The Freezing Cold

Heroes Remember

The Freezing Cold

Transcript

The cold, I damn near froze to death. In, I went, we were disbanded at first, our hospital wasn't ready for us in Horley, Number 14 had it and they were going to Italy, so I went to Number 10 for awhile, in Nissen Huts, the hospital was, and then I went back to my own unit. We had these, in, down in, Aldershot, no where were we, no we went to Horley, we were in Aldershot we were in these little huts, cold, I have never been so cold in my life, got a couple little lumps, they were little cottages, houses. I remember my first Christmas over there I, we'd go to bed at night and you'd put all your great coats and everything you owned on the bed to try and get warm, cold oh, it was damp you know, no heating. And I remember I got, a friend of mine sent me a hot water bottle, and a Christmas wreath in a box, I thought, "Wasn't that wonderful." I was thrilled. And then we moved to Horley, 14 moved out and this was a new hospital, lovely, it was a beautiful place. And that was on a direct line between Brighton and London. Oh well we had everything, everything, I mean there were all kinds of accidents you know, there are motorcycle accidents, and there are shooting accidents and there are, well, everything. It was a big general hospital, 1200 beds. That's a big hospital. That's what we were trained to do, we were doing our own thing.

Description

Mrs. Page talks about what life was like in England, and her service at the Canadian Army General Hospital.

Nancy de Boise Page

Mrs. Page was born in Saint John, New Brunswick. Her father was a doctor and her mother a nurse. Mrs. Page recalls going to the hospital with her father when she was young and knowing early on that nursing was her calling. She trained at the Royal Victoria in Montreal and in 1942 joined the army as a Nursing Sister. She served overseas in England, France and Belgium loving every moment she was able to help the soldiers. Following the war Mrs. Page returned to Queen Mary's Veterans Hospital in Montreal to continue nursing Canadian Veterans.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:20
Person Interviewed:: Nancy de Boise Page
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Northwest Europe
Branch:: Army
Occupation:: Nursing Sister

Language selection

The Freezing Cold

Heroes Remember