Here are memories submitted to us via emails. This is a very brief sample of what's instore with the project.

 

" I began as a pre-nursing cadet at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital in September 1968. I enjoyed my time there and I subsequently completed my nurse training at the then new Walsgrave Hospital. I started work in the Casualty Department as a very naive 16 year-old. My mother was quite worried that I would not cope and would leave and try something else. She could not be more wrong and I became a member of the team. I made many good friends, with which, unfortunately, I have lost contact. I remember one consultant eye surgeon teaching me to instil eye-drops, which took him 8 weeks of a lot of patience. He also encouraged me to learn about the anatomy of the eye and allowed me to look through his microscope. I was not sure what I was supposed to be looking at and suggested it was a lovely colour and his reaction was one of patience and he actually laughed. What the patient thought, I did not ask.

I was also part of the Guard of Honour for the Queen when she opened Walsgrave Hospital in June 1970. We stood by the lifts on the 3rd floor. She stopped and talked the patient standing next to me. I dreaded the thought of her talking to me. Luckily she did not. "

 

Yours,

Jane White RN (nee Collings).

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" I am sending you a photo taken at Cov & Warks Hospital circa 1913. My Gran, Emma Warner, was a cleaner at the hospital for some time around this date. She is the lady at the back, next to the man in a peaked cap, in front of the door. I know Gran was working at the Hospital in 1913 as I have a postcard written to her with this date and the writer enquired how her job was going at the hospital. At this time cleaners were assigned to a particular ward. My mum, who was born in 1918, also remembered her mum working at the hospital before moving to be a cleaner at the Hippodrome. I am intrigued by the boy at the front in what seems to be a bell boy's uniform and wonder what his role would have been. Hope this will be of value to your project."

 

Regards,

Brenda Warhurst

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" After reading of your project on the history of Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital, I thought I would like to send you my memory.

In the late 1920s I was at the hospital to have my tonsils removed. We had to sit on wooden benches waiting to be taken into the room. It was horrific, the mouth forced open, enamel bucket at the side of the table. After it was over, you were given a basin to catch the blood and then taken back to the wooden bench where your Mother was waiting. After a while you were allowed to leave. My Mother carried me home because I was so ill. I was in bed for about three weeks recovering.

There is a lighter moment. My husband was there too, though I didn't know him at the time, but it was certainly a talking point later. Thankfully hospitals have certainly moved on since then. I wonder if they still have the instrument they used?"

Yours,

Kath Warwick