Aunt Bertha . . . Continued

In her first year at Grammar School
JH recollects Miss Smallbone asking us to all write a tactful letter to an Aunt who had sent a present at Christmas, to a young lady now aged 11 years old, who really was ‘too old’ to receive toys or such like. JH had been given a Pocket Oxford Dictionary (long since replaced with a larger - but no less dog-eared dictionary) by one of her Aunts, when JH had passed the 11+ examination but, unfortunately JH could not understand the very brief explanation of the meaning of ‘tactful’, and neither did the rest of the Class – except Sophie, a quiet and thoughtful girl who did understand and was the only pupil who received any marks. JH asks herself now if this was really ‘fair’: should Miss Smallbone have explained the meaning of the word ‘tactful’ to us?

JH’s sister Ann was also a member of the British Red Cross Society’s Local Group. In the late 1950s she was a member of a Team which competed with Red Cross Teams from the local area for the award of the Fleming Cup [1] – which was awarded to the Team who, in the opinion of the Judges, coped with the casualties of a staged accident to the best of their ability.

Whilst in the last year of doing her Nursing Training in The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, JH found a copy of the Complete Bible Concordance on the bookshelf in the Trained Nurses’ sitting room. [JH had occasionally occupied this sitting room – instead of the Student Nurses’ sitting room – for the simple reason that JH wished to watch a different television programme. However, JH was discovered by a Staff Nurse who . . . deliberately switched over to a different channel on the television – not that there was much choice then - and reported JH’s impertinence to the Deputy Matron who was on duty at the time, and from whom JH got a ‘ticking-off’!] However, JH did ask Home Sister if she could have the Concordance for keeps, as it was very dog-eared; JH also had a strong suspicion that some of the books knocking about in the Nurses’ Home had been there since 1917 when Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Died and the Hospital had been named after her!

At the back of the Concordance is an advertisement for an ‘Illustrated Bagster’s Comprehensive Teachers’ Bible’. When JH joined the Scripture Union Meetings, she did buy a copy of an Illustrated Bible – but of a considerably more up-to-date publication than ‘Bagster’s': JH gave her Illustrated Bible to Auntie May to give to Elaine, her daughter, who was still at school at the time. Auntie May was one of my mother's cousins; she and her husband, Bert, were the stalwarts of the Plymouth Brethren Meeting in Newquay during the 1960s,1970s, and 1980s. Their congregation did shrink as time went on, and so they had insufficient income to maintain their Meeting Hall: eventually they merged with another non-comformist Church.

Auntie Bertha arranged for JH to receive Bible-reading notes from the Scripture Union. JH was assiduous in using these notes, whilst reading the recommended passage in the Bible. Unfortunately, occasionally JH’s bedtime reading did get on her sister’s nerves. When my Family moved to Furze Platt, we moved to a house with only two bedrooms, so our parents occupied one room, and Ann and JH the other room. When I was doing my bible reading one evening, I looked up a lot of the words in my Pocket Oxford Dictionary; my sister complained to Daddy who came into our bedroom to find out why the light was still on; my sister said it was JH’s fault; my father was obviously in a dilemma as he was all for looking up words in a dictionary, and he did not like to intervene in ‘differences’ between his daughters. This little local irritation passed, but I also remember my sister exclaiming – ‘you’re not a Christian, you’re an Atheist!’ when JH committed some perceived aggravation: in other words, little sister would not comply with some ‘instruction’ received from big sister. As I have already said, Ann was confirmed but I was not: I never received any pressure from any direction - certainly not from Auntie Bertha - to be confirmed. She simply said to JH ‘Is it now time to stop the Bible Reading Booklets being sent to you?’ to which JH answered ‘yes’ – this was a year or two before JH went away to start her Nursing Training at the Age of 18.

[1] Dear Jeanette,

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the Fleming Cup. It was a common occurrence that, as part of training, first aid competitions that were specific to local Branches of the British Red Cross with trophies that were named after the individual who donated the cup took place between both adult and junior detachments. I have consulted the British Red Cross annual reports for Berkshire and found that the Fleming Cup competition began in 1946 and that Mrs Fleming, who donated the cup, was Commandant Junior Red Cross Detachment Berks/512 in Ascot. I have attached extracts from annual reports 1945, 1946 and 1949 that may be of interest to you.

The cup was still being awarded in 1955, although I regret that I cannot confirm when the cup was last awarded as the format of the annual reports changed after 1955 and the cups were not specifically referred to in the same way.

I hope this information is of interest to you.

Kind Regards

Emily Oldfield.
Curator
British Red Cross Museum and Archives