Posted 06 January 2016 - 12:24
Posted 06 January 2016 - 12:24
News
Retired lecturer to establish archive of nurses' war memories
Reminiscence project will record experiences of second world war nurses who bore witness to history
Nurses’ experiences during the second world war are among the stories to be recorded for posterity.
They will include the reminiscences of a nurse who worked in a London hospital’s casualty department during the Blitz, and those of a German nurse who was based in Berlin during the war.
Eileen Richardson, a retired senior lecturer in nursing at the University of Bournemouth, secured a £10,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant to carry out the project. Her team will record many of the stories of residents at the Retired Nurses National Home in Bournemouth. Residents have included a nurse who was in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Ms Richardson, a volunteer at the home, said: ‘We must not go on losing these wonderful stories about nurses' lives at home and overseas.’
The interviews will be archived at the Dorset History Centre and by the RCN.
Ms Richardson has also staged an exhibition of photographs of nurses dating back over the past century in Bournemouth Library.