Diary of a VAD Nurse
Since the Charity was established in 1916, exceptional nursing care has been fulfilled by generations of nurses, both military and civilian. Nursing in the early years at the Richmond Home was provided by trained Red Cross Nurses and Voluntary Aid Detachment Nurses (VADs).
An extract from a diary, written in 1919 by VAD Nurse Gladys Lang, shows her devotion to the residents and distress at leaving her nursing role at the Richmond Home in order to get married:
‘ In the evening before coming off duty I went round and said goodbye to all the men; only Cox was asleep. The tears were running down my face before I had got round. It was dreadful for besides feeling I was giving up nursing, it was like saying goodbye to 35 friends. It is not as though they will be leaving in a month or two, but they stay on. I went upstairs and wept…’ (Extract courtesy of the Blomfield family)
Today, the Charity helps to train military nurses but nursing staff are civilian. All of our nurses are just as devoted to their work as their predecessors.