Description
Ms. Smith-Adamson describes being the only nurse at her hospital denied an opportunity to see Field Marshall Montgomery during his visit to Germany. Ironically, his aircraft crashes and he arrives at her hospital for x-rays and a checkup. She is his nurse while he is there.
Helen Smith-Adamson
Helen Smith-Adamson was born in Burford, Ontario in 1916. Her father had the distinction of being the first graduate of Royal Military College. Unable to pursue a science degree because of her gender, Ms. Smith-Adamson enrolled in the nursing program at Toronto Western Hospital. After three years, she graduated and found employment as a nurse with John Inglis Co. Her husband had been mortally wounded at Ortona, and following his death Ms. Smith-Adamson enlisted in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps as an operating room nurse. She served in military hospitals in Toronto and Camp Borden, and later in a convalescent hospital in England. Ms. Smith-Adamson arrived in Njimegen as the war was ending, and transferred to a casualty clearing station in Sogol, Germany. While there, she had the distinction of treating Field Marshal Montgomery following his plane crash. After the war, Ms. Smith-Adamson was a civilian nurse until she remarried.
Transcript
We heard that Montgomery was going to come over and speak to the troops to welcome us to Germany and so, of course, I said I wanted to go. I wanted to see Montgomery and anyway with low points, I didn’t have a chance so everybody else wanted to go and they said you will look after the operating room and they left me with the operating room, the whole hospital and the sergeant so I was just sitting there thinking about work I had to do in the operating room when I heard motorcycles and all kinds of racket outside, sirens, and so I went downstairs to see what it was and there was an ambulance driver with Montgomery and so he said, “His plane has crashed, completely demolished and he walked away and we brought him here.” So anyway I took hold of his arm and the elevator didn’t work and we started going up the stairs and he started taking two or three at a time and anyway I helped him undress and the sergeant was there to take his picture. There wasn’t a doctor around, there wasn’t anybody around and when I was folding up his clothes, why he had pale blue knitted silk underwear and that’s not like a tank corp man and he was most delightful so when he was having his x-rays taken what should a young girl like myself do but put on his battle dress top and I wanted the sergeant to take my picture but the sergeant was busy with the x-rays and Montgomery came out and I was so embarrassed. And so I tidied up the operating room and I was off duty and I was walking on air thinking, “Well I’ve seen Montgomery! ” and so then I got a call, they asked me to come back down to the operating room. Montgomery, the x-rays didn’t turn out and they called him back and he asked for me. So I was so thrilled so I made him another cup of tea but I didn’t try on any of his clothes.