Star Letter
It was so interesting reading about Sidmouth in the “Friend”, as it was my mother’s favourite seaside resort. I never quite understood why because she was born in Plymouth and as a child went to resorts in West Devon or nearby Cornish seaside resorts.
After being widowed, Mother moved to Honiton and from there she would catch the bus to Sidmouth for a pleasant day out with her friends.
When my mother died, just before her ninety-ninth birthday, I inherited all her photographs, and between the albums I discovered an exercise book in which she had written about her nursing years, which revealed where her love of Sidmouth had begun.
My first post after obtaining my State Registered Nursing qualification was as a staff nurse at Sidmouth Cottage Hospital. That was in 1936 and Sidmouth was a lovely quiet seaside town . . .
I think little has changed because Sidmouth seems just as unspoiled nowadays.
Here’s a picture of my mother in nursing uniform (back right), taken just after she had become a State Registered Nurse in 1935. Mrs M.S., Leighton Buzzard.