Holloway Sanatorium

A Memory of Virginia Water.

The ballroom had huge paintings on the walls. In particular I recall one of Sir Walter Raleigh.
The patients' dining room had those lovely murals.
We were issued a key which unlocked all of the doors in the hospital and Lindsay Smith House.
Dr. Nugent lived in the staff cottages across the street. I babysat his daughter Helen. He emigrated to Australia.
Ann O'Reilly, one of my "set", married Jimmy (I don't remember his last name) and was living in one of the cottages when I last saw her. Her son was named ?Neil.
I met a fellow in the lobby one evening and discovered that he sang, so I invited him to join the choir. His name was Roy Blaber, he was the hospital carpenter. Mr. Reed was the evening person on the desk in that magnificent lobby.
The Rev. Harper-Holcroft was the minister. Curiously enough he had been on the parish church staff of St. Botolph's in Boston, Lincolnshire when I was a child, and knew people familiar to me. Small world! We were paid two pounds a month for singing in the choir. After choir practice, we would congregate in the vestry and drink coffee-mocha. The Rev. had been a prisoner of war in Japan, and mixing coffee and cocoa enabled them to extend their care package rations.
Mr. Palmer was the organist. Scottie was a nurse assistant; Penny Palmer (not relation) was a sister, I think on the ward David Moore. She had a magnificent alto voice. So powerful, she could sing towards the reredos and it would come back to us!
Miss Barlow was the strict warden of Lindsay Smith House. We had a grand piano in the sitting room. Men were only allowed on the first floor!
Ann O'Reilly was my friend. I spent time with her and her family in Kildare, Ireland.
Margaret Mary Preston was my friend. She came from St. Mary's to do her 3-months training as a psychiatric nurse. She married a man from the hospital and had a daughter named Anna.
Nurse Maberly (Mabs) was a nurse assistant on Dorothea Dix ward.
Wendy Needham was my friend. She curtailed her training early and married Aubrey. Went to live in Cranbrook, Kent, her home town.
Elke Zenss, friend from Germany.
Jean Pigeon, friend and next-door neighbor at Lindsay Smith House. She was from Guernsey. Married Louis Pretorius and went to live in South Africa.
Marjorie Clarkson, fellow student nurse.
Sister Balbi. We had a discussion about the Dalai Lama.
Sister Gilmartin in charge of Florence Nightingale.
Ferrari, nurse assistant from Italy.
Terry Carpenter, Queen Alexander Royal Army Nursing Corps. (QARANC), Secretary to the military wing at the hospital.
Murveth Esin, nurse assistant from Turkey.
Martinez-Vargas, nurse assistant from Spain.
Dr. Storey, part-owner of the Stork Club.
And then there was Lyne Place, some distance from the hospital. I learned only recently that Ouspensky, the Russian Philosopher had once owned the building. Memories of being in the Japanese Garden. Taking care of moderately demented patients who could communicate. Remembering a patient who told me that she had worked in a chocolate factory.
The nurses' training was excellent. It gave me a discipline for organization. How to speak calmly to irate people. Knowledge of psychology, psychiatric illness and treatment. Being at Holloway gave me a peer group. We had fun, anxieties over tests, tears over boyfriends, the drama of youth. I have lived in Southern California since 1967, yet the memories are as fresh as if they had happened yesterday Patricia Hampton, SRN.