A series of short biographies of women and men who served as ambulance drivers and assistants in Chelsea, London, during the Second World War.
Four sisters, the daughters of the Rev Henry Arthur Morgan, the Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, lived together at in Chelsea. Three of them served in the wartime auxiliary ambulance service:
Gerda Myvanwy Hyde Morgan (1888–1966), 51 in 1939
Coral Georgina Torent Morgan (1890–1967), 49
Blenda Ava Rhadegund Morgan(1892–1973), 47
Their elder sister, Iris Linda Osborne Morgan (my guess she is front row, right), volunteered in some other (unknown) capacity.
The sisters were extremely talented and creative. During their time in Cambridge they compiled 7 scrapbooks recording the social life at Jesus College – and if you have any doubt about whether Victorians knew how to have fun please see the photos of the bedders’ 3-legged race – and collaborated on a highly-regarded book, The Stones and Story of Jesus Chapel Cambridge (published 1914), which is still used as a reference.
After the death of their father in 1912 the sisters moved to 12 Cheyne Gardens and became involved with the British Nurses Association. Their brother Arthur, a barrister, was killed in action in 1915.
Sadly, because few personnel records for the ambulance service have survived, we know nothing of their history with the ambulance service. The proximity of their home to Ambulance Station 22 in Danvers Street means that it is possible that they served with my diarist, June S.
I love this photo (from the Jesus College website), taken, at a guess, around 1910.
Under Fire: The Blitz Diaries of a Volunteer Ambulance Driver
“A writer who does their research so thoroughly and then wears their learning so lightly”
“Fabulous blend of diary accounts and social history”
The Blitz in London through the diaries of a volunteer ambulance driver, from dancing at the Grosvenor to incendiary bombs in the roof
In the summer of 1940 June Spencer volunteers for the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service in Chelsea. Every night she writes up the day’s events in her diary, whether it’s driving in a hail of incendiaries, peeling potatoes for the crews, or loading broken and bleeding …
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