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BETTY STAMMER
CIVIL NURSING RESERVE

Betty, one of four, moved to Whitby soon after she was born and has been known as ‘The best Yorkshire woman who came out of Bristol’! When she was twelve the family moved to Barnard Castle.

We took in lodgers to make ‘ends meet’ and I took what jobs I could. I can remember a typical day starting with scrubbing the floor at The Cricketers Arms before breakfast; doing the reception at Mr Tibbit’s, the dentist, in the morning; the same for Dr. Ward in the afternoon, plus cleaning his house; then working at Rose Mount Nursing Home until 9 pm. I would be paid 2s. 6d. for some jobs and 5s. 0d. for others. However, a trip to Woolworths could buy a pair of stockings 2s 6d, face cream 3d, a lipstick 3d, a packet of Woodbines 3d and I could follow this with a trip to the ‘pictures’ 6d.

I was called up at 23, in the middle of the war and entered the Civil Nursing Reserve. I had to do several weeks training at Bishop Auckland, living in ‘digs’. We were mainly ‘ward maids’ as we had to scrub lockers and put them out to air, buffer floors and wipe beds daily with disinfectant. I was allowed to get the ‘pre meds’ for operations and took patients to the theatre, but wasn’t allowed in after I ‘hit the floor’ (fainted)! I admits that I really didn’t like nursing.

Back in Barnard Castle I lived at home and worked between the North Wing, now The Bede Day Centre, which was for privates and The Richardson Hospital which was for officers. Shifts were approximately 7 am to 2 pm, 2 pm to 9 pm and a night shift.
We were responsible for keeping our uniforms clean. We were given a blue dress, grey raincoat with red edging, a navy blue hat with coloured edging, apron, belt, cap, frills for sleeves, lace up shoes and a badge. We were allowed to wear any kind of stockings. I received a gift of three pairs of ‘nylons’ from the mother of a Canadian patient who had smashed his knee, and I was the first person in Barnard Castle to wear them!

We had a very strict Matron ~ small with a very straight back. During meals we would hear ‘Nurse, elbows’ if we happened to have them resting on the table. Hygiene was very good and patients never had a bed sore. Every day they received a bed bath followed by rubbing the heels, buttocks and elbows with IMS (Industrial Methylated Spirit). We treated cases of pneumonia and ‘flu, but more distressing things when men from the ‘Battle School’ came in ~ here they were trained to go into battle with live ammunition and accidents occasionally happened. We relied mainly on tablets and a patient in agony with quinsys was party to a very unconventional treatment ~ a big potato was put in the oven until very soft, put in a sock round the patient’s neck and then hit and the abscess burst. However another patient (who was going to lose a leg) received one of the first injections of penicillin and the recovery was amazing.

We felt sorry when Saturdays came round as the patients, if not in hospital, would usually have gone into town, so we spoilt them by giving them bed baths and changing their pyjamas and bedding. One patient with a broken ankle, wheeled himself around in a chair singing ‘Don’t get around much anymore’. Once I left a patient sitting on a bed pan and his Commanding Officer visited him and commented on how straight he had been sitting throughout the visit. There were hardly any deaths, but I remember one incident when a man died and was put on a stretcher for Betty and a porter to take to the mortuary. It was dark and a terrible night and just as we put the stretcher down to unlock the door the wind took the covering sheet and it shot up into the sky, to which the porter said, ‘Christ, he’s in a b….y hurry’!

I admit to having a ‘wonderful war’. As a nurse I was given free tickets to all the dances and concerts. Dances were held in the Mess Halls of all the regiments. The 54th were stationed at Deerbolt, the 61st near Stainton Bank, the 59th at Barforth and the Battle School was along the Darlington Road. Although the food at the hospitals was adequate the food at the dances was ‘gorgeous’ and we made our way to eat first, to shouts of ‘Here they come, the gannets’. Soldiers would attend The Battle School for so many weeks, then they would have a big dance at the end, often with a theme ~ on one occasion it was all fish and I remember a beautifully decorated fish to eat. Sometimes there would be army transport to pick us up, but on other occasions we would walk the four miles there and back. It was perfectly safe to walk then and I don’t remember any incidents. However, the men from the Highland Light Infantry were notorious for heavy drinking and putting shop windows out on a Saturday night, but they were always replaced on the Sunday.

There was always a band. Moss Kaufman, a clarinettist in the Joe Loss band and Grandville Jones, the leading violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra were both in the 61st Regiment and would occasionally do Sunday afternoon concerts in the Bowes Museum ~ you would sit on the main staircase if you couldn’t get in. I knew them both well and we would walk in the woods, followed by tea, perhaps at the King’s Head. We would also play tennis and usually got ‘wolf whistles’ from passing wagons, but one day there was silence and there has been a plane crash and the wagon was full of German prisoners.

Since then Betty has worked for 30 years for Glaxo, initially for three years in Barnard Castle and then at Sefton Park where she became a Senior Laboratory Technician. She returned to Barnard Castle when she retired.

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