Player Profile
Player Profile
Peggy McGill
by Linda Patton
LP: Please tell me about your early life and your place of birth.
PM: I was born in Newcastle on Tyne in Northern England. After six weeks my family moved to Ireland where my father, a sergeant-major in the British army, had been posted. I don’t remember anything about Ireland as we moved from Ireland to Aldershot (in Hampshire) when I was 3 or 4 years old; that would be about 1924. My younger sister was born in Ireland, but the eldest and youngest were born in England.
LP: What was your father’s area of expertise in the army?
PM: He was with the mechanical engineers and had a lot to do with the motor transport. Dad had applied for a position with the Indian Mechanical and Electrical Engineers and was accepted. We moved in May of 1928 to Peshawar (Pakistan) when I was seven.
LP: It must have been a cultural and climatic shock for you.
PM: Yes, it was very hot when we arrived. My father remained in Peshawar and I, along with my mother and sisters, moved to the hills for the summer. Peshawar was a frontier town with much trouble coming from the local tribesmen.
LP: Do you remember much about those early years?
PG: Yes, there was no electricity or running water; not just in the hills but in the plains. We did have servants; a cook, bearers and sweepers. School was taught mainly by nuns. We were boarders in a convent for nine months during the hot season, then, we returned to the plains for the winter months to continue our education.
LP: Do any memorable events stand out in your mind during the time spent in Preshawar?
PM: Well, one time we were shopping for our school clothes and we heard a great racket outside. There was a crowd of native men with sticks raised. My mother asked the shopkeeper if we could stay in his shop. He declined because he said the natives would break it down. There was a tonga (horse and cart) waiting outside, so the natives knew we were in there. My mother somehow got us into the tonga and we escaped. She said I was the only one who fought because I kicked someone off the step at the back of the tonga.
LP: From Preshawar where did your family move?
PM: We moved to Rawalpindi. It used to be the main city around that area, but a new city was built called Islamabad, now the capital of Pakistan. In those days it was just India. I lived in Rawalpindi until I was 17.
LP: Is that when you chose nursing as a career?
PM: I had always wanted to be a nurse, so my mother arranged with my uncle in England for me to attend a local cottage hospital which took nurses at age 17. The larger hospitals would not accept applicants until they were 19. I took the train to Karachi and then a ship to England which took about four weeks. My mother realized some friends were travelling on the same ship and she asked them to ‘keep an eye on me’ until we landed in Liverpool. I had a jolly good time because the ship’s officers were very nice to me!
LP: Now you are back in England. What next?
PM: I stayed with an aunt for a few days and she put me on the train for the cottage hospital in Haywards Heath. I was as miserable as anyone starting out. I had seen a telephone only once before in India and after being at the hospital for about three months, I was transferred to a medical ward that had the telephone exchange nearby. Being a small hospital, the junior probationer (nurse in training) had to handle the switchboard. That would be me. I was scared enough of the telephone without having to use the switchboard, but somehow I got through it!
LP: Upon graduation where did you go?
PM: I went to a large hospital in Brighton where I trained for two more years. War had broken out while I was at Haywards Heath and at Brighton (on the south coast). We were not allowed near the coast, which was guarded by barbed wire and sentries. We nursed casualties from Dunkirk as well as casualties from dropped bombs. I was on the gangrene ward. The men from Dunkirk had been transported with little attention to their injuries, and in some cases, tourniquets that had been left on too long, resulting in lost limbs. Many of these men died.
LP: Were you able to complete your training while at Brighton?
PM: Yes. While there, I had my own room in the nurses’ home. Our coupons were taken and used to purchase food. I received one pound a month for my training, which also included my room and board. I graduated in 1942 and went into private nursing while I was waiting to see if I had been accepted into the army.
LP: Have you any specific memories of that time spent in Brighton?
PM: Yes, the cinema was located just one block from the hospital. One day it was bombed during a children’s performance. There were some deaths and many injuries – it was awful.
One soldier from Dunkirk I nursed was a nineteen-year-old Scotsman. He was badly wounded. His father who had never left the small village that he lived in travelled down to Brighton through war-torn London to see his son. He arrived in time to spend a few hours with him quietly talking, and they held each other until the boy died. Another man, in his late twenties, died a few days after his arrival, and the next day we heard that he had been awarded the Victoria Cross.
LP: What came after Brighton?
PM: I was accepted into the Queen Alexandria’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (now disbanded). As a Lieutenant, I was sent to a hospital in Peebles, Scotland, which had formerly been a large hotel. We were told to get ready but not told for what or where. I had to buy my own nursing uniform, a folding army cot, washbasin, lamp, cutlery, tin plates, etc. in order to be completely independent. It was quite a challenge as these items were scarce.
From Peebles, I was posted to Preswick near Liverpool, and after a few weeks 18 of us were told to make ready to leave. We travelled by train to some docks, perhaps Bristol, and were put on a troop transport ship with huge barrage balloons. These balloons, filled with hot air, were used to keep enemy planes at bay. We went full speed ahead to Scotland where we anchored and stayed waiting for other ships to join the convoy. We steered in a zigzag course to Gibraltar, with navy boats as protection. All previous ships had sailed around South Africa. We were the first convoy to sail via the Mediterranean to Port Said.
When we disembarked we discovered that we were the only women in the convoy. A lorry was sent to pick us up. It had a high back and we had tight skirts – and no steps on the lorry!!! In the end, a man got on either side of us and said, “One, two, three”, and heaved us up onto the lorry. We arrived in Lydda in Palestine. We put our canvas cots, baths and basins to good use.
After another train trip, we landed in Damascus and were taken to the officers’ mess for lunch. I had not seen my father for six years but had heard that he was in this part of the world. After lunch we were put on a bus and we crossed the desert to Baghdad. After a few days we were put on the train again and arrived in Basra. When I got there I heard that my father had been in Damascus at the time of my visit. He had been too busy that day to eat in the mess and had had food sent up to his room. It was another year before I saw him again.
Two of us were posted to Andimeshk in Persia (Iran). We had been told this was a terrible place. When we arrived in Andimeshk we were met by a lorry which, fortunately, had steps. On these steps were painted the words, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” We sat on our tin trunks as there were no seats on the lorry. We eventually arrived at the hospital on the banks of the river Dez in Iran. There were four nursing sisters and four auxilliary nursing service personnel.
LP: Did you tend to wounded soldiers at this hospital?
PM: Soldiers yes, but their wounds were not war wounds. Their injuries were mostly from vehicle accidents, heat stroke and, malaria; also, the doctors performed operations, such as an appendectomy.
LP: Were you ever granted leave?
PM: Yes. I was next posted to India. I was driven to Basra. From there I went by sea to Bombay, India, then on to Poona. I was then given a month’s leave. This was my first time home in seven years. My mother and youngest sister were still living in Meeret, about forty miles from Delhi (my father was now in Italy). My mother and I had a great time shopping and she had dresses and swimsuits made for me, as I owned nothing but uniforms. The dherzi (seamstress) made dresses very quickly and well.
I thoroughly enjoyed my leave before reporting to Poona and being posted to Madras at the 18th British General Hospital (surgical ward). I was told on a Saturday that the surgeon was on an emergency in the hills and would return on Monday. Upon his return, the surgeon and I went on rounds together. Then he asked me out. We went dancing and swimming in Madras and a few months later he proposed! Alan, a Canadian, was a general surgeon in the British army. He was in England on postgraduate work when war was declared. Being patriotic, he joined the army straight away. I took him home to meet my family – a journey of three days going and coming. My sister from Burma happened to be on leave at the same time, which was wonderful as I had not seen her for several years.
LP: Did you both continue to work in Madras?
PM: Yes, at this time we were receiving about 500 patients from Burma, preparing them for the trip to a hospital in Poona. Alan was posted to a hospital ship which brought the patients into Madras to us. We did manage to get time off together and got married at home. My father made it home to give me away! Following our marriage, Alan rejoined the ship and I returned to Madras. He then received notice that he was being repatriated to Britain, plus one wife. We returned, the war having ended in England. I went to work in Aldershot, of all places, but Alan was still on leave. By now I was expecting our first child.
LP: Under what circumstances did you arrive in Canada?
PM: Alan suggested that I go to Canada and stay with his parents as he might be posted to the Pacific. I was discharged from the army and set sail from Liverpool to Halifax. Some of the war brides on my ship decided to go out on the town. I had heard that Canadians were honest and I convinced my shipmates that we could leave our luggage in the hotel lobby and it would still be there upon our return – which it was! From Halifax we caught the train to Montreal, having been told that the British army had arranged for a hotel for me. This hotel was full due to some large celebration, and a girl friend and I, by this time very pregnant, shared a double bed in another hotel. Two days later we caught the train to Regina where I met my husband’s in-laws for the first time (my sister-in-law was one of the first female lawyers in Regina).
They did not understand English people very well, and I did not understand Canadians. I thought they were very peculiar. I was told that in Canada lifts are not referred to as lifts, they are elevators. We were on our way down to the family summer cottage when my father-in-law said, “You can always tell the wealth of a town by the number of elevators in it.” I thought these Canadians were absolutely mad, running around taking a look at the number of elevators. I eventually realized he was referring to grain elevators!
LP: Did your husband arrive home in time for the birth of your child?
PM: Yes. The war was over in Japan and he came home at the end of October. My father-in-law, who was a very thoughtful man, had arranged for an apartment in Regina or a room in Victoria, whichever Alan preferred. Alan arrived in Regina in November, and we moved to Victoria in time for our son’s birth on December 31st.
Initially, Alan worked for Veterans’ Affairs in Victoria. One day, while riding the tram downtown, a fellow traveler told him he had a home to rent on Beach Drive. The rent was $60 per month, a lot of money in 1946, but we did rent it. Alan then went on to work at the Royal Jubilee and St. Joseph Hospitals.
LP: Did you continue nursing?
PM: No, I raised the children. I did miss nursing somewhat. I was kept very busy though learning how to cook, plan meals etc., as I had never had to do this. Safeway intimidated me so I shopped at little corner stores for about four years until I worked up the courage to shop there. From 1948 to 1952 we had three more children. Alan worked until 1967 when he fell ill. He passed away nine years later.
LP: Did you take up bridge after moving to Victoria?
PM: I learned to play bridge at age 15 with my mother in India. After moving to Victoria I joined a group of three other women and the four of us played bridge every second week for 45 years! I am the last surviving member. I enjoy bridge weekends, such as those held at Yellowpoint Lodge on the Island, and the companionship that goes with duplicate bridge.
LP: Thank you for the interview, Peggy. I enjoyed hearing of your wartime experiences.
Note: There are some lawyers in the bridge community who may be interested in the following:
Peggy’s uncle, who arranged for her to go to the hospital at Haywards Heath, was a barrister. He became a judge and was then made a lord. He was Lord Denning, a judge who not only tried cases in England but travelled to other commonwealth countries when requested, either to settle a case or make a speech. He came to Victoria several times. On an official visit he stayed at Government House, but otherwise he and his wife mainly stayed at Peggy’s house. He spoke at UVic and U.B.C. His bronze bust is in the Law Courts in Vancouver.
Copyright:
ACBLUnit 431
James K. Foster,
April, 2006