dress had to be nursing uniform, but in May 1945 two brides wore dresses made from long-length nightdresses decorated with flowers and lace by an Italian dressmaker.

The hospital chefs did a marvellous job of making 12 wedding cakes, all three tiers being made with the proper ingredients and decorated with flowers. At one of our last weddings, I was bridesmaid for my friend Joan and it was a very festive affair. She had a proper guard of honour on the steps of the hospital chapel and we had a great party in the Sister’s Dining Room. It was a very hot day and we finished the day by going to the beach to swim in the Adriatic.

In addition to these weddings there was a very good theatre in Bari and we had many concerts by ENSA with some well-known artists of the time performing.

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