Nursing Memories: Royal Sussex County Hospital

At the outbreak of WW2 I was a ward sister at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. It was a hospital of 300 beds then.In 1940 I was involved in the nursing of soldiers rescued from the Dunkirk beaches.We had little time to prepare for their arrival, off-duty nurses and doctors had to be recalled, beds had to be vacated where possible -by discharging non-essential patients early. Even so mattresses had to be laid out wherever space was available.
My most vivid memory is of a sea of khaki, and the nauseating smell of unwashed bodies, blood, urine and soiled trousers. Remember these men had been on the beaches for as many as 5 days and nights without toilet facilities and little medical help. Our first task was to cut away their clothing, then wash them and prepare the for the operating theatre. Some minor operating procedures were performed in the wards. I recall giving intravenous drips for the first time - a procedure until now always undertaken by Doctors!
Another recollection of 1940 was nursing the Naval personnel who had been blown up off St. Valery-en-Caux when attempting to rescue soldiers from the beach. They were a gallant group and made light of their ordeal. I remember undressing one of them and finding a fearsome knife wrapped in an oily rag in his pocket 'That's precious' he said, 'Why' I asked, 'Because I killed a Jerry with it, it was him or me, and it wasn't going to be me !' This man had no teeth, so I asked him why not and he told me that he had them when he was blown up but had come down without them!!
The most harrowing memory was of the bombing of the cinema, near the hospital. It was a Saturday afternoon in September 1940, I was resting before my evening duty.I saw the 2 bombs falling and heard the explosion - the cinema was full of children at the time. Many were killed of course, the wounded were brought to us by ambulance and anyone who could help. I remember two small children were carried in on a door, found ,probably blown off, by the two men transporting them. Once again our resources were stretched to the limit, but somehow we coped.

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