‘Phyllis Martin is your name. Single is your station. Happy be the man that makes the Alteration’.
Private Robin, Phyllis Martin Autograph Book
Phyllis Martin was the daughter of a wealthy Plymouth family. She worked as a volunteer VAD nurse at various hospitals throughout Devon and Somerset.
At the outbreak of war, Phyllis was engaged to Godfrey Paget, a serving officer with Northamptonshire Militia. Godfrey was involved in one of the earliest British-German engagements and was killed in action just six weeks after Britain entered the war, at the Battle of Aisne, on September 14th1914.
It was only a few months later that Phyllis set out to work at the South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital in Plymouth, as a VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) nurse. VADs or ‘Very Adorable Darlings’ as they were sometimes known, had become an essential addition to the war effort and undertook tasks ranging from nursing assistants and administrators to ambulance drivers and chefs. Throughout the war, and for some time afterwards, Phyllis served at numerous hospitals including Plympton, Millbay and Bradninch.
Phyllis was particularly popular with the convalescing servicemen she treated, as evidenced by the extraordinary photographic record she kept with her faithful Box Brownie camera, as well as her own autograph books. Like many young nurses of the time, Phyllis kept three autograph books which would be circulated amongst friends and acquaintances. These contained notes, ditties, poems and witticisms, sketches, jokes, keepsakes and even beautiful pieces of embroidery. An entry from Private Francis Murray Kay reads;
‘Think of me now, Think of me ever. Think of the days we had together.’
Apart from the many affectionate and romantic entries, there are several which reflect the enlisted soldier’s changing attitudes to the conflict. An earlier entry from a Sergeant JW Clay reads;
‘Kaiser Bill went up the hill
To see the dreadful slaughter
He fell down and broke his crown
And so he jolly well orter.’
Whilst later verses are sadder and more wistful;
‘I want to go home. I want to go home.
Jack Johnsons and shrapnel around me do roar.
I don’t want to go to the Kinik any more.
I want to go over the sea where the Germans cannot catch me.
Oh my, I don’t want to die, I want to go home.’
Phyllis Martin continued her work as a VAD until the end of 1919. She married the son of a local dairy farmer, Leonard Newbery in 1922. They had three children and lived their lives as dairy farmers at Fordwater, just outside Axminster. Phyllis passed away in 1979, aged 90.
References
Robinson, C., 2014. Phyllis Martin: The Story of a Volunteer Nurse in the Great War. Plymouth: Pen & Ink Publishing.
QARANC, 2006. Voluntary Aid Detachment [online] Available from: http://www.qaranc.co.uk/voluntary-aid-detachment.php [Accessed on 01/11/2017]
Images
1918. Nurse Phyllis Martin (GPMM) at Longlead Military Hospital. John Newbery Private Collection.
1917. Nurse Phyllis Martin with convalescing soldiers at Millbay Hospital. John Newbery Private Collection.
