The Real Band of Brothers: First-hand accounts from the last British survivors of the Spanish Civil War

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Max Arthur. The Real Band of Brothers: First-hand accounts from the last British survivors of the Spanish Civil War

THE REAL BAND. OF BROTHERS

MAX ARTHUR

Table of Contents

PREFACE

LOU KENTON

PENNY FEIWEL

JACK JONES

JACK EDWARDS

BOB DOYLE

SAM LESSER

LES GIBSON

PADDY COCHRANE

TIMELINE OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Praise

Copyright

About the Publisher

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First-hand accounts from the last British survivors of the Spanish Civil War

volunteers who fought alongside the Spanish people in

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For nearly five years I worked as staff nurse at different hospitals, but I was never altogether content because, after a while, hospital routine didn’t satisfy me. It was the social conditions attached to nursing that got me down. In my early years, a nurse’s pay was ridiculously small and the hours terribly long, and worst of all was the snobbish and hypocritical discipline, which I thought an insult to any intelligent woman. It was just exploitation. Nurses were often spoken to by members of the senior staff in a tone no factory girl would have put up with. What irritated me most of all was that, on duty, a nurse was supposed to be a woman with enough brains to carry responsibility, but off duty we were treated like children. We were given hardly any free time and made to keep absurd rules, particularly about seeing men friends, and all because of the Victorian tradition that nursing wasn’t work—it was a noble sacrifice—so we could dispense with decent hours and pay.

I finished my hospital training—I came top in the hospital—then I went on to apply to voluntary hospitals. I applied to one of the best hospitals in London but I hadn’t had the secondary education for it. It didn’t matter what my hospital experience was, even though I nearly always came out top. Eventually I applied to Charing Cross, and they did take me. I asked to have a talk with the matron before the interview. She was a motherly sort, and I was candid with her. She said she could quite understand how I felt—and she said she would give me a chance. ‘You can go to the hospital training school and see how you go—but if you’re no good, you’ll have to leave.’ And that was it. I went to Charing Cross for my training, which was a wonderful experience, and that was the beginning.

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