From the Blitz to corona, our nurse heroes remembered

AS Britain celebrates the 72nd birthday of the NHS, the nation rightly applauds the medics who have put their lives on the line to save others.

But Greater Manchester’s nurses come from a long line of heroes.

Almost 80 years ago, nurses at Salford Royal Hospital – then based in Chapel Street – were working night and day to save residents gravely injured in the Manchester Blitz.

Bombs rained down on the industrial city, leaving death and destruction in their wake. And nurses, some of whom were still in their teenage years, were looking after burns victims and seeing their wards turned to rubble.

Last month marked the 79th anniversary of the bombing of the old Salford Royal Hospital on Chapel Street, in which 14 nurses and their tutor lost their lives.

As we applaud the nurses battling coronavirus, we also remember the nurses who perished while saving patients during that bombing.

Dr Jane Brooks, a senior lecturer in the Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Manchester and a nursing historian, told the M.E.N: “Manchester and Salford were bombed sporadically in the war, which actually made it much more difficult for many people in the city.

“Whereas in London it was just a constant bombing and people got used to it, these sporadic bombs were quite disheartening. It was quite a difficult time for the two cities.

“The bombing of Salford Royal Hospital is actually after the official Blitz had ended. The dates of the Blitz are September to March. This is in June and they weren’t really expecting it.

“The sirens went off at about 12.30am on June 2. The nurses on duty got the patients and went to the hospital shelter. The nurses who were off duty were in the shelter of the nurses’ home.

“At 2am, there was an almost direct hit. What reports from the time say is that the bomb hit the front of the nurses’ home and exploded at ground level which affected the basement. At that point, people realised there were nurses sleeping in the basement sheltering, though they thought there were only eight nurses in the basement.

“The nurses were still obviously aware that they could be bombed at intervals so had taken shelter.

“The resident surgical officer tried to get in through the back and found a way into the basement level of the nurses’ home. People started trying to dig the nurses out.”

It was then that the emergency responders came to the heartbreaking realisation that many of the nurses had not survived.

Dr Brooks continued: “They got two out, nurses Swain and Brennan. They got a third nurse out but then she died. In total, 14 nurses died. Three staff nurses and the rest were student nurses.”

Tragic personal stories emerged out of the hospital after the bombing – a number of the nurses were close friends, some lived on the same street.

“Three of the nurses all came from St Helens – two of the girls had been at school together, another had moved to St Helens and they had all been at the same

Nurses have made incredible sacrifices – from wartime to coronavirus

Catholic church. Two of them lived in the same street. That’s three friends and three families.

“Five were buried in a communal grave. They were only about 20-years-old.

“The country had already been alerted back in around 1939 about the dangers of some of the shelters in hospitals, that they might not be fit for purpose.

“But a year later, the MRI was bombed and that shelter withstood the bombing. It was a real tragedy that Salford’s nurses’ home could not.”

Those who perished included Sister Doris Preston from Cheadle, and four nurses working their first day at Salford – Dorothy Burslem, Elsie Okell, Martha Stott and Doris Tyson.

Vera Creighton, Edith Haslam,

Bridget Leonard, Margaret Lowery, Maureen Lynch, Philomena McCrossan, Rose Moffat and Margaret Owen and Helen Sheridan are counted as the other nurses who died that fateful night.

Nurses who have lost their lives to COVID-19 include Joselito Habab, Liz Spooner, Julie Edward, Samson Maja, Cecilia Fashanu and Fiona Anderson – to name but a handful.

For many young women, nursing was seen as an option to help the war effort while young men were on the front line.

“Some of these nurses always wanted to be nurses, but a lot of these young girls – and they were all young girls – didn’t necessarily want to be nurses at the time. They would be young girls straight out of school and even Girl Guides, 14 and 15-years-old, helping to nurse burns patients,” said Dr Brooks.

Just like today, nurses were often left to ‘get on with it’, often away from their homes and families, becoming a vital source of calm in a crisis.

“They were expected just to get on with it from a very young age. Nurses still do that today – and they can deal with it. It’s one of the things you learn very quickly as a nurse, you can manage people in a crisis,” said Dr Brooks.

“A lot of it is about careful communication with those around you so they don’t feel the crisis. If a patient feels vulnerable, that will put them in more danger. You want to contain their fear.

“Nurses will be doing that now with Covid as they did in the war when the bombs dropped and they had to get their patients to safety or protect the patients who couldn’t get out of bed.

“Nurses are like shockabsorbers. It’s incredible work they do.”