The following notes are from Aileen’s brother Jim:
While Aileen was still at school she was active in St John's Ambulance, and with Fareham branch just after D Day, when she was 14, she helped out with wounded servicemen being returned from France to Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth, so at that stage I guess she had decided on a nursing career. She completed her SRN training in Portsmouth.
At that time we lost touch as I was undertaking my National Service, spending most of it in Korea, followed by Regular Army service until March 1957, again in the Far East.
'Aileen next moved to the Middlesex Hospital where she did midwifery. She then moved to the Maida Vale Hospital for spinal injuries/nervous disorders and this is where she met Aubrey who was also working there. She followed Aubrey out to Melbourne, Australia where they worked at the same hospital, the North Melbourne. I recall getting a letter in Hong Kong to say that Aileen's ship caught fire in the Indian Ocean, passengers somehow got to Colombo, Ceylon, where they were put up in a hotel awaiting the arrival of the P&O liner Arcadia which was on her maiden voyage to Australia. Eventually arriving in Melbourne, she married Aubrey, and worked in the same Melbourne hospital until about November 1956, sailing for the UK where they arrived a month later.
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