Description
Object description
British nurse served with Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment at Staines Emergency Hospital, Ashford, Tidworth Military Hospital, Tidworth and Medical Reception Station, Wickwar Camp in GB, 6/1940-1/1944; trained as state registered nurse at Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, GB, 1/1944-6/1944; nurse served with Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment, Red Cross and St John's Ambulance Brigade Joint War Organisation at Combined Military Hospital, Panitola and 49th Indian General Hospital in Dibrugath, Assam, India, 8/1944-5/1945; served with 38th British General Hospital and 49th Indian General Hospital in Rangoon and Meiktila, Burma, 7/1945-4/1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 2/1918-6/1940: family; education; employment; attending first aid course at Lambeth Hospital in London, 1938; desire to join mobile British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment; outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Recollections of period as nurse with Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment at Staines Emergency Hospital, Ashford, GB, 6/1940-5/1941: attitude towards posting; atmosphere in London, 6/1940; initial reaction to using bedpan; transfer to theatre duties; reaction to dealing with wounded; description of hospital; nature of cleaning duties; story of injured despatch rider who died of gas gangrene.
REEL 2 Continues: question of origins of gas gangrene; attitude towards working during air raids; moving patients into air raid shelters during air raids; taking cover under beds during air raids; presence of elderly patients in hospital; medical supplies and rations; opinion of British military personnel wounded at Dunkirk, France; duties as Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse; method of preventing bed sores; pay; hours worked; shift system; rations; accommodation; uniform worn; official status of Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses. Recollections of period as nurse with British Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment at Tidworth Military Hospital, Tidworth, 5/1941-12/1941 and Medical Reception Station, Wickwar Camp in GB, 12/1941-1/1944: attitude to posting to Wickwar Camp, 12/1941; types of patients dealt with; duties; dealing with Pioneer Corps personnel and Spanish veterans of Spanish Civil War.
REEL 3 Continues: promotion to Grade 1 VAD; posting to Tidworth Military Hospital, 5/1941; description of Tidworth Military Hospital; regular inspections; work on ward dealing with skin complaints; need to make starch; limitations on social life; question of discipline; relations between Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment and Queen Alexandra's Royal Nursing Corps nurses; leave; attending medical course at Bulford Military Hospital; attitude towards nursing abilities; change in status of Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment personnel and decision to train as state registered nurse. Aspects of training as state registered nurse at Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton in GB, 1/1944-6/1944: attitude towards training; attitude towards status; learning of possibility of overseas service; question of behaviour some of staff nurses towards patients and treatment of student nurses; attending selection board for overseas service with Red Cross and St John's Ambulance Brigade Joint War Organisation in London.
REEL 4 Continues: reiteration of decision to apply for overseas service and attending selection board in London; memories of Allied air activity on D-Day, 6/6/1944; sight of German V1 Flying Bombs over Brighton. Aspects of voyage aboard HMT Strathnaver from Greenock, GB to Bombay, India, 7/1944-8/1944: uniform allowance for tropical uniform; preparations for overseas posting; attitude towards overseas posting; character of voyage; arrival in India; state of health on arrival; train journey across India; arrival in Calcutta. Recollections of period as nurse with Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment, Red Cross and St John's Ambulance Brigade Joint War Organisation at Combined Military Hospital in Panitola and 49th Indian General Hospital at Dibrugath, Assam, India, 8/1944-5/1945: move to Combined Military Hospital at Panitola, 8/1944; patients; nursing Indian troops with self-inflicted wounds.
REEL 5 Continues: problems using Primus Stove; precautions against malaria including use of mosquito boots; contracting malaria; nursing duties on dysentery ward; attachment to 49th Indian General Hospital at Dibrugath, Assam, India, 3/1945-5/1945 including evidence of caste system; move to Chittagong in Arakan, 5/1945; leave on tea plantations; types of patients dealt with at Panitola and Dibrugath; attending Gurkha festival; lack of language difficulties; theft by orderlies; relations between Voluntary Aid Detachment and regular army nurses; nursing responsibilities at Combined Military Hospital in Panitola.
REEL 6 Continues: organisation of wards, night duties, issue of anti-malarial drug mepacrine and receiving anti-rabies injections at Combined Military Hospital in Panitola; leave arrangements; move to Chittagong, 5/1945; dental treatment in Calcutta, India. Recollections of period as nurse with Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment, Red Cross and St John's Ambulance Brigade Joint War Organisation with 38th British General Hospital and 49th Indian General Hospital in Rangoon, Burma, 7/1945-12/1945: reasons for move to Rangoon; stop over on Ramree Island on route to Rangoon; background to attachment to 38th British General Hospital; description of 'thunder box' toilet; hearing news of end of war in Far East, 15/8/1945.
REEL 7 Continues: VJ Day celebrations in Rangoon, 15/8/1945; physical conditions of returning former prisoners of war; relations with former prisoners of war; conversion of government law courts into hospital for 49th Indian General Hospital; leaving 38th British General Hospital and move of accommodation on arrival of 49th Indian General Hospital; visits to former prisoners of war from members of War Crimes Commission; conversion of Government House to hospital; obtaining flowers for hospital; problems with leeches during shooting expedition in paddy fields; first experience of Chinese food; social life in Rangoon. Recollections of period as Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment, Red Cross and St John's Ambulance Brigade Joint War Organisation with 49th Indian General Hospital in Meiktila, Burma, 12/1945-4/1946: move to Meiktila.
REEL 8 Continues: terrain and climate at Meiktila; coping with climate; description of tented hospital and accommodation; precautions against malaria; types of patients dealt with in hospital; threat of unexploded ordnance to Burmese civilians; occasion when Indian hospital staff went on strike, 1/1946; obtaining water supplies during strike; method of lighting hospital; description of latrines and visiting them during rainy seasons; presence of Japanese prisoner of war patients; receiving gift from Burmese female patient; rations.
REEL 9 Continues: story of jeep journey to Chauk; sight of Mandalay on route to hill station at Maymyo; story of journey to take leave on hill station at Uttarakhand in India; staying at Uttarakhand, India; return to unit at Meiktila; attitude to being one of the last Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses to return to GB.
REEL 10 Continues: move to Rangoon to await ship for GB; voyage aboard HMT Orduna from Burma to GB; attitude towards service with Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachment.