Freda Laycock

War Service

On the successful completion of her training she went to St. Luke’s at Bradford to gain a midwifery qualification. By this time the war was underway and mum felt she wanted to do her bit, so decided to apply to one of the forces to be a nurse. She was accepted by the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (later on her grey cloak trimmed with red, which formed part of her uniform was used by my sister and myself in our dressing up games!). Initially she was posted to the 600 bedded Shaftesbury Hospital in Dorset, to do some training, with the rank of Sister, and to serve as long as her services were required during the present emergency. She spent a short time at Oxford University - she was very proud of this! It was at the time of her enlistment she met Winifred Lacy from Wallasey, Merseyside, and they became lifelong friends, being fortunate enough to be posted together throughout the war. On completion of her training she was to be posted abroad, the possibilities at this time being either Egypt or Sierra Leone in West Africa. She knew she would not be able to tell her family where she was, as all letters were censored, so she arranged to send a card before she left England, saying either “Aunty Elsie is well” or “Aunty Sarah is well” - the initial letter of the name of the aunt revealing where mum was being sent. Her military record shows that in December 1941 she was posted to the 51st Military Hospital in Freetown the capital city of Sierra Leone a Colony in British West Africa. At that time voyages were perilous as ships were often attacked by German submarines, so troopships travelled in convoy escorted by destroyers. Ships from Liverpool and Clyde assembled south of Oversay in the Outer Hebrides, and I believe she was with convoy code-named WS14 [Winston’s Specials] which assembled on 9th December 1941 and arrived at Freetown 21st December 1941. Here the nurses treated patients of all nationalities, including quite a lot of Americans. We know this as in mum’s possessions we have letters of thanks from them. Out there at this time nursing sisters had ‘boys’ to help them with household tasks. Again mum obviously treated them well as one of the letters from them says –
“Dear Sister,
Just to tell you that I have got a box of bananas from my parents yesterday. As you are very kind to me, therefore as a present I have brought some to you. Good morning Sister, I hope you are feeling well this morning. I close with great joy. I am Moroh.”
As well as work the nursing sisters had time for a social life, as seen by a ticket we have inviting them to a Red Cross dance - to be held by kind permission of Lt. Commander Fenwick RN under patronage of his Excellency the Governor of Sierra Leone and Commander in Chief of the South Atlantic Forces.
White people in Sierra Leone were still a rarity. On one occasion when mum had time off, she went ‘up country’ by train. On arrival she was greeted by lots of children who wanted to see her, they were fascinated, and each took hold of a finger, so she walked along accompanied by at least 10 children!!
Her time ended there, so embarking on 19 August 1943 and sailing on 28th she left on board ‘TMS Dempo’ arriving in the Clyde 9 September 1943, as shown on her Military Identity Card. Now she could enjoy some home leave. It is worth mentioning that some six months later, on 17th March 1944, ‘TMS Dempo’ was sunk by German submarine U-371.
Another acquaintance she met in Sierra Leone was Doris M Hawkins, a young Scottish aristocrat, who had the misfortune to be on the ‘RMS Lanconia’ when it was sunk by a German submarine on 12th September 1942 off coast of West Africa. She was the only woman survivor in an open lifeboat, after being afloat for 27 days. Later she was the author of a pamphlet “Atlantic Torpedo,” and stayed in touch with mum until at least mid 1960’s.
Whilst at home on leave on 27th September 1943 she received notice of her next posting to the Military Hospital at Catterick Camp. On 7th October she left York Station and joined up with her friend Win Lacy at Darlington, then on to Richmond, and by taxi to the Camp. They were based here until February 1944.
Preparations were now well underway for the D-Day Landings and she was transferred to 86th (BR) General Hospital at Fleet in Hampshire. During the next couple of months she also went to Luton.
On the 6th June 1944 under the code name Overlord, the D Day landings in Normandy commenced. Mum was at Southampton on 14th June, her unit making ready for landing on 16th on the beaches at Normandy, only 10 days after D-Day, to care for the Allied casualties and injured POW’s. Field hospitals were being set up close to the front line and they were billeted under canvas in the Convent grounds at La Delivrance. Front line medical units’ role was to accept the sick and wounded, assess the casualties, carry out emergency treatment, and evacuate casualties to a general hospital behind lines. They were frequently on the move following our troops, so over the next few months the unit moved through France and Belgium, still living under canvas setting up hospitals, sometimes in a school, at Eindhoven, in a training college for Catholic priests! Here at last they had building accommodation! At one point in Germany they set up in a castle! At every stopping place they helped set up hospitals to treat injured soldiers as they returned from the front line. During her travels Freda had the opportunity of meeting and shaking hands with General Montgomery, something she also was very proud of!
On 24th November, mum was posted to the 10th (BR) Casualty Clearing Station at Eisden in Belgium. The hospital was in a school and they were billeted with the chief engineer and his family.
In contrast, after the conclusion of hostilities she was one of nine Nursing Sisters assigned on 6th May 1945 to Stalag XB Concentration Camp at Sandbostel with the 10th Casualty Clearing Station, part of the British Liberation Army, for the relief and liberation of Prisoners of War. This camp was known as ’The Horror Camp’ and sometimes referred to as ’Little Belsen.’ Here mum was placed in charge ’C’ block, the typhus ward - a dreaded place as typhus was very infectious.
Shortly after mum arrived at Sandbostel it was VE Day, but for mum there was to be no celebration at Sandbostel. In her diary on 6/7th May she wrote:
“I have 270 patients on my ward - Very, very busy; not enough food, staff or equipment. Patients in an appalling condition, starved and dying. Heard late at night it was VE day the following day”.
First evacuation of patients began on 12th May, but more were still being brought in from the camp, and it took until the 3rd June for the last patients to be liberated.
There were not enough British nurses to look after all the prisoners, so German nurses and helpers were drafted in to help - hence their presence in the camp.
In a seven page report prepared by Major Hugh McLaren, he sent a copy to mum, addressed affectionately to “Miss Laycock Chief Officer of the Famous C block.”
In it he says: “I think the splendid work of the German Sisters and women helpers was partly as a result of the example shown by British Sisters. Several times in the early days of the camp I met German girls who were weeping and not getting on with their work. They said they were terrified they would get Typhus. It was a certain cure to lead them along to see Sister Miss Laycock, in the middle of the Typhus cases, calmly doing her work!”
In further extracts from this report, which are quite poignant he goes on to say:
“I was so sickened by my first visit to the hospital, that I never had the courage to visit the Horror Camp, where some 8,000 victims had been herded. The huts were built to accommodate 80. In the block we looked after it averaged 320 patients. Each hut was allocated 1 British Sister; 1 Medical Officer; German Sisters were available about 1 for every 60 patients.
On visiting C block [my note: Freda’s block] to commence work, my first sensation was one of nausea. The latrines had been blocked for days without discouraging patients from using them. Two wards were equally offensive. On my first visit I was near to being sick. Standing on the floor or hanging on to the bunks for support were the merest skeletons of men. They were naked, unshaven and dirty.”
Of the camp itself he says: “My first view of the camp was as I expected, miles of wire encircled each low hut, and further wire encircled the whole camp. Watch towers equipped with searchlights and machine guns were placed on the circumference to cover all exits.”
The nurses left here a month later on 6th June 1945, and after such a traumatic ordeal they were taken for a two week holiday at Cuxhaven, a seaside town on the German North Sea Coast.
Mum and Win Lacy left Cuxhaven on 18th June destined for Gandersheim where they were to set up a hospital in a motoring school. Gandersheim had been a sub-camp for the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. From 12th to 22nd July she was on home leave, returning to Germany on 23rd. After finishing a fortnight’s night duty on 11th August they were informed of a posting to 25th General Hospital at Munster, part of the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) and arrived there on 13th August. One day she was out with friends when she was involved in a motor accident. resulting in a fractured wrist, and fractured femur [the longest and strongest bone in the body from the hip to the knee]. She was flown back to RAF Swindon and transferred to the Military Hospital at Aldershot. After several operations she returned home to recuperate. Her diary records she was discharged home from Aldershot on 23rd January 1946; demobbed on 24 June 1946 and her demob leave ended on 29th September 1946.

Family Life

My mum Freda was born 23rd January 1918 at Hensall, to Samuel and Elizabeth Laycock of Hensall. She was one of eight children born to this couple, who were farmers. Mum used to enjoy telling my sister and myself about her life there, including walking two miles to school every day - with the occasional lift in a pony and trap. The children all had jobs around the farm, collecting eggs or feeding pigs, and so they were kept busy. The family were members of the Methodist Church, and through this the children attended Sunday School each week. At the end of each year scholars who attended regularly received a book. The book mum received one year was called “Sisters of the Red Cross” and it was after reading this, mum decided she wanted to become a nurse. In the mid 1930’s mum was interviewed by the Matron at Pontefract Infirmary and offered a place to start her training. On the successful completion of this she went to St. Luke’s at Bradford to gain a midwifery qualification.
After she was demobbed part of her recuperation involved physiotherapy treatment at Pontefract General Infirmary, and it was here she met and fell in love with Charles Blackburne, and they married at Hensall Parish Church in June 1950, blessed with two daughters Kathryn (1952) and Patricia (1956). At 25 years of age Charles had lost his sight as a result of an explosion at the Chemical works. Afterwards he trained as a physiotherapist and in addition to working at Pontefract Infirmary, set up a business at their home on Womersley Road. After marrying, mum did not return to work, as she assisted dad in all he did. Although a country girl at heart she adapted to life in Knottingley and enjoyed all she did. She created a wonderful home life for dad, my sister and myself, and our husbands and grandchildren. She took pleasure in attending Ropewalk Methodist Church, and particularly liked the Bright Hour, and the sewing meeting held there. Later on she enjoyed membership of the Knottingley Townswomens’ Guild.
40 years after the war ended, mum returned on a trip with Win, and a coach load of veterans. One chap said: “I remember the Sisters arriving, we were clearing the beaches of mines, and you all looked like Betty Grable to us.”
It brought back memories, and Freda reflected “I thought of our arrival on 16th June 1944, we had all been issued with khaki battle dress and emergency rations. There was a feeling of apprehension and excitement as we went down the canvas chute on to the landing craft. We eventually arrived at 11.30 p.m. at our 200 bedded hospital set up in the grounds of a convent. We slept on stretchers that night, but later, because of falling shrapnel, our beds were dug in, and the head part covered with corrugated sheeting.
We were all on duty the next morning, and casualties were constantly arriving, some on foot with minor injuries, others severely wounded requiring blood transfusions, operations, and sometimes amputation. Penicillin was new and had to be dissolved in water and injected three hourly. Some nights were very noisy, the drone of planes, gunfire and explosions, then the casualties would pour in. Other times it was relatively quiet, and everyone was pleased to have a good nights sleep. Because the front was near, all patients, except those with severe abdominal wounds had to be sent home. Some of them were eventually sent back, only to find themselves in hospital again within a matter of weeks.
At the fall of Caen we handed over to another hospital and moved forward. I can still remember the smell of dead animals, and the sight of German soldiers dead in the hedges. Our driver had a handkerchief tied over his mouth and nose. It was distressingly sad to see the devastation and destruction everywhere.”
Sadly mum contracted Motor Neurone Disease and passed away 16th November 2003.