Memoirs Of A WW2 Nurse

Doodlebugs, V2s, a flying glass eye and a different role every day - Brenda faced it all

The year was 1941 and Brenda's career in T nursing had just begun.

Casualties of war were being transported out of London to wards in neighbouring counties. The city had been decimated in the Blitz, hospitals were over-subscribed and it was deemed safer for some chronic patients to be moved outside the capital.

In Kent, where Brenda started her nursing career, patients were treated in make-shift prefabs. Nurses worked on poorly equipped wards and spent their night shifts making woolly balls and sanitary towels, because there were no funds to buy them.

There was no heating, so when it was cold the nurses used ceramic hot water bottles to keep the beds aired for incoming casualties.

One of the casualties was a little girl caught in a bomb blast in London. She lost an eye when V2 rockets struck.

Virtually silent, the V2s took everyone by surprise.

"Civilians were caught in the blast before anyone knew what was happening and many were injured by bombs and flying glass," says Brenda.

After nine months in Kent, Brenda went to work at Guy's Hospital in London. The tunnels linking the ward to the nurse's accommodation were dark and unwelcoming. The silence was interrupted only by the sounds of footsteps, mice, rats, and hissing pipes. It was nerve-wracking at times.