Description
Ms. Drean discusses having to participate in regular parade drill as physical preparation for deployment, and despite having had no hands on contact with the war wounded as yet, feeling ready to do her job well.
Jean Drean
Jean Drean was born in 1916 in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was the second of three children, all of whom were home-schooled. Ms. Drean studied nursing at St. Joseph's Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia, graduating in 1940. She enlisted in January, 1941 with #16 Canadian General Hospital and went overseas in June, 1942. In England, Ms. Drean served at #15 and #16 Canadian Field Hospitals. In France, she worked in a field surgical unit at a former German hospital in Saint-Omer, treating friend and foe with equal empathy. Lastly, as part of the Army of Occupation, Ms. Drean treated Russian and Polish POWs at a field hospital in Sogol, Germany.
Transcript
Then came the big training. We were sent up to Yorkshire to Richmond and we were put into tents and route marched and I suppose had to do our packing and one thing or another and this was sort of to toughen up for going overseas. Well then D-Day came and we were then sent down and again split up to various hospitals to handle the casualties coming back. We knew, we knew what the score was because we had been up and down to London and we’d been through air raids so we weren’t, we were prepared and by what we saw come back we knew but somehow that didn’t, it didn’t phase us.