Description
Object description
British civilian nurse with Civil Nursing Reserve in GB, 1942; volunteer with Friends' Relief Service and Friends' Ambulance Unit in GB and Germany, 1943-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1921-1939: family; education; development of pacifist beliefs; attitude towards education; employment; degree of awareness of international events during 1930s; attitude towards coming war and desire to drive ambulance; political beliefs; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of period as civilian in London, GB, 1939-1942: work at first aid post; social life; attitude to joining armed services; joining British Red Cross Society; leaving employment; breaking down of engagement with part German man.
REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of period as nurse with Civil Nursing Reserve in London and Edgware, GB, 1942: joining Civil Nursing Reserve, 1942; attitude to nursing work in hospital in Edgware; meeting pacifist Olive Jarvis; suicide of nursing colleague and decision to leave hospital. Recollections of period as volunteer with Friends' Relief Service in GB, 1943-1945: differences between Friends' Relief Service and Friends' Ambulance Unit and relations between them; attitude to lack of tribunal as conscientious objector; pay; attitude to towards Germans and Prime Minister Winston Churchill; attitude towards church's support of war; nature of work; attitude towards her 'unquakerly' behaviour.
REEL 3 Continues: character of work in Wolverhampton; attitude towards work in Wolverhampton; desire to go to Europe with Friends' Relief Service; training for relief work; position of women in Friends' Relief Service; attitude towards being turned down for overseas relief work with Friends' Relief Service; meeting future husband Harold Cadoux. Recollections of period as volunteer with Friends' Ambulance Unit in GB and Germany, 1945-1946: background to joining Friends' Ambulance Unit; work documenting experiences of Friends Ambulance Unit members who had returned from overseas; attitude to joining Friends' Ambulance Unit; marriage to Harold Cadoux in Germany, 1946.
REEL 4 Continues: work with Displaced Persons in Bochum, Germany; living conditions for German civilians; opinion of populace of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; distribution of Red Cross parcels to British expatriate; lack of restrictions on Friends' Ambulance Unit personnel fraternising with German civilians; distribution of relief to children; social engagements; attitude of German civilians towards concentration camps; visiting home for epileptic children in Bielefeld, Gemany; reaction to sight of babies abandoned by girls raped by Soviet Army troops.
REEL 5 Continues: relations with British military personnel; attitude towards Quakers; experiences of husband Harold Cadoux as prisoner of war and his post-war psychological condition; accommodation in house of former Nazi; contribution of Friends' Ambulance Unit to relief operation in Germany. Reflections on work with Friends' Relief Service and Friends' Ambulance Unit and pacifism: difficulties of adapting to normal life on return to GB; public attitude towards pacifists; difficulties for pacifists with working class origins; position of women in Friends' Ambulance Unit.
REEL 6 Continues: question of impact of Second World War on women's emancipation; involvement with Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; views of father in law C J Cadoux; question of human nature; opinion of Philip Noel-Baker's view that Second World War could have been averted; attitude towards pacifism, 1989; question of future world peace; attitude towards work of Friends' Ambulance Unit.