VE Day in London
Heroes Remember
VE Day in London
Transcript
Description
Ms. Carter describes the joyous mob in Trafalgar square on VE Day.
Doris Carter
Doris Carter was born in Birkenhead, England on June 9, 1910. Her family emigrated to Woodstock, New Brunswick and in 1932 she enrolled in Nursing at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. Ms. Carter graduated in 1935, and was recruited to a wartime surgical team, prior to the war's onset. On November 30, 1940 she went overseas with #1 Military Hospital to nurse civilians injured in the bombings of Coventry and Birmingham. Ms. Carter was then sent to the Mediterranean with #5 Military Hospital. She served in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Northwestern Europe. After the war, Ms. Carter pursued a career in Public Health Nursing.
Meta Data
- Medium:
- Video
- Owner:
- Veterans Affairs Canada
- Recorded:
- March 8, 1998
- Duration:
- 1:01
- Person Interviewed:
- Doris Carter
- War, Conflict or Mission:
- Second World War
- Location/Theatre:
- England
- Battle/Campaign:
- Italian
- Branch:
- Army
- Units/Ship:
- Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps
- Rank:
- Lieutenant
- Occupation:
- Nurse
Related Videos
Bombed Off Her Bicycle
Ms. Carter describes attempting to reach her hospital during a bombing raid on Coventry, England. She is thrown from her bicycle by a nearby exploding bomb.
Unequal Treatment
Ms. Carter describes working on the venereal disease ward at a hospital in Horsham.
Treating malaria in the desert
Ms. Carter describes treating soldiers from Sicily who had contracted malaria. She describes the symptoms of the disease, and the difficulty of diagnosing the strain of the disease with only one microscope to analyze blood samples.
Winter Conditions in the Field Hospital
Ms. Carter describes the field hospital in Trani, Italy and what conditions were like in the winter.
Al Capone's Chauffeur
Ms. Carter describes being looked up by an ambulance driver from the Royal Victoria Hospital with whom she had worked before the war. He had been Al Capone's driver.
The First Use of Penicillin
Ms. Carter describes using penicillin for the first time. Instead of being injected, it was rubbed directly on the wound and was extremely painful.
The Hospital in Rome
Ms. Carter describes treating German POWs at her field hospital, and being assisted very ably by a German prisoner.
A Nurse's Intuition
Ms. Carter describes treating a patient who wouldn't wake who had been diagnosed as a psychiatric case. Ms. Carter realizes that the soldier, a stretcher bearer, is suffering from extreme exhaustion, and refutes the earlier diagnosis.
Anti-Fascist Reprisal
Ms. Carter describes how, in Rome, she and a friend are forced by an anti-fascist mob to witness the killing of a fascist, whose heart is torn out while he is still alive.
An Unkept Promise
Ms. Carter discusses Mackenzie King's promise of 1st Class passage back to Canada versus the reality of dirty accommodations in the belly of the ship in which she sailed home.
- Date modified: