Sister Smith
A Memory of Alton.
Hi all old inmates of LMTH.
I was in Connaught Ward block 3 (boys), at the tender mercy of Sister Smith, from about end 1951 aged 6 until December 1954. I had neglected TB in the knees and (then unknown) lungs. I remember Wilfred, who carried us about either in that grey wooden handcart or the electric trolley and who made wooden toys for those of us who had little or no visitors at Christmas. Mrs Caravan (I think) was the ward teacher and I remember a poor novice sister getting thrown out for climbing out of a ward window to recover something a boy lost. I also remember Streptomycin and PZA (ugh!) and getting a front tooth broken as they attempted to force me to eat some vile pudding. The cabbage was the worst I've ever heard of, let alone ate! I remember Peter from Compton Abbas and poor Ian, who gave me his Eye-Spy books just before he died (I got accused later of stealing them, how could I have done that when I was tied up in bed, not capable of sitting, let alone walking..?)
Anyone who was there then who can remember the stubbon SOB who threw his cabbage out of the window and on the floor in front of the Matron...that was me!
BTW, I've just seen a film of LMTH from 1945, my blood ran cold.
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Of course I didn't know any Tammy, he was after me, but the weight on a leg.. I remember that. They put too much weight on my left leg, which left it fully 1/2" longer than the other, and so is still today, after over 60 years. Sister Smith was a horror, but she did have guts. In my time it wasn't unusual to find the bed next to you empty in the morning. At 10.00 a.m., we could watch her in her glass-windowed lair, calling the poor family concerned on her phone. Yes, I've seen her cry then too. Talking of that, amazing what a few years brought in medical progress. I was treated for TB (legs/lungs) in 1951, when they started using streptomycin, This stuff may have saved my life, because children died like rabbits from TB as well until about then. LMTH was supposed to be a recovery unit for children and young people.. hah!
There is an internet video of a film about LMTH made in 1945. You can see Wilfred, the porter, a bunch of crabby sisters, some of whom I knew, and that dammed operating theater lamp. When I see that, I still get the shivers. If you like, I'll send you the URL address of it.
Was that cute little railway still going in 61/62? One tank locomotive and two passenger wagons, like Thomas......
Geoffrey Allen
sure, it is : https://youtu.be/YRTZnp3jR-Q.. Hopefully it will work.
If you go to your search machine (or best, Google) and give in "Lord Mayor Treloar", you can find this film too. Go to 'videos' and let the list of videos be put out.
I was back in Connaught in 56, for a couple of months, but from June to about September, were you in Block 3 (sounds like KZ Auswitch....)
Let me know if you have difficulty, I'll send you another link.
Best regards,
Robert Court
As I recall, and I may be wrong, it was caused by Sister Smith messing about with a radiator.
All of a sudden the radiator blew its top and horrible brown water fountained almost up to the ceiling, showering the lad in the next bed and flooding the ward. Fortunately the heating had been turned off and no one was scalded, but we were wheeled out on to the balcony in our beds whilst the nurses tried to sweep the water out.
I particularly remember nurses Jones and Collins, who were only about 16 but seemed like grown-ups to 11- year-old me.
I have an autograph book somewhere from that time. It includes patients, nurses and our special guest, Jack Train, who I understand was a comedian, though I was too young to have known of him at the time.
I was in LMTH for about 6 weeks and have a 16-stitch scar on my tibia to prove it. I remember boasting that during my stay I had '101 penecillin injections.' [Or thereabouts.] I didn't understand what the other lads were in for, but the words I remember hearing were [apparently] Perthes and traction.
I also remember our physio, a young German woman called [wonderfully] Miss Janker! Our teacher was Miss Joll? It was the time of Francis Chichester racing across the Atlantic in Gypsy Moth III and we followed his progress.
A quick memory: Robert Page?
Enough. that was such a long time ago, but never forgotten.
Richard.