91�ȱ�

The author understands the site’s rules and regulations and has agreed that her story can be entered on the Peoples’ War site.

I have many funny and unfunny memories of the war.

As in the Great War, the teaching hospitals (and no doubt other cities) had a main base usually by taking over half or all of a country mental hospital. St Thomas’ main base was Botley’s Park, with several wards at two mental hospitals near Woking — “Brookwood” and “Park Prewett” and a few moth-balled wards at a sanatorium at Godalming (Fever Hospital had moth-balled wards too).

Twenty of us from the Bolingbroke Hospital left at 7.00 am in private cars and we four were given each 20 Gold Flake and a passion flower, but then waited several hours at the Belgrave Hospital until a double- decker bus with St. Thomas probationers on board collected us.

We set out for Chertsey but the driver got lost and we went through one village (Byfleet?) three times — on the last occasion we were cheered by the butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer and ironmonger. We reached Botleys in the early evening.

I was isolated in the real nurses’ home where all the light bulbs had been removed as the blackout was incomplete. As far as I know no one ate that night. In the morning we stayed put in the mess room untill we had had a meal.

We all knew church bells were silenced for the duration but after Mr. Chamberlain’s speech and a spine—tingling speech from the Physician Superintendent the church bells at Cobham rang out. I found I was tingling all over.

No one has ever written of our war hospitals. The mental patients of the country did a great deal for the war effort and suffered overcrowding. When I suggested there should be a memorial to the unknown psychiatric patient I was told this was obscene.

The cemetery at the angle of Hook Road and Horton Lane has been sold to a developer and animals have been digging up the remains.

In the first World War they took only wounded servicemen and in Horton and the Manor they were largely Canadians. Did none of these men die? And if so were they sent home?

After the showing of ‘The Four Feathers’ people with out a uniform i.e. merchant seamen (other than officers), sometimes received a white feather. The Merchant Navy had more casualties than any branch of the forces as they went to sea in tankers and very slow boats!

Voluntary hospital nurses did not have outdoor uniforms — one reason why infection was low in hospitals. Whilst on night duty at the Bolingbroke Hospital I visited St Mary’s Paddington and twice received a white feather — once from a young man in civvies and the other time two young men together in civvies — it would have been logical to hand them back!

All meals were a fixed price but although a Londoner it never occurred to me to eat at the Ritz.

Among the good ideas of the war was MMR ( mass miniature radiography) and for many years after the war the local san was outside ‘The Spread Eagle’ on Friday afternoon. We need them again now that TB is returning.

Miss A M Nell

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.