Stan and Grace

  Home Forces Tuesday evening    My Dear Grace, I’ve been very religiously ticking off the days on the calendar and have got down to four!   Another 96 hours and I shall be with you!   It certainly seems a long time since we were together last. I will say this; you haven’t had particularly good weather during the last fortnight.   It had better be better next week! Up here the weather has been xx!?! awful for Whitsuntide week-end.   It could not have rained much harder yesterday if it had taken things seriously. Well, if things go as they should do, I shall catch the 1 p.m. train from Darlington and arrive in Cudworth at 4.15 to 4.30 p.m.   I am looking forward to you meeting me, so don’t disappoint me will you. Now that the prices have gone up at the cinemas, it takes me a long time to decide to go (Miser!).   However, I went to see Shirley Temple in “Kathleen” last night.   It was quite good.   Shirley is certainly growing up now! Well, my dear, I will tell you all th

  56 Brierley Road Grimethorpe Nr Barnsley Sunday.   M.D.   My dear Stan, Pleased to hear that you have definitely got 10 days leave.   I have been making enquiries but nothing spectacular seems to be happening here next week. I arrived home last Monday at 7 p.m.   I travelled to Doncaster with Kit and Warren.   It just rained all the way. Tuesday I met Jean and Kit in Doncaster.   We did a bit of shopping and then went to see “Hatters Castle”.   It was quite good but it wandered away from the story quite a bit.   Have you read the book? Wednesday I went with Mother to the “big city of Barnsley”.   It rained again. Thursday I went to Sutton to Kits.   Friday morning we went cycling.   We went to a nearby village.   All went well until we were about 100 yds from home and I went into Kits back wheel.   We finished up on the grass verge – none the worse for wear though.   Friday afternoon we were going to take a trip on Askern lake but the sky looked pretty black so we decid

Home Forces Thursday evening       My Dear Grace, Only another week and I shall be home for a whole ten days!   I only hope the weather will improve a little from what it has been like the last few days.   All this week has been very showery, here.   What’s the weather like in Grimethorpe? Are your holidays going down OK.   Find out all that’s happening in the district during the first 9 days in June, won’t you so that we shall both know what to do when I get home. I hope to get home on Saturday afternoon, May 30 th , if things don’t get any busier than they are at the moment.   I will let you know definitely during the next week. I have been – and still am – very busy, so consequently I have not much to write about.   I went to the pictures to see ‘Sailing Through’ the other night.   It is a smashing show.   You will have to try and see it. If you are not too busy, try & write me a letter during the week, will you?   Make it a bit longer than the last one, too! So

 GHN Sunday mid-day    My dear Stan, I am afraid that I am having to write your letter in rather a hurry as I am writing it during my lunch time.   If I left it until tonight I would not catch the post and I would like you to get it Mon: or Tuesday.   It certainly took my last letter a long time to reach you. Just think – I go home tomorrow!   It is a lovely thought.   If only the weather holds good. I was amazed when I read about your incident in the park last Sunday.    How ridiculous some people are.   I bet that kid was after promotion or something.   I should like to have told him where he got off.   After all – these public speeches are free for criticism or otherwise. Sorry to hear you are having to stay in on my account – please don’t.   Are you sure that 10 days will not be too long at home? I have been moved to another ward and that is three wards in three weeks!   Still – a rolling stone gathers no moss! The hands of the clock are creeping on and telling me t

Home Forces Wednesday evening My Dear Grace, When no letter arrived again this morning I was beginning to think that you had decided to devote your life to nursing and forget about me altogether!   I needn’t have worried, however, for I see by your letter, which arrived this afternoon, that you faithfully wrote to me on Sunday and that if I want to blame anyone, I must blame the postal authorities for holding it up so long. You seem to have got me all wrong about staying in!   I wasn’t really staying in because I was feeling good – it was solely because I had no money!   Still, as you know, I can be good when I really want to be. Here’s a bit that will interest you.   My pal & I were walking in the park here on Sunday evening when we stopped to listen to an open air meeting of the local Communist Party talking about a Second Front Policy.   Both my pal and I asked the speaker a question or two.   After the meeting a lance corporal came to me and asked me my name, saying t

  Nurses Home, General Hospital. Sunday evening                My dear Stan, Just one more week and then my holidays and in just over a fortnight you will be at home on leave.   I suppose the time at home will fly on wings but these last few weeks have dragged terribly.   You know, Stan, it seems ages since I last saw you and I am looking forward to our time together again.   By the way, I think I will keep you to the sarcastic remark about taking me for a long walk one afternoon. The 28 th of the month falls on a Thursday so will you be having from Thursday to Thursday? Pleased to hear you are behaving yourself and learning to stay in more often.   I am so busy getting on with my sewing that I have not time to go out! What do you think?   I have had another move!   I am back on the men’s medical ward that I worked on before my last night duty.   I don’t mind working there though – it is a very pleasant ward, done in pale green and cream – quite new too.   I like medical

Nurses Home, General Hospital, Notts. Tuesday evening     My dear Stan, What a day!   It has been so hot all day and we have been so busy, I was jolly glad when we eventually got off duty at 8.30 p.m.   I went to supper – it was dreadful, I hardly touched it – so it just put the finishing touch to the day. I suppose there is a war on so we have to be thankful for small mercies, etc., etc., so I will try and tell you about some-thing more pleasant although nothing much has happened since I last wrote to you, except that I decided that it was about time I did some sewing (don’t ask me what – if it is a success you will see it for yourself).   Oh yes, I can sew! One more thing that slightly ruffled me to-day was that yesterday was my half-day, I did not bother going far as I had promised to go with Kit on Wednesday (you see I should have been off duty at 5 p.m. on Wed:) to see John Gielgud in Macbeth.   One nurse suddenly realised that she had a lecture during her evening off to

Trying to visualise Grace in 1942 and where she was working, I looked on eBay and found the postcard below of Nottingham General Hospital, probably taken in the early 1930's. I realised that I had a photograph of Grace, taken outside the circular building shown on the postcard.  Nottingham General Hospital was founded in 1782 on Standard Hill, just above and behind Nottingham Castle.  Buildings were added over the years and, by the time Grace worked there, the buildings surrounded a grass quadrangle where, apparently, the doctors and nurses played tennis in the summer.  The circular building was the Jubilee Wing, where beds were arranged around the outer walls and the nurses' station was in the centre, allowing the nurses to see all their patients easily.  The hospital was close to the city centre, only a five-minute walk. I recently visited the site and some of the old buildings remain, converted into flats.  The lower floors of the Jubilee Wing are now a pub.  The buildings o