Description
Ms. Orford describes her experiences traveling from Liverpool to the manning depot at Bramshot, including experiencing a V-bomb attack at Waterloo Station in London.
Elizabeth Orford
Elizabeth Orford was born on April 14, 1923 in Toronto, Ontario. She chose physiotherapy as a career and graduated from the University of Toronto in June, 1943. Ms. Orford interned at the Children's Memorial Hospital, dealing with victims of polio. When asked to join the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, she accepted, enlisting in Montreal. Ms. Orford first served in Canadian military hospitals, dealing with infantry and flight training injuries. She went overseas, and worked in #9 Canadian hospital, Horsham, then moved to #24 Canadian hospital, Horley. There, Ms. Orford treated many amputees and burn victims. After returning home, she worked at the Christie Street Veterans Hospital in Toronto.
Transcript
When we got to Liverpool there was no docking space for us immediately so we had to sit out in the harbor about a day and a half I guess before we could disembark and that, of course, was my first view of the search lights over a very vulnerable Liverpool. Fortunately, nothing happened that particular night. So after a day and a half or maybe two days, we disembarked and got our docking space and we immediately got onto a troop train and headed right down to Waterloo Station in London. We got off at Waterloo Station and then we went to see the railway transport officer, the RTO and we were in his office talking to him and all of a sudden he said, “You better get under the desk girls,” and a V-bomb had come over. It didn’t land right on the station but it shattered some of the windows and that was quite an introduction. So we managed to get eventually onto a train that would take us down to Bramshott. Of course, none of the stations had signs up and nothing was lit up so you had to hope you were getting off at the right place. So we all got off at Bramshott where No.22 Canadian General Hospital was and it was sort of the depot for nurses coming and going and physios.