Miss E H A Luker

6 detailed ms. diaries and miscellaneous papers relating to her service in the QAIMNS; in France at No 4 BGH, La Baule and No 12 CCS, Bethune, 1939 - 1940; in No.8 BGH, Alexandria, 1941 - 1943; in HMHS DORSETSHIRE evacuating patients from Tobruk and Benghasi to Alexandria and from various parts of the Middle East, East Africa and Madagascar to South Africa and India, 1941 - 1943; at various hospitals in Britain principally at Netley, Aldershot, Edinburgh and Bovington, 1943 - 1944; at No 111 BGH, Brussels and finally No 79 BGH and No 75 BGH, Norway 1944 - 1945; with a useful record of her work and off duty activities, of her experiences during the evacuation of the BEF from France, of conditions in the different hospitals where she was based and life in Petersfield, Hampshire where she spent most of her home leave as well as interesting references to nursing General Horrocks and Field Marshal Sperrle (Luftwaffe).

<span class="wrapper"><p>See also DPH</p> <p>A copy of Family Journal - The War Years by Helen Luker's sister, Mrs B M Wardle is held by the IWM's Department of Printed Books.</p></span>

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Esther Helen Audrey Luker, the daughter of Florence Helen and William Luker was born on 26 August 1905 probably in Petersfield, Hampshire. She was the third child in a family of three girls and a boy and was educated with her sisters at the Godolphin School, Salisbury. Later she attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts where she studied calligraphy, an interest which she retained all her life. It was however in nursing that Miss Luker decided to make her career and she duly began her training at St Thomas's at some stage during the late 1920s. It proved to be a most happy association and she was always at pains to maintain links with the friends that she made there and with the hospital itself. In 1935 Helen, (the name by which she was always known), qualified as a sister and acceded in the same year to a request made by the Matron-in-Chief for volunteers to join the QAIMNSR. The following year she received instructions on what to do in the event of a general mobilization and during the Munich Crisis of 1938 when she was on a walkling tour in Scotland she carried her papers with her and made every effort to hear the radio news each night. In August 1939 she helped evacuate patients from St Thomas's by Green Line bus and on 1 September she was mobilized and joined the No 4 General Hospital in Netley, thus beginning her war service. As a QA she travelled extensively, nursed under the most trying and dangerous conditions and experienced the most fulfilling and most frustrating aspects of being 'in the army'. Undoubtedly she was happiest serving overseas and happiest of all working in the Hospital Ship Dorsetshire. Perhaps she might have finished her service afloat had it not been for a severe illness which she contracted in February 1943 and which nearly killed her. For over a year following her recovery she was restricted to home service which she found unrewarding and depressing; despite later postings to Belgium and Norway Helen never really seems to have regained her enthusiasm for her work and was relieved when her demobilization came through - appropriately enough on 15 August, VJ Day. In October 1945 she was awarded the ARRC by which time she had resumed her connection with St Thomas's and was working at the hopsital's preliminary training school in Godalming. Later she moved to their country hospital at Hydestile and after a six year break as Matron of Haslemere and District Hospital she was appointed Sister-in-Charge at Hydestile. It was to be her last post. In May 1957 she suffered a seizure and was dead within a few days.

Miss Luker's diaries give considerable insight into her character and way of life. She had a strong personality, a considerable devotion to duty and a reluctance to tolerate sloppiness or incompetence. Her life was based on a strong religious faith and she was always conscientious in her attendance of church services even when faced with transport difficulties and lack of spare time. Until her illness in 1943 she seemed to have boundless energy and filled her off-duty hours with walking, cycling, sailing and sightseeing. Helen was also an accomplished dressmaker, a keen photographer and a tireless correspondent; contact with her family and friends was extremely important to her and whenever she had the opportunity to visit ex-colleagues or relatives she always made every effort to do so. There is however a marked difference between entries made prior to her serious illness in 1943 and those written during and after her convalescence. She was left considerably debilitated and lacked the vitality to pursue some of the more robust of her outdoor activities. In addition Helen suffered from depression and from the sense that her abilities and experiences were being wasted. She longed to return to foreign service but even when this came in December 1944 she never quite seems to have regained her 'Joie de vivre'.