Description
Object description
British civilian worked as nurse in London, GB, 1940-1941; served with Women's Royal Naval Service at Bletchely Park, GB, 1942-1943; served in Kenya, Ceylon and India, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Hayle and Wells, 1920-1940: family background and social circumstances; education; application to become trainee nurse; gas mask training; preparations for blackout; reactions to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; filling sandbags; air raid shelter and story of air raid false alarm; lectures on war. Period as probationary nurse at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London and Park Prewitt Military Hospital, Basingstoke, 1/1940-1/1942: prior training course at Joyce Green, Nettledown including reception, uniform, accommodation, nature of training and assessment; nurses' accommodation; work on male surgical Ward; duties; relationship with patients and sisters.
REEL 2 Continues: story of cleaning sluice room; story of being caught in lift; relationship with surgeons and doctors; pay; recreations; detachments to Park Prewitt; view of London Blitz; question of air raids and movement of patients into tunnel as shelter; story of death and laying out of patient during night duty; state of patients; relationship with US doctors; patients' mental problems; return to Paddington; work on female ward; question of lack of emotional detachment as nurse; question of last rites; victims of assault in London; use of radium needles for cancer patients; failing nursing examination and leaving hospital; application to join Women's Royal Naval Service as cinema projectionist. Period working in British Restaurant and making camouflage nets at Town Hall, Wells, 1/1942-5/1942. Recollections of period at New College, WRNS, Hampstead, London, 1942: reception, 5/1942; story of issue of special uniforms for VIP visit; relationship with Wrens; interview for secret posting. Recollections of period at Bletchley Park, 1942-1943: secrecy during journey; overcrowded accommodation at Crawley Grange; ringworm attack; introduction to code braking role and necessity for secrecy; role operating 'Bomb' decoding machine; move to Walton Hall; daily routine; briefing on success in breaking German codes; nature of personnel; recreational visits to London; volunteering for overseas service; send off, 2/1943. Troop train journey to Greenock, 2/1943.
REEL 4 Voyage aboard Strathaird to Durban, South Africa, 2/1943-3/1943: reaction of troops to presence of WRENS; food; lifeboat drill; cabin accommodation; question of prior loss of ship carrying WRNS; life jacket; Sunday service; illness and treatment by steward; recreations and contact with Scottish Horse; convoy escort; lectures; impressions of Freetone, Sierra Leone; arrival at Capetown and Durban; impressions of visits ashore at Durban including rickshaw journey, reactions to apartheid system and visits to Jewish club with boyfriend; leaving ship. Recollections of voyage aboard Christian Huygens to Mombasa, Kenya, 3/1943: send off; stewards.
REEL 5 Recollections of work on 'bomb' decoding machines in hut at Bletchely Park, 1942-1943. Recollections of receiving children evacuated from East End of London in Wells, 9/1939. Voyage aboard Christian Huygens to Mombasa, Kenya, 3/1943: story of trip around ship; question of fate of troops aboard Strathaird. Recollections of period at Mombasa, ca 3/1943-8/1943: reception as WRENS; banda hut accommodation and mosquito nets; bathhouse; visits to Mombasa; work on decoding Japanese code at Kilindini; dysentery attacks and latrines; recreations including dances and cinema; learning Swahili; visits to Indian household; letter contact with GB; faunae; mosquito precautions; vaccinations; laundry; African guard.
REEL 6 rumours of posting. Voyage aboard HMS Carthage to Columbo, Ceylon, ca 8/1943: conditions; pet monkey; question of Japanese submarine and aircraft threat; reception. Recollections of period at Columbo, ca 8/1943-6/1945: first impressions; bungalow accommodation; question of promotion; duties working Horus punch machines on decoding Japanese codes at wireless station; amusing story of attending dance at naval barracks; story of meeting future husband Bill Lees at RAF station; beauty of Ceylon; leave periods on tea plantations; snakes and ants; attacks of dengue; leave in Kandy; reactions to Churchill's speeches; minor earthquake; relationship with WRENS; illness suffered by Bill Lees.
REEL 7 Continues: question of secret mission undertaken by Bill Lees; move into hutted camp; question of water supply; story of visit to tea planters; awareness of progress of war; visit by Lord and Lady Mountbatten; story of flight in Anson; reaction to news of D Day, 6/6/1944; background to marriage to Bill Lees, 9/1944; reaction to husband's posting on active service to Burma, 10/1944; restricted social life; husband's leave periods; letter contact with husband and family; story of husband's leave and sea fishing trip; story of making ribbon on husband's award of MC; effects of mepacrine on husband; story of husband returning on leave during VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; effects of battle fatigue on husband.
REEL 8 Continues: reaction to news of Belsen concentration camp; question of demobilisation and decision to remain with husband on extended leave. Flight to Calcutta, India, ca 6/1945. Period on extended leave in Calcutta and Bihar, ca 6/1945-1/1946: accommodation; reaction to news of atom bomb, 6/8/1945; husband's work; house-sitting in flat and relationship with Indian servants; contact with ex-prisoners of Japanese; reaction to Quit India movement. Return to GB, 1/1946: train journey to Bombay; period in transit camp; voyage on Capetown Castle; question of Indian wives married to RAF personnel; reception on arrival at Southampton; question of demobilisation. Post-war career: reaction of parents to husband; husbands career as RAF regular; accommodation in London; discovery of pregnancy; problems in acclimatising to civilian lifestyle and food rationing; question of effects of war service on husband.