大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War website by a volunteer from Age Concern Dorchester on behalf of Joyce Pittard and has been added to the site with her permission. She fully understands the site's terms and conditions

I started nursing about three months before war was declared at the Grove Fever Hospital, London SW17 (later St George鈥檚 Hospital).I remember I was in the sitting room at the hospital when the news of war was broadcast and almost immediately, the sirens went and we thought the air raids had started. Later we found out that it was a false alarm and that the 鈥榚nemy planes鈥� had been a flock of large birds.

The hospital didn鈥檛 have any air raid shelters, downstairs the building was sandbagged and we had extra mattresses to put round the children to stop them being injured by flying glass. At night, we made up their beds underneath the hospital beds.

At one period I remember that the sirens were going day and night.
At night in the Nurses鈥� Home we used to drag our mattresses into the corridors at first but later we were just too tired to do this and just went to sleep in our rooms. If I heard a Doodle Bug, I would put the pillow over my head so I couldn鈥檛 hear it!

Five bombs fell on the Hospital during the war, but they nearly always fell on the mortuary.

One night, I was off duty asleep in the Nurses鈥� Home, when the hospital was hit. All the lights went out and as I ran along the corridors to get the ward, I fell into a crater left by the bomb. Somebody pulled me out and I ran on into the ward. Patients were covered in glass and the door had been blown in. Two patients had been killed. Walls were knocked down, yet beyond them other walls still stood with linen neatly piled on shelves. A large jar which had been full of Aspirin was standing on a shelf; the jar was still there, undamaged by the blast, but the aspirin appeared to have liquefied.

We were all so shocked and upset and I remember Matron who like the rest of us had rushed over to look at the damage and do what she could for the patients suddenly exclaiming, 鈥淥h my feet are so painful, Nurse鈥� and I looked down and saw that she had her shoes on the wrong feet.

I didn鈥檛 realise at the time, but in the dark, I had stepped on a nail in a piece of wood in the debris and the next day, my foot was swollen I couldn鈥檛 walk.
Once, when I had a day off I decided to go to the cinema. The siren had gone but a long time before and although the all-clear had not sounded, I started to leave the hospital. My sister who was also a nurse at the same hospital saw me leaving and told me off for leaving the hospital before the all-clear had sounded. I went to the cinema but the sirens sounded again and I didn鈥檛 see any of the film because I was crouched under a seat. When I walked back I passed an undertaker鈥檚 shop which had been damaged and there was a pile of coffins in a great heap in the road.

I often think that for my parents it must have been terrible, as they were in Stoke under Ham a little village in Somerset, their son was in the RAF and both their daughters were nursing in London. My brother never came back; he was killed when he was only 21, serving as a gunner wireless operator flying with a New Zealand crew.

All through this, I was seeing my fianc茅 whenever he could get leave. He was in Intelligence as he was a linguist and just used to turn up to see me when ever he had leave. We wanted to get married but I never knew when I would see him and used to say goodbye to him at Westminster Tube Station when he went back on duty; never knowing where he was being sent as his work was top secret, never knowing if I would see him again.

I remember the troops coming back from Dunkirk. Green buses were made into temporary ambulances and met trains at Wimbledon. There were French and English soldiers who were absolutely exhausted and starving. Interpreters and the Red Cross came to the wards, the Red Cross giving out toiletries to soldiers who had been brought in with nothing. Shortly afterwards the French soldiers were rehoused at White City.

George and I were trying desperately to get married, but I couldn鈥檛 leave the hospital and George was still serving overseas. My mother made me a wedding cake, it had apple and carrot in it as there was no fruit available and I kept it wrapped in greaseproof paper as I didn鈥檛 have a tin. All the other nurses knew about it and after keeping it for about three months, one day when we were more hungry than usual (we were always hungry as we worked very hard) we all ate it! It was rather dry.

About a fortnight after this, I had been on duty on the ward for about half an hour and suddenly George appeared I don鈥檛 think he even hugged me; he just rushed up and said 鈥淭hink! How can we get married quickly?鈥�

He had been at Luneberg Heath and was given the job of escorting some important German Naval Officers to London with instructions to eavesdrop on their conversation. This was Thursday and we got married on the Saturday. I had to ask Matron for leave and although she remarked that 鈥淗ospitals are not here for your convenience, Nurse鈥� I was allowed a few days leave and I had to have a sworn affidavit by the Bishop鈥檚 representative to allow us to be married at the Parish Church in Tooting.
More difficult was the problem of George鈥檚 Sten gun. He had been issued with this to accompany the German Naval officers and still had it with him. In the end, my friend鈥檚 family who lived near by took the gun and hid it and as her father was a taxi driver, he took us to the church and gave me away.

The Curate who married us gave a homily about the woes of hurried wartime marriages. The verger said later that this was because the last couple he had married came back the next week to have their baby christened.

The Home Sister had made me another Wedding Cake and this one had icing on it!
I remember, a month after we were married, George had two weeks leave and we went down to see my parents in Somerset by train. There were no seats left so we stood in the corridor eating lumps of wedding cake.
Still on honeymoon, news came of Himmler鈥檚 suicide and I remember George being really cross because he had missed being there, and I was very peeved that he wanted to be anywhere else on his honey moon!

We had 4 children and remained happily married until my husband died in 1976.

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