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Collecting Nursing History 4 A Nurse History - Marjorie Earley. Research - Ann Johnstone/Barry Sutton. Text - Ann Johnstone/Wilf Burgess |
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The
57th General Hospital was based firstly at Sarafend, West Nile, from
June 1941 to August 1941. The hospitals
that Marjorie worked in were quite different to those in UK, being of a
rather temporary nature, single story simple buildings suitable for the
heat in Egypt,
and perhaps wartime.
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Louis Mountbatten's WWII 5th Destroyer Flotilla, comprising
the destroyers Kelly, Kashmir, Kelvin and Jackal had arrived
off Crete from Malta on 22nd May 1941. It had taken part
searching for survivors of two other ships, the Fiji and
Gloucester which had been sunk by enemy action, and in
subsequent attack on German forces on the airfield of Maleme,
north western Crete, during the battle of Crete. The
flotilla, low on fuel and ammunition and had been ordered to
proceed to Alexandria, minus Kelvin and Jackal, which had
been detached. At about 8am the 23rd May, Kashmir and
Kelly were attacked by German bombers, notably Stukas, Both
were sunk. The Kashmir was destroyed almost instantly after
which Kelly took a direct hit in her boiler room by a 1000lb
bomb whilst she was traveling at 30 knots, turned turtle and
rapidly sank. The German aircraft strafed the surviving
sailors in the water. Only 128 men - officers and crew survived from the Kelly, including Lord Louis Mountbatten. I53 officers and men survived from the Kashmir... |
On August 10th 1941 Marjorie was
again posted. This time to the 23rd General Hospital serving in
Palestine.
The 23rd General Hospital was in Bir
Yaccow (Palestine) from November 1940 until December 1943.
On 26th September 1941, whilst serving with the 23rd General Hospital, Marjorie met an
RAF officer who was also serving with the Middle East Force, belonging to an
RAF marker craft Unit, Flight Lieutenant A.D. (Dennis) Jordan, who she
subsequently married in 1942.
She had, she later related, become 'a little tired of servicemen of so
many different nations that she expressed the wish to meet an English
one for a change!' She was now further along the long road to meeting
her future husband than she realised at the time. Dennis Jordan (an
Englishman) was pointed out to her in the Bar of the Gat Rimmon Hotel in
Tel Aviv (Palestine), and they subsequently became engaged to be married
on the 18th
January, 1942. Marjorie's daughter Ann relates
that her mother wished to be married in Church, which, (because they
were in Palestine) resulted in two weddings on two consecutive days! The
first, a legal necessity, was conducted by the British District
Commissioner at Jaffa on the 5th of May, 1942. Marjorie wore her
white QARANC Nursing Sister's uniform and Dennis his R.A.F. desert
Khaki's. The second (religious ceremony) was conducted at the RAF
Station Church - St Michael & All Angels, Ramleh, (Palestine) on the 6th
May 1942. It was almost inevitable that her marriage would lead to the
end of her nursing career.
Marjorie's posting to the 23rd General Hospital ended on the 17th June,
1943. Her next posting - the final of her military nursing career, was
to the 63rd General Hospital,
Helmiah, (Cairo),
commencing on 18th of June 1943, was completed
on June 29th 1943, just twelve days later, with her demobilsation from
the Army... She was expecting her first
child, and at
that time serving nurses could not remain in the Army while pregnant and
when mothers. These rules also applied to civilian hospitals
in the united Kingdom, where, locally determined by hospital
authorities for many years, they remained in force in various parts of the country
until at least the 1960's, when employment legislation began to
determine the situation and 'maternity leave' became the order of the
day.
But the story doesn't quite end there. The war was still on and
Marjorie's husband Dennis was still a serving officer in the RAF.
Between the time she completed her military nursing career and the end
of the war Marjorie and Dennis lived in a flat in Alexandria on Rue de
Sousi. Marjorie was awaiting the birth of her first, and as things
turned out, only, child.
On Sunday, December 5th 1943, being an experienced nurse and qualified midwife, she obviously realised that the birth was imminent, and in the words of her daughter Ann, later related to her by Marjorie herself:-
| ...'With typical
determination, she got up and cooked breakfast for them
(herself and her husband) before getting a taxi to take her
to the hospital. I was born later that day at 4.15pm...The
subsequent year or so (before the family returned to
England) would have been spent with raising me'... Note: Marjorie recorded the birth of her daughter, Ann, in her own midwifery Casebook! |
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Marjorie was by then no
longer a nurse, military or
otherwise, but was primarily the wife of a serving RAF Officer and a
mother with a very young daughter to care for. As far as is known the
family remained in the flat on Rue de Sousi for a further 18months or so
before returning to England by sea
with her husband Dennis and daughter Ann on the liner Capetown Castle. They
landed in Liverpool on 5th January, 1945 after the long voyage home from
Egypt - the first time their daughter Ann had ever been to her homeland
since she was born.
After her return home in 1945 Marjorie never resumed her nursing career. Having
spent 14 years or so in the nursing profession,
rising to the rank of ward sister in civilian life and a Lieutenant
in the QARANC TANS (R), followed by 39 months on active service
overseas in the Middle East, she was happy to devote her time to her
family. She had received 3 campaign medals; the Africa Star; the Defence
Medal; and the War medal; for her service to her country in the Middle East
during WWII. It is perhaps worth remembering that she chose military
service. As a qualified nurse she could have remained a civilian for the
duration of the war.
Her daughter Ann said that 'nursing to her mother had always been more than a
job. It was a calling. A vocation. And one of which she was extremely
proud. She said that her mother was a determined, generous and hard working lady, who rarely
complained - and despite suffering two hip replacements in later life was
very stoical. High Blood Pressure was also diagnosed in 1963 but despite
all
she had lived a long and happy life'.
Marjorie died peacefully at home in
Salisbury, Wiltshire on 7th July 2001, aged 91 years.
In Memory of my mother, Marjorie
Earley
Ann M.D. Johnstone
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Postscript. It seems but a simple
matter to encase a nurse's career, her lifetime, in a few short pages of
text. Illuminated with surviving snapshots. To condense it all into a
simple sentence or two and publish it for anyone interested to read,
perhaps recognise a few similarities to oneself or someone known to us, and
then to consign the story to become a fading memory whilst we get on with our
busy lives... Of her return with her husband
Dennis and
very young daughter Ann, the latter later remarking when asked bout their return
and the period immediately preceding...
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LINKS.
SECTION 1
Schools of Nursing.
SECTION 2
nursingbadges
historyofhospitals
SECTION 3
Nursing Organizations
Statutory Bodies.
Nursing & Midwifery Council.
Professional/Trade Unions.
Royal College of Nursing.