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In 1940 I went to the recruiting office. They asked what regiment I would like to join. I said I was terrified of guns and didn’t want to be in a combatant unit as, being a keen Scout, I didn’t want to kill a brother Scout even if he was an enemy. So I went into the RAMC, starting with 3 months training in Norfolk.

On Saturdays we went to Kings Lynn to the cinema. We normally went in 2 lorries, but once there was only one lorry to bring us home so we all piled in. On the way home we crashed and over-turned, some of the men were killed and they had to move a body from on top of me to get me out. We always had to travel with our packs and I was saved by my mess-tin, it stopped one of the pieces of metal that had been holding up the roof of the lorry from going into my neck.

After Norfolk we went to Kent, then to Oxford and then, in the middle of the night, we were taken to Greenock and from there we embarked for North Africa (Algiers). It was all secret and we didn’t know until we got to Greenock that we were going abroad.

From North Africa we went to Sicily where we nursed the remnants of the Desert Rats in a field hospital, and then on to Pompeii where we set up a hospital in a large building. I spent the rest of the war there and dealt with the casualties from Anzio, I also saw Vesuvius erupt in 1944.

We nursed in 3-month stints and then had a break doing another job. I was deputy batman to a colonel. One night in 1945 when I was coming off night duty he met me and said ‘You look tired, you should apply for leave’. I did so and when it was granted I made my way to Rome. On arrival we were told the war had finished and there was free beer in the NAAFI.

We were asked if we would like to join a party to go to the Vatican. We were put into groups of 40 of all nationalities and shown round the Vatican. I met and shook hands with the Pope and went up and stood by the Basilica cross at St Peters.

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