Memories of a Queen Alexandra nurse

Vera Bryan volunteered for the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps after completing her nursing training. She was called up in 1941 and in 1942 was deployed to Nigeria where, with a group of QA nurses, she was involved in setting up a hospital in Lagos.

In 1942 she set off to return to the UK on a ship called the Stentor, part of a merchant convoy carrying a cargo of palm oil. This convoy was a decoy for the North African landings, and it was attacked by U boats. Eleven ships and many of their crews were lost. Vera was able to slide down a rope into a lifeboat. Her friend Joan had to jump into the water. With other survivors they were picked up by HMS Woodruff, a flower class Corvette, which was escorting the convoy. They were looked after by the crew, who found them clothes to wear. Vera had a pair of the Captain's trousers, and with 4 other nurses, slept on the floor of the Captain's cabin until they returned to Milford Haven. They arrived with no belongings and borrowed clothes. She and her colleagues were later made honorary members of the Flower Class Corvette Association.

Before she went to Nigeria Vera's parents had been killed when a bombing raid destroyed their house in Portsmouth, and so she had some difficulties acquiring the correct papers, ration book etc. and relied on support from one of her sisters.

She returned to work at King's College Hospital in London and was then sent to Normandy in 1944 to work in a tented field hospital. They were treating wounded service men who were being sent back to the UK. They also treated some German casualties: Vera said 'They are somebody's sons, and as nurses we treat everyone'.

She was married to George Dunnett during a brief period of leave in June 1945, and then returned to Bruges until she was demobbed in July 1945.