63.Land girls sighted at Joyce Green Hospital ?

Key words/phrases: The Women’s Land Army, “The Land Girls” (1998) Director: David Leland, Angela Huth: Novelist, Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses, Joyce’s Farm, Gardens Department of Joyce Green Hospital.

No.63

Have you noticed the coverage in the U.K. press recently about the feelings of a number of elderly ex-“land girls” who are feeling that their efforts during World War II should be formally recognised by the British Government ?

As a uniformed organisation that served the nation during several wars “with as much distinction as any other group of women”, it seems that they feel that they should be allowed to march in forthcoming Armistice parades at the Cenotaph in London and elsewhere in the U.K. along with all the other uniformed organisations.

Also, have you ever watched the 1998 film “The Land Girls”, directed by David Leland and based on Angela Huth's novel: “The Land Girls” ? It's set in Dorset during 1941 and follows the life and work of three young women: a vivacious and sexy girl called Pru, a hair-stylist from Manchester; Ag, who is a quiet and unworldly Cambridge graduate and the dreamy and beautiful Stella who is engaged to Philip, a dashing naval officer.

As part of the Women’s Land Army, the three girls are replacing a number of male farm workers who have gone off to fight in the war. They are sent to work for Farmer Lawrence and billeted on his farm where they each get to know Joe, the farmer's young son. In fact it depicts far more the girl’s sexual curiosity and Joe’s willing cooperation and it provides a fascinating insight into their hard and sometimes difficult lives as the seek to define new roles for themselves in a country in which families are being torn apart by war.

Neither the demands of these elderly ex-land girls for recognition of their generous service to the nation or the film have anything directly to do with Dartford or with Joyce Green Hospital and so what’s the connection that I am attempting to make ?

Well in the same way that scores of other women served as VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurses at Joyce Green in the past, I have wondered whether any land-girls were attached to Joyce’s Farm or even to the Gardens Department of Joyce Green Hospital ?

Presumably the gardeners - many of whom we can assume were women because of the able-bodied men having left gone off to fight - were hard at work growing as much produce as possible for consumption within the hospital during these very difficult times and that they would have needed all the help that they could get ?

If you think about it it seems logical that with much of the land around the hospital needing to be used for food production and all the orchards too that existed at the time, together the existence of suitable accommodation for any land-girls that recruited - perhaps within the female staff accommodation blocks - that land-girls WERE once seen working on the Joyce Green and other hospital sites ?

But in any case, does this really matter ? Well only insofar perhaps as this MAY be part of Joyce Green Hospital's history. Do you have any thoughts or ideas about this or is this simply another part of Joyce Green’s history that may be lost forever ?

62. Nurse finds love at Joyce Green Hospital

Key words/phrases : Dartford Hospital’s Nurses’ League, St. Vincent’s Community Centre, Temple Hill, Benjamin Disraeli, Robert Browning, Tom and Peggy Priestman (née Staples), St Mary’s Church Putney, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, hookworm and malaria.

No. 62

So how was the annual general meeting and yearly get-together of the Dartford Hospital’s Nurses’ League when a substantial number of members met recently at St. Vincent’s Community Centre, Temple Hill ?

I would have loved to have been there, to have met old friends and ex-colleagues and to have joined in with some of the conversations in which so many happy memories and reminiscences were undoubtedly shared.

This type of reunion tends to be characterised by fairly fit, happy and excited people enthusiastically involved in swapping stories connected with the past and talking about things that have happened to them and their loved ones during the previous months.

I think that it was Benjamin Disraeli who referred to “that special magic in the memory of long established friendships that softens the heart and even affects the nervous system of those who have no heart” and Robert Browning who once asked “What joy is better than news of friends ?”

The other day however I was reading an account of the post-war reunion of nurse Peggy Priestman (née Staples) and her soldier husband Tom and it reminded me of the sheer relief and emotional release that occurs during some reunions.

Peggy was a 21 year old nurse at Joyce Green Hospital when she fell in love with Tom Priestman, a patient with tonsillitis who was being cared for on her ward. It was 1941 and parts of England were being pounded nightly by the German Air Force who were determined to bring Britain into subjection. Tom and Peggy used to slip out of their ward whenever they could and much of their courting took place under the night skies blanketing Joyce Green whilst London and parts of South East England were being pummelled during the Blitz.

Was Tom fit enough to be courting Peggy behind one of the wards at Joyce Green ? Well it seems that he was because although he was an in-patient for over three months this was actually a ploy on the part of the medical staff to protect him by rendering him “unfit for conscription”.

These two love birds were married in July 1941 at St Mary’s Church, Putney and a few weeks later Tom was shipped out to the Far East with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps.

Sadly, as was the case with so many couples, this was the beginning of a long and hard separation. Tom eventually arrived in Java only having managed to send Peggy a note and pair of silk stockings from South Africa whilst en route, after which all news of him dried up.

Peggy wrote regularly to Tom in Java but all her letters came back marked “return to sender”. She became anxious and desperate for news and then one day, about three months later, a card arrived in the post bearing the following message: “Dear Peggy, Am a prisoner, not wounded, safe & well. My thoughts are always with you and those at home. Love Tom”. He had been taken prisoner by the Japanese.

Peggy of course was elated. Her husband was alive and so now she could carry on waiting for their eventual reunion. She heard nothing from Tom for about a year until another card arrived bearing the briefest of information but she was comforted again by the fact that at least he was alive. Comforted that was until she heard about the conditions under which prisoners-of-war were being kept. Brutal guards, starvation rations, slave labour and the ever present likelihood of succumbing to disease. Prisoners were said to be dropping like flies.

Peggy received two further cards before Tom returned home in October 1945, one of which told her that his PoW camp had been liberated by Australian Forces and said “Be patient, I’ll be home eventually”.

And the end of the story ? Peggy was staying at his parents’ house in Cumbria, and was due to travel to Liverpool the next day to meet her husband. But instead she was awakened by a midnight knock at their door. Tom had arrived early and made his own way to Whitehaven.

What a reunion that must have been although Tom was in a terrible state both physically and mentally. He was grossly emaciated, riddled with hookworm, plagued with malaria and was suffering from diarrhoea. He was hospitalised on several occasions during his first post-demob year during which time Peggy described him as a “depressed zombie”. Nine months later Peggy gave birth to a baby girl, something that she believed to have been the turning point on their journey back to normality.

Who was it who once said: “In loneliness, in sickness, in confusion, the mere knowledge of friendship makes it possible to endure suffering, even where the friend is powerless to help. It is enough that the friend exists. Friendship is not diminished by distance or time, by imprisonment or war, by suffering or silence. It is in these things that it roots itself most deeply. It is from these things that it flowers”.

61. All aboard for Joyce Green Hospital

Key words/phrases: No. 490 bus service, the Downs Estate, the Fleet Estate, the Temple Hill Estate, Bow Arrow Lane, RT-class REC Regent double-decker buses, Maggie Thatcher, Nicholas Ridley, London Country Buses (South East), the firework factory on Joyce Green Lane.

No. 61

I suppose that you’ve heard the joke about the two drunks who were waiting for their bus to arrive at the bus stop at the foot of Station Approach, Dartford ? When a No.206 bus finally pulled up one of the drunks called out to at the bus conductor who was inside taking fares: 'Will ziz buz take mi to Joyce Green H-o-z-i-t-a-l ?" “No ! I’m sorry mate” the half amused conductor called back. Two seconds later the second drunk lent in - towards the bus platform and called out: “An waz about me, my good man: 'Will it take ME ?!”

Not only had the second drunk got a distorted perception of his acceptability as a potential bus passenger but of course he’d got the wrong bus, hadn’t he ?

In fact it was the No. 490 which served Joyce Green Hospital on the long running route between the Downs Estate and the Fleet Estate, via Dartford centre and the Temple Hill Estate, wasn't it ? The service was operated for years from the Dartford garage using RT-class REC Regent double-decker buses which even served Bow Arrow Lane at one point (in 1963).

In January 1970, as the result of a rationalisation plan dreamed up by Maggie Thatcher and Nicholas Ridley, the then Minister of Transport country areas around the periphery of London suddenly found themselves on their own – outside the remit of the red London Transport bus system with a fleet of very old (or “clapped-out”) vehicles, an impoverished maintenance infrastructure and very few senior managers with any real commercial experience.

From 1972 a corporate image for the National Bus Company became mandatory by which time the presentation and services provided by London Country Buses had reached an all time low. At this point a decision was also taken that the fleet vehicles would be repainted a sludgy green colour (known in the trade as Leaf Green) with white relief and I expect too that some of you who are reading can also remember the green London Transport version of the staff uniform being replaced by unrelieved grey colour uniform, which looked very drab and industrial ?

In 1985 the London Country Bus Service was divided into four sections with services in North East Kent finding themselves managed by London Country Buses (South East) although what happened to the overall service - but in particular to the service that served Joyce Green Hospital - I have no idea since I was longer working there.

Can you remember using the No. 490 service as an employee at the hospital or as a relative or visitor?

Do you remember how the bus used to make a detour each morning and evening to the isolated firework factory down on the salt marshes behind Joyce Green Hospital to deliver and pick up some of the factory workers ?

And did you ever worry about being spotted leaving work early by one of the senior Hospital Administrators or one Matron's staff peeping out from their office windows which overlooked the bus terminus in front of the main Admin Block building ?

Or do you remember the friendly bus conductors calling out: "Joyce Green Hospital, all change !”and “Mind the step as you go !”