Enid Patient (née Andrews)

Joined 1948

Walthamstow Nursing Cadet Division, London

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Black and white photograph of a young female Cadet in uniform. She wears a dress and a beret and is standing in a garden.
Nursing Cadet Enid Andrews, photographed in family garden, Walthamstow, c.1948 Image courtesy of Enid Patient
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Transcript

Oh, well, we were always being used as casualties. Oh, dear, I know I’ve been under a lorry, on a dump, on a bomb site. We used to use bomb sites and have casualties hanging out of vehicles… And at one stage, before the city airport and all the docks were changing, those warehouses were empty. So we used those and I can remember I was left hanging out of a window, with blood pouring. Yes, very, very realistic. So you learn a lot by – yeah, I learnt a lot being a casualty. It was great, yeah. Yes, really good. Very good for learning, isn’t it? Because different people, if you’re involved as a casualty and different teams come in, you think, oh, my goodness, no, that’s not what you do. And then another team will come and you think, wow, they know their stuff.

Excerpt courtesy of Enid Patient