"I started in the General Office where I and two other secretaries did the typing for the hospital consultants - there were about nine at that time. Two years later, as an experienced Medical Secretary, I moved to the Pathology Department where I worked for Dr Grace. I remember taking dictation from 'Doc' at all the post mortems. I always had to do the notes as my colleague, Molly, refused to go in. The notes also had to be typed up before they could move the body. Mr Price, Dr Grace's chauffeur, always did the cutting open of the bodies.
One day a chap came to the Path Lab - he looked something of a ruffian - and asked is this where you do post mortems? When I said yes, he asked if we could do one for him. I told him there were procedures to go through and asked where the body was. He replied that it was on the back seat of his car! I went out to see this, thinking 'what is the man talking about?' When I looked in the car I was astonished to see the body was a dead chimpanzee. It turned out that the man was from Bertram Mills Circus, which was on the Roodee at the time. The chimpanzee had not apparently had anything wrong with it and the Circus was very concerned to know what had caused its death. A post mortem was duly carried out and the cause of death was found to be some orange peel which the animal had choked on.
During the War, troop trains regularly brought in the wounded for treatment at either the Royal Infirmary or the City, particularly after D Day. Any major surgery would often have been carried out in the field hospitals but we provided the further treatment they needed. Some of the soldiers were sent straight to the HQ which was a wing in the old Deva hospital run by a sergeant. When the soldiers were ready to leave the CRI, I used to allocate them to various large houses in the district which had been taken over as recuperation homes. These soldiers wore a blue uniform with a white shirt and red tie which distinguished them as being wounded and not fit for service.
I remember one soldier needed a pair of crutches before he could be discharged for recuperation at Saighton Grange. However, the only pair available was at the HQ. So, with no other transport, I had to cycle over to the Deva and return with them strapped to my back!"