| Description | Interview with Christina Bernard, (nee Russell), recorded on 16 April 1994 by Myrtle Anderson-Smith and Mary Williamson
Transcript of Interview :
MS. Mrs Bernard, you said that you left home at the early age of 14?
CB. Yes.
MS. And where did you go?
CB. To the Girls' High School in Aberdeen.
MS. You had been at school in Insch before that?
CB. Yes. I took my Intermediate examinations at Insch.
MS. Was that as far as you could go there?
CB. I'm afraid that was as far as I could go. And then I went in to Aberdeen. You either had to go to Inverurie or Huntly, and then you travelled by train, but my father didn't approve of girls travelling up and down every day on the train. I went into the Girls' High School in Aberdeen and went into lodgings. In Crown Street, I was, and then - I was there for some time, a year or two,- and then I went for a short period to other lodgings, which weren't very good, so I didn't stay long there. Then I went to Blenheim Place and lived there, was very happy there. Then my landlady married again and her husband's son came back from the War and he needed the room. So I left there and went to live in Rosemount Place, with a lot of... there were several other girls there. But I was the only medical student, and I had really a bit more studying to do. And so when my old digs were... when the son went away and my old digs were free again I went back there, and remained there for the rest of my student days, up in Blenheim Place.
MS. How many years were you at the High School?
CB. Three. I took my Intermediate, it was called Intermediate in those days, at Insch School, and then took my Highers at the Girls' High. I was seventeen when I went to University.
MS. Quite young.
MW. That was early.
CB. No, it was quite usual at that time. I was fourteen when I took my Intermediate. But at Insch School we were well
MW. Well taught?
CB. A lot. We had taken Latin and all that there. When I went to the Girls' High a lot of them hadn't done Latin. I mean they had taken it, but they hadn't passed their Intermediate.
MS. Were there many of your fellow pupils from Insch went on to higher education?
CB. Yes, I think quite a few. Some went ... the boys used to go in to Gordon's sometimes, occasionally the Grammar. Most of them went to Huntly or Inverurie.
MS. Did anyone else go into the High School at the same time as you?
CB. Not with me, no.
MS. And did you get on fine with the girls at the High School and make friends there?
CB. Yes, there was a girl there, who was a ... she knew somebody that we knew from home and she took me under her wing sort of thing; I'd to sit beside her.
MW. So that made it easier for you.
CB. It was wartime, and we were sitting on ... we hadn't ... We just had forms., made of planks, really. There was a plank that you had for your desk; there must have been holes made for inkwells, I think, but I don't remember - I don't think we had to do practice writing. And then there was a board, - it was attached, you see: just a plank, you see, that you sat on, you know a ... And I remember there was a girl - a great girl she was, tall - and we had two male teachers, Maths and Latin, and the male teacher she used to get... he was bachelor, so he wasn't a... he had been a teacher there for a long time. But she used to get a cough, and she used to cough and cough, and so she... until he would say Would you like to go out? and she used to say Yes. She hadn't a cough at all. But, I think she became a voluntary help, or something like that. She would be retired long since. I don't know if she's still living.
MW. This was just a ploy to get out of his class, was it?
CB. Yes, just making a fuss. She was an only girl amongst boys. I think she had brothers, and she hadn't any ... so she just needed attention. It was really very funny.
MS. Was there a lot of hardship because of the War, do you think? Perhaps more in the city than you would have had at home?
CB. But I was only in the city
MW. During the week?
CB. No, no, I stayed there altogether. Oh, yes, I had all my round of visits that I used to make on Saturdays and Sundays.
MW. So you didn't notice any shortage of food; you know, any rationing, or anything like that?
CB. Oh, yes, I did. Yes, in my digs I used to get things in from home.
MS. Did you know when you went to the High School, did you know even then, that you wanted to be a doctor?
CB. Yes.
MS. Do you remember when you first decided that you wanted to be a doctor?
CB. Yes, there was a banker across the road - they moved from there - but somebody was talking to my mother - I must have been dispensing tea, which was a very common occurrence in our household, and I was sitting at the window, at the desk in the window, and listening in, as you would expect, and heard them discussing this family, they had left Insch, and said "Oh, so-and-so is going to be a teacher - not a teacher, a doctor". I thought to myself, "Oh, girls can be doctors. I'll be a doctor."
MW. So it was quite rare for women to be doctors.
CB. Not so usual.
MW. Did you meet with any opposition? I mean, did anybody in your family think that perhaps it wasn't a suitable occupation for a woman?
CB. Oh, no. My father's two brothers were doctors.
MW. Oh, right. So you were encouraged?
CB. I was just allowed to choose what I wanted to be. My eldest brother chose to go in for medicine. He was going to go into the business, because my father suffered from migraine, but my father said, " You're not going to come in to help me." He said, "You choose what you want to be". So he could.
MS. So was your brother far ahead of you in the studies?
CB. No. Well, he was in the First War, you see. He was called up in the middle, you know, when he was what - eighteen? He was in the OTC at school. And then he got a commission in the Gordon Highlanders, in the 1st Gordons, he was in the 1st Gordons. He was in France. He was wounded, then he didn't ... he wasn't fit to go back. And my uncle thought he had better go back to his studies. So he went back to his studies. So, he and I finished about the same time. But he was down in Cambridge and I was up here in Aberdeen.
MS. That would have been quite unusual for him to get into Cambridge University, was it?
CB. No, because my uncle wanted ... he went to Mill House School in England. He thought he should have an English education, so - and he was named after him. And so then the War interrupted his ... He was in both Wars. He was back in the War again.
MS. When you went up to University the War was just finishing, was it?
CB. No.
MW. 1918?
CB. 1915 ... I can't remember. No, it finished just after. I went in October, and the War ended in November. Then we had all these people, they didn't know what to do with them, with the men who'd been in the War. So they were all allowed to go to university, if they wanted. They were allowed to choose, I suppose, what they wanted to be. And they were allowed to go to university without having any formal exams or anything. They could choose. And they might have been in other occupations. A lot of them were in occupations, chemists, and people like that, before.
MS. So did you see a big difference between your first year at University and your second year when all the soldiers came back, in the second year?
CB. Not ... A lot of the wounded had come back, you see.
MW. So you had them in your classes right from the beginning.
CB. Right from the beginning.
MS. Were there many women in your medical classes?
CB. I think there were - yes, ours was quite a big class, I think there were about twenty-four.
MS. Out of, say, how many?
CB. A hundred and something - it was a great big class. I remember, the Botany class, that would have been ... 1918?
MS. Yes, I think so.
CB. The men had come back and yes, poor Professor Trail, he had to have two classes, there were so many between Arts and all the others. There was a class at eight. Botany was at eight, in the ordinary way; and he had to have one at two as well. And full classrooms. And we had to... we had our classes in... we had practically the same... I think we had the same classroom the whole time, because there were so many... it was the biggest one, there were so many pupils.
MS. So the lecturers came to you rather than you going to the lecturers.
CB. Yes.
MS. And this was at Marischal College.
CB. Marischal College.
[Tape stopped because of interruption.]
MW. So you went to Aberdeen University, and your professor of Botany was Professor Trail. Have you any memories of Professor Trail as a lecturer? Was he a good lecturer?
CB. Yes, but he was just nearly retiring, I mean. He died in the holidays. He really was ill.
MS. And he had worked very hard that last year, you said?
CB. He must have done. Yes, he did, because there were double classes, you see; they had twice, because there were so many, with the ex-servicemen all coming back, and that was one of the subjects that they took. Not only for medicine, but for all the different ...
MS. And you did some other science subjects that first year: Zoology?
CB. We did Zoology, Chemistry, Botany, and Physics.
MS. Do you remember any others of the professors?
CB. Yes, Professor Niven; he was just retiring; he was the Professor of _
MW. Physics.
CB. Physics, yes. I think he retired at the end of that. He was very old. There was no age limit in those days.
MW. Is there one lecturer that stands out in your mind as being very good and inspiring as a lecturer?
CB. Oh, yes, a very good lecturer was - what was his name? - he became professor of Anatomy at Aberdeen.
MW. Professor Reid?
CB. No, no. We had him. But he was very old by that time. He was just near retiring. What was his name? He was there, the last one. He was an excellent lecturer.
MW. What was it that made him so outstanding as a lecturer, to your mind?
CB. Well, you just knew, you know. He stuck to his subject, you know, and he ... Funny that I can't remember his name.
MW. It will come back to you.
CB. But, and then he became professor after Professor Reid.
MS. Would it have been Professor Lockhart?
CB. Yes. He was an excellent lecturer. But he wasn't professor that year. I think he became professor maybe at the end of that year, because Professor Reid was very old.
MS. And then you went on to the actual medical classes after that?
CB. You did your Second Professional, and then you did Materia Medica; Public Health; - there were four, I think, we did.
MW. Midwifery?
CB. No. Midwifery, Surgery and Medicine were the final three, in your Fourth Professional. Pathology, that's right, Pathology, and Professor Shennan was professor of Pathology. There was Professor Reid, Professor MacWilliam - he was Physiology, and who did I say the other one was?
MW. Professor Shennan.
MS. Medicine.
CB. No, no. Shennan, I think that was ... Oh, there were only those two. It was only Anatomy and Physiology in the Second Professional. And that's the Third Professional, that was _
MS. Right. So moving on to the Third Professional?
CB. Materia Medica: we had Professor Marshall.
MS. Do you remember him?
CB. Yes, he was a very good professor, very good lecturer. He was new that year, I think; that was his first year. He came from St Andrews, I think.
MS. And Medicine: Professor Mackintosh?
CB. Yes, Ashley Mackintosh. He was a lovely professor, excellent.
[The tape was stopped for an interruption.]
MS. And then Surgery.
CB. Marnoch
MS. Professor Marnoch?
CB. ... McKerron
MS. I hear that Professor Marnoch was a very skilled man?
CB. He was.
MS. There's a story that he could remove an appendix in six and a half minutes. Have you heard that one?
CB. I've forgotten. But I've no doubt he could. He was a very ... He was a tall, slim... He was a tall straight-backed man.
MS. And then Professor Matthew Hay, did you have him?
CB. Yes. It was about his last year, I think.
MS. He was very active both in and outside the hospital?
CB. He was Medical Officer of Health, as well, I think, as Professor of Public Health. It was an awful long time ago!
MW. You're doing very well, remembering everybody's name.
MS. Any particular incidents that come to mind? Things that happened in class?
CB. No. Of course, it was quite a different year. It was quite a different time, because we had all the ex-servicemen back. There were huge classes, you see. It wasn't the intimate kind of class that _
MS. It must have caused problems the very large classes?
CB. Yes. Well some of them had to be done twice, you see. I mean it was terribly hard on the classes that were taken by Arts students as well, you know other faculties besides Medicine.
MS. How did it affect your Clinical Practice?
CB. Oh no, it didn't. It wasn't at the Clinical stage. Afterwards the Clinical. Well, it just had to be shared out by more people than would normally be. I mean, you would ... there would be more students like at the bedside. You know, that kind of thing, or there would be two or three, you know, when there would have only been one in the ordinary way. But you just accepted that. And I don't think we were any the worse trained for that. But it was a very difficult thing to get jobs afterwards, because it wasn't only there, it was all over the country, you see.
MS. You did practical work, it seems, in virtually every hospital in Aberdeen. You had experience in a number of the hospitals?
CB. But, you just did that, you went ... Yes, well, I mean, you had your classes. You had to learn. You had to do Children's, you see, and you had to do Surgery, and you did Medicine, you did Public Health. For Public Health you went to the Fever Hospital down in the _
MW. City?
CB. Yes.
MS. Some students actually had to go away from Aberdeen for their practical work, I believe, because there weren't enough places in Aberdeen. But you didn't have to do that?
CB. No. I don't remember anybody ever doing that.
MS. I've heard of some going to Glasgow, or further afield?
CB. Och, that wasn't the ... That was by choice. Because I had an uncle in Glasgow, and I could have gone to Glasgow. I did think about it at one time, but. But some of them did that, and they did that extra, you know; went for a month or something like that.
MS. I wonder if there are any other things you can tell us about university life before we move on. Did you all wear your togas at that time?
CB. No. Oh, they introduced them on the Arts side, but not Medicine. The Arts people started to wear them. It was introduced. They were introduced by ... and a lot of them appeared. I remember we had an old toga belonging to my uncles; it hung behind the wall of the door, you know, for a long time. I can't think who it was, but somebody borrowed this thing and wore it, ancient though it was; not any of the family, but I remember her giving it to somebody.
MS. All your classes had been at Marischal College, were they?
CB. I think so.
MS. Did you mix much with the Arts students? Did some of them share your Botany and Nat Phil classes?
CB. Oh, everything. Oh, no, I did no Nat Phil, thank goodness. Physics we had. That was enough for me. No, if you were doing a combined Arts and Medicine course, you had to do it.
MS. You could do that?
CB. Oh, yes. I think it was six years instead of five. Oh, yes, they did that. A few of the people in the class did that.
MS. But you didn't see the need for that?
CB. It had been probably some subjects that I didn't want! Anything in the Maths line.
MW. Did you have time to join any of the societies? Were you a member of the Women's Union?
CB. Oh, yes, but you were a member of the Women's Union because you used the Women's Union.
MW. So you used it quite a bit?
CB. And it was ... Well, it was only introduced
MW. In 1925, I believe, it was opened.
CB. Aye, but that was the new Union.
MW. Oh, you had a place before that?
CB. Well, since it ... W had a place where we hung our coats and hats up, and there was a passage through in a room beyond that, which was off the Men's Union.
MW. Was this what was nicknamed "The Coffin"?
CB. No. We didn't call it that.
MS. But this was at Marischal College?
CB. Marischal College. But there was a passage, you know, a narrow passage, like a doorway, you know, that width, right through, and that was where we hung our coats and hats. And there were lockers. I think we each had a locker; could put books or anything, which locked, you know; you could put things in. And then a room with seats round the walls, and there was a table with a door leading into the Men's Union, the passage through to the Men's Union. And the attendants used to come and serve our coffees on the table, that's all we had.
MS. So you could get a snack during the day?
CB. You could get, you see, from the Men's Union. Somebody came. You didn't go.
MW. You weren't allowed in?
CB. None of us went through to the Men's Union. There was just this table which was our _
MW. That was all you had?
CB. Yes, but that wasn't too bad. You see, it was at the time ... Oh, I mean, it was war ... it was just after the end of the War, and _
MS. Did you have much free time during the day, or did you have classes most of the day?
CB. It just depended what you were doing ... which year you were in. You see, when you were doing your first two Professionals, you had Anatomy, you had a lot of ... you had several classes. Then when we went beyond that we had classes at Marischal and then classes ... then we had to go to the Infirmary. We went for lectures at the Infirmary. We might have a lecture at the Infirmary, and then have to go straight off to ward clinics or ward lectures, you know, lectures at the Infirmary.
MW. So you didn't have much free time, really?
CB. You didn't. You were very busy. And then in the afternoon we usually had lectures from two to four, every day, probably two lectures, in different subjects.
MS. And where did you get lunch?
CB. Went home.
MS. To your digs.
CB. Either went home, yes, or the people who didn't, I suppose, they must have eaten in the Union. I never. It would have been brought through from the Men's Union to the Women's Union, but I never did that. I was in digs; I always went home.
MS. Did you have a chance to join any student societies?
CB. Yes, there was a Women's Union and ... Yes, you could join the Debating Society and all that sort of thing.
MS. Did you join any?
CB. Yes. We used to go ... I think Friday night was the night that we did that.
MS. Were there any outstanding debates, subjects debated?
CB. Well, as a matter of fact, I was at the University at the time of Eric Linklater and all those coming back from the War. Oh, yes, there was a lot of activity in that line.
MW. He was quite a character, Eric Linklater.
CB. Well, he was. He started Medicine, but didn't like Medicine, and changed over to Arts. But he was in Medicine when I was in Medicine, at the same stage, and then he went to the Arts and took English.
MS. Did he raise the profile of the Debater and the Literary societies?
CB. Mind you, you see, you've got to think, it was immediate post-war, and we'd all those clever people together at one time, from different years; they would have been in different years, but instead of that they were all together. I can't think of some of the names. But there was Eric Linklater; he changed from Medicine and went over to Arts, because he found that Medicine wasn't his.
MS. So you were aware that there was a specially rich mix of students at the time?
CB. Oh, we were. It was really quite a hard time to be.
MW. A lot of competition?
CB. Yes. You know, I mean, you had all these old men. They had been chemists, they had been all in other occupations.
MW. Do you think they sort of raised you ... did they raise you all up a bit? Did they take you with them a bit?
CB. No, it was a lot harder.
MW. But it must have made you work harder and maybe achieve more than you think?
CB. I don't know.
MW. No?
CB. It is very difficult to say just ... making people of seventeen and eighteen achieve more, isn't it?
MS. But there had been a lot of more mature people with you than normally?
CB. Oh, mostly. You see, I mean, instead of having seventeen or eighteen people in a class, maybe it had to be served twice, or something like that. I mean, you could tell that it was
MS. Did some of the returning soldiers have real problems in settling down to study?
CB. Oh, yes. I should think they had. But some of them, you see, had been in jobs, had been trained in some other occupation before, and it was a chance for them to build up, because they had, I think they had their fees and maintenance, or was it something like that.
MW. All paid for?
CB. Yes. Yes, they were quite ... I don't know ... Whatever chance they could be given they took it. And if they didn't make it, I don't know how long it was before they were, you know, they would have been stopped, you see, because their maintenance would have been stopped. But if their maintenance... you know, if they were able to afford it, they went on. We had some that were there for a long time, a long time after me, too.
MS. How were your own studies funded?
CB. My father.
MS. Parents had to pay everything?
CB. No. There was Carnegie's.
MS. Did everyone get so much from Carnegie?
CB. No. If you applied, yes. I suggested to my father that I should apply ...Would I apply?, and he said they would think I was able to pay my own.
MS. So you were fortunate then?
CB. No, no. A lot of them probably ... I said, well, so-and-so has applied and they are better off than us. You can imagine, can't you? They're just as well off. They've just as much as you.
MW. But he still wouldn't let you apply?
CB. I just didn't. No, I didn't when he said not to. No, no, he would have had to sign the papers.
MS. And you didn't have to try and find a job in the holidays. Did students do that much?
CB. Yes. I wasn't ... I used to go into the office at home. You see my father was in business. You see, I had a sister at home and she by no means ... I learned to cook and do everything. There was no ... You didn't get off with doing nothing.
MW. How did you find the Library facilities at University?
CB. I never went to the Library. I had plenty of books.
MS. Did you buy all of your textbooks?
CB. Yes, and we had an awful lot of books at home.
MS. Because of the doctors in the family?
CB. No, no. My father was interested in books.
MS. Did you ever make your way to the Chapel at King's?
CB. No. I think I went once. But I was already ... I had been to the Girls' High School and I had been in lodgings, and I was already a regular attendee at the church ... and we had friends there and I sat with them ... sat with the lady in front. Sat with her in the morning and with them at night. The people who had the rest of the seat didn't go at night.
MW. So you attended twice on a Sunday?
CB. Usually. I used to go to tea with them every other Sunday.
MS. Did you get involved in the Gala Weeks at University?
CB. Oh, yes, insofar as they did. We did quite a lot, and we went collecting and that kind of thing. But I wasn't an entertainer or anything like that. That wasn't my line.
MS. And other important people around the University have always been the Sacrists. Do you remember the Sacrist at Marischal in your time?
CB. I've forgotten his name. What was his name?
MS. But he played quite an important part in your life?
CB. I wouldn't say an important part in your life. But, I mean, he was always about, you know, seeing ...
MW. Kept control?
CB. No. What you did was, you went in there, and you had ... we had a ... You went across to the Ladies Room to leave your coat and your hat, because you didn't wear them in the classroom, and then you went to your classroom, to the lecture theatre. I can't remember what was his name. There were two of them. There was one was a big fat man. And then in the afternoon, I can't remember. Well you had lectures sometimes in the afternoon. But the hospital lectures were in the morning, as far as I remember. It was a long time ago! Then I went to Birmingham University after that.
MS. Yes, what took you to Birmingham, then?
CB. You see, I was working down there.
MS. When you graduated, you just had to see what was available?
CB. It was very difficult at that time, because there were so many people, a hundred, more than a hundred applying for every job.
MS. So you just picked this advertisement and you were fortunate on this occasion?
CB. No. I went as a ... actually I went into Aberdeen and went round to my friend's and found that she was at the Station going to London. So her brother said, Oh, we'll be on time for the train, we'll go down and see her. So then she said, if I would go, she would let me know whether there was a place for me, as well, but there wasn't. So, I remember I went to the dentist the next day and let her look at my teeth first, and I said but I'm going to London so I won't _ she did what was possible and I went home and packed my case and set off for London the next night. But she, then I said I would go and do midwifery if she would come with me to Great Ormond Street, the Children's Hospital. Then we did that and then we went round to the Maternity Hospital and found that you could go in and you would work there and you got your keep, but you didn't get anything for doing it, but you got the experience. So I arranged to go back there after I had been to Great Ormond Street, wandering away round.
MS. So you did, was it a year in London you did for midwifery?
CB. Yes
MS. And then got a job in Birmingham?
CB. Yes, I went back. Friends came up. I went home and helped my father for a bit. And then a friend came up from London, and she said won't you come back with me and try again and stay with us? So I did that. And then I applied for a job and got an interview when I was staying with them and got it. That was up in the Black Country.
MS. That had been in stark contrast to Insch and Aberdeen.
CB. It was very different. They were all hard up. All on unemployment benefit or poor law. Still!
MS. What kind of job was it? You weren't a GP?
CB. Public Health: schools and child welfare.
MS. So you were going round the schools examining the children?
CB. Schools and child welfare clinics, telling them how to feed on unemployment benefit, which wasn't very much, twenty-one shillings, was it, for a single person, two shillings for every ...
MS. And how long did you do that?
CB. Well, I never finished Public Health. I was there six years. And I went to University in that time, to Birmingham University and did my _
MS. Got your Diploma?
CB. Diploma in Public Health - DPH. Then I did a job practically straight away after that.
MS. Where was that?
CB. Finchley.
MS. London?
CB. And then I never moved from there.
MS. Was that because you like it there?
CB. I was quite happy there. I could have ... the only other job that was better than that was to have gone to the Ministry of Health, going round seeing that people did there job, and I didn't want that. I preferred to do it myself. I didn't want to be an Inspector.
MS. What did your job consist of?
CB. Schools, child welfare, ante-natal, babies from one to five, then from five to school leaving age.
MS. You were happier in Public Health than you would have been in a hospital.
CB. I wouldn't have been in a hospital. I mean, you had to be able to afford to keep yourself in a hospital. I mean, that kind of hospital job. I don't know whether I would have been happier, but I was happy in the job I was in. No, I went ... I got a job and then I found I couldn't get any promotion just with the experience, that I had to take my DPH so I went on half time for a year, and went to University in Birmingham to get my DPH. As soon as I got my DPH, I had the experience as well, so I got a job in Finchley, in London.
MS. It was a higher grade post; it was more supervisory, was it?
CB. No, but it was just... No, I wasn't supervising. I wouldn't have gone into a supervisory job. I liked to be practising.
MW. And you were there up until 1961, when you retired?
CB. Yes, I never left Finchley.
MS. Which makes us realise you were there during the Second World War?
CB. Oh, yes.
MS. That must have been an experience.
CB. It was: sleeping in the Hall - away from glass. This was in the middle floor. I mean, I wasn't down below, or anything like that: I just stayed in my own flat, put a mattress down, there was room on the floor, coming in at the door, you see - the kitchen off there; there was room between the kitchen door and the front bedroom door for a ... your feet were by the kitchen door, but, I mean _
MW. You were safe!
CB. You felt you were safe. You were safe from glass, anyway, that was the main thing.
MS. Were you on call all the time?
CB. Yes.
MS. Were you sometimes called out in the middle of the night?
CB. Yes, but, fortunately, we weren't as badly _ But we had ... there were first aid ... there were the people who were doing that specially as their job, so they were on call at the clinics all the time. And then there were the others. To begin with we were there all the time and sleeping there on mattresses on the floor and things like that, but you couldn't go on like that and do a full
MW. So it became a bit better organised?
CB. Well, no, yes: the people who were first aid people were first aid people and the others were there and they were called if necessary.
MS. Was there bombing round about your area?
CB. Yes. I had my windows in myself, in my own flat, but it wasn't as bad as some. But we were on one of the routes, but they used to drop them a bit further ... they went on a bit further than us. Which was lucky. You could hear when the engines stopped.
MW. That was the doodle bugs, was it, when the engine stopped?
CB. Oh, yes, you knew the doodle bugs. Yes, we had the whole lot.
MS. Did you have to deal with some casualties?
CB. Yes, but we weren't so bad, you see, because we weren't
MS. Yes, we were asking if you kept up with any of your fellow students?
CB. Oh, yes. I had a friend in London for years and years and years. Unfortunately she had a sad ending, but we were friendly all the time.
MW. Do you remember any of your other fellow students? You were saying that you remembered the three Mitchell sisters?
CB. Oh, yes, because they were at the same time as myself: and Peggy Mitchell was an assistant at Insch; not an assistant, she was more Public Health, but she lived in Insch. But I had gone away and left home by that time.
MS. Do you know what many of your fellow students went on to do, what sort of jobs they got?
CB. Some of them went to London. I knew where they were and I was working in London, too.
MW. Were you a member of the Aberdeen University Society in London?
CB. I used to go to the meetings sometimes. I wasn't an ardent goer to these things. I like to meet other people rather than my ... I liked the theatre.
MS. What sort of activities did they have at the meetings? Were they just get-togethers?
CB. Usually just a meal, or something like that. And unless you were particularly interested in people who were there, unless your own friends, some of them, were going, it wasn't ... - because it is a limited time that you have there, and in my time we were very busy, and there was this great clutter of people, you know, back from the War, so it was quite a different experience from any ordinary year, the time at University, because you were sort of... because if you go through with that lot, well we got this great - I mean, they had to do two classes sometimes there were so many, so that could tell you how ...
MS. Were you quite well accepted as a lady doctor?
CB. I had no trouble. I was first woman assistant where I went to work. But I never had any trouble. I think sometimes, I think some of the doctors weren't too pleased, you know they were ready to find fault, but it never .... I had five brothers, which was a great asset.
MS. And what did they all go on to do?
CB. Two sisters and five brothers.
MS. One brother became a doctor? Two? And what did the others do?
CB. Two went into the business. And one went out to Ceylon. He's now home farming, but he's now retired, but I mean he's four years younger than me, and he's still a good age.
MW. And your sisters, what did they do?
CB. They're both dead. Well, one went in for domestic science. She was my eldest one. It was in the First War. Then she finished, so she went to Coventry to sharpen tools; she went into a factory. There weren't any jobs, unless they could go as cooks, and she didn't want to go as a cook; she preferred laundry to cooking; you know, I mean, in her course, she preferred that, anyhow, so she didn't want to go into that. And then she came home to let my other sister away. There was never any question of me, you see, because I was going straight through a course.
MS. Going back to World War II, I think every doctor found it a most exhausting time, especially in London?
CB. Oh, yes, because I was in Public Health then, there were an awful lot of odd hours and then we were sort of... we were expected to be there for ARP and all that sort of thing, until they found that that was no good, because if you had to work your full-time work in the daytime, you really needed to have your rest at night.
MS. Were you involved in training the ARP people, VAD?
CB. Yes, to begin with.
MS. But it was during that period that you met your husband. Was he a doctor, as well?
CB. No, no, but it was nothing to do with my work. He just happened to come ... I had gone to go stay with somebody ... I had a flat and a friend was staying with me and she got scared of the bombing, of the raids, and left me, and then somebody asked me to ... one of the voluntary helpers ... I think she was afraid that somebody might be landed on her, because she had accommodation, and evacuees might be landed on her, so she asked me ... she invited me to go and stay there. So I did, but then I went back to my own flat, and stayed by myself.
MS. So it was then that you met your husband?
CB. I met him there.
MS. And what did he do? Did he work in London, too?
CB. He was at the War Office. He was in the Secret Service.
MS. And did he retire with you to Insch?
CB. No, no. We retired to Bexhill, after I retired. He was at home a long time. I mean, I was working after him, and he was a very good uncle to all the family. I only had a flat, with ... you know, furnished during the wartime, and so I was limited in the space available for visitors, which was very handy, because I wasn't able to cope when I was working full time. I used to have single, various boys and girls, nephews and nieces, to come and stay, and he used, then when he was finished work, he used to, when he had stopped work he used to take them round, take them to see the sights of London. So they all knew London, my nephew in Aberdeen, he's no difficulty in finding his way around London, when he goes to London, because he has been to all the Tubes, been in all the ..., and has been in the Tubes from the various parts, you see, as well.
MS. Well, maybe just to round off, would you like to tell us about the tremendous changes you must have seen in medicine over the years?
CB. Well, you see, I did ... I was in Public Health, and it wasn't. But I never regretted not having done prescribing medicines. I mean, I was much more interested in helping people to use their own resources to the best advantage for their children, and I was lucky that way in that I had learned all about housekeeping from Muriel.
MW. But you must have seen an awful change in the type of diseases that you were seeing, I mean, rickets and things like that in the early days?
CB. Well, they disappeared, you see; you were treating them in the first, seeing that they took their cod liver oil and that, all that sort of thing. But, of course, I was lucky in that the district that I was in wasn't a poor district. I did work in the East End for a certain time, in Stepney, I worked for a while, and I can remember going into a ... I was called out ... it was the East End Mission, the Wesleyan, it came under the Wesleyans, they had a lot of these places, and this was the East End Mission. I only went there for a locum, for somebody who was waiting ... somebody else had got the job, and I was waiting to take up my own paid job. I used to go in and, I can remember now - it is funny how certain things stick in your memory for ever - going in at the door, holding the door open with my foot, and knocking on the wall of the stair, until a door would open and I'd see where I was supposed to go - no lighting at all. I don't know why, but somewhere in Stepney, I don't remember the street, exactly the name of it, but it was in Stepney, and I can remember going into that, through the door and it was just blackness, nothing at all, and just going in and knocking on the side of the wall, on the side of the stair, I suppose, because it was up a stair, and waiting until the door opened, so that I could see, so that I didn't trip on any holes in the stair, or anything like that.
MS. So it was quite a hazardous occupation at times.
CB. It was. It was all right when I went to Finchley, not to Finchley, the other side, Clapham, no Battersea; it was better. But Stepney, of course, that was really poor.
MS. So did you work from different centres in London over the years?
CB. No, no. I just got locums, I just did short times; except when I was in hospital, and then, of course, I was there. And then I went out to Battersea from the hospital for a ... you know when I had finished my time at the hospital, I did relief, you know, holiday duty or something like that.
MS. What was it you were doing at the hospital?
CB. It was a maternity hospital, midwifery.
MS. Oh, this was your first year after Aberdeen?
CB. No, more than that. The first year, I think, we paid for going to hospital. There weren't any paid jobs. I don't think I had a paid job at all the first year.
MS. Well, we do thank you very, very much for sharing all this with us. Thank you.
End of Interview |