The Nurses’ Song

“I thought the following song might raise a smile and a memory for some readers,” emails Margaret Ritchie. “I trained in the 1950s, but not in Dundee. After training, one met others from many different hospitals and we shared songs as well as gossip.

“It was the days of the ‘bothy ballads’, so the tunes were known to many if not the words. I do not remember how or when this

came to my possession, but must have been before 1960:

The Nurses’ Song

(To the tune of The Hundred Pipers) A nurse I thought I would like to be,

So I took myself to Bonnie Dundee

At the place on the hill, I did apply,

It’s affectionately known as the DRI. They gave me a cap and an apron, oh my. I felt most important I don’t know why, For by night-time I almost was ready to cry

My feet were so sore at the DRI.

Wi’ a hundred and one things to do to Learning etiquette, discipline, who was who,

But I never yet have had cause to rue The hundreds of things that I had to do.

The work was hard, you all must agree There was dusting at dust that I never could see

There was serving of breakfast and dinner and tea

This all seemed to fall upon poor little me There were lectures and ‘tutes’ that I had to attend

The sister oft told me my ways I must mend

I worked till I scarcely was able to bend And didn’t I think of my bed as a friend.

Wi a hundred and one things to do to do It made me at times feel very blue

I think that I often got more than was due from the stripes, the greys and the navy blue.

My training I’m gradually getting through,

And day by day I learn something new I know ‘aqua’s’ water and ‘ferven’s’ hot Ah me, how often I’ve been on the spot But perhaps one day I’ll wear navy blue And a frill on my cap that always looks new

The pinkies with awe I will try to imbue As I tell of the nauseous things I’d to do.

But our training days at the DRI

Are the happiest yet for you and I There’s not a cheerier crowd than we The ‘pros’ at the ‘Royal’ of Bonnie Dundee.

1855: Bread riots broke out in Liverpool. 1878: Thomas Edison patented the phonograph.

1897: The Women’s Institute was founded at Stoney Creek, Ontario, by Adelaide Hoodless.

1906: In America, William Kellogg formed the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company to make the breakfast cereal he developed as a health food for mental patients.

1942: Japanese air force bombed the Australian city of Darwin.

1957: Emergency Ward 10, the first continuous TV series began on ITV – it was shown twice-weekly for 10 years. 1976: Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Britain after the two countries failed to agree on limits in the Cod War fishing dispute.

1985: Eastenders began on BBC TV. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The world’s largest private whisky collection broke several records in an online auction. The lot of more than 1,932 bottles sold for £3,065,732.

“While out on a walk in the Sidlaws, my dad spotted this hare huddled in the grass,” says Hamish Baird. “I managed to crawl close enough to take the photograph before it ran away.”

The cast of BBC TV series Eastenders in the Queen Vic pub 1985.