ARCHIVE: Letters and photographs relating to the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in Southeast Asia.
REMARKABLE RECORD OF WOMENS’ WARTIME MILITARY MEDICAL SERVICE
[Medical – Military – WWI] Jenkins, Deirdre. Scrapbook. India, Ceylon: November
1944 to August 1945.
Scrapbook containing 33 letters and 12 snapshot photographs. Most letters are on Royal
Air Mail stationery, with postage used India or Ceylon. Three letters and one photograph
have censorship stamps. Photographs vary in size, the largest measuring approximately
9 x 6 cm, the smallest measuring approximately 5 x 5 cm.
The personal wartime archive of Deirdre Jenkins, an adventurous English woman in the
First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) serving in Southeast Asia. The FANY was an all-
female nursing unit with specialized training, which during wartime provided the critical
service of frontline rescue together with medical aid, much like today’s combat medics.
The units being independent from the Royal Army, a wide range of roles were required
for full camp operations.
These letters present a most uncommon glimpse into overseas life with F.A.N.Y. The
letters are addressed to her mother, in London, and as such are rather personal and
comments are unreserved. She describes in detail the conditions under which the women
of F.A.N.Y. lived, in her case for the most part in the isolation of a heavily guarded
camp in the jungles of Ceylon. Jenkins’s writes first on November 16, 1944 when she
was based at Meerut, northeast of New Delhi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and worked
as a switchboard operator. (Meerut is famously associated with the Indian Rebellion of
1857 against the British East India Company.) On January 22, 1945 she announces that
she has moved to Ceylon. There she started and managed a hair salon for the unit, also
extending grooming services to the men of the RAF. Having the privilege of select
guided outings, and the unique opportunity to mingle with the men of the British Army,
we learn that on Saturday June 16, 1945, in Calcutta, she married Major John Blackall-
Palmer, Indian Army Frontier Force Rifles, MBE, born into a wealthy family of rubber
plantation owners in Burma.
(The Major’s service in Burma, since 1937 presents another dimension of interest to the
war letters, with mention of battles against the Japanese, and looting the corpses. One of
the photographs, evidently taken by Major Blackall-Palmer, shows Japanese troops
marching through the Kabaw Valley in the highlands of in northern Burma (Myanmar) February 1945. In India, four are of the Taj Mahal, one shows workers harvesting a high
altitude tea plantation, and one is taken at a public washing basin.)
Excerpts from the letters will give a sense of tone and content:
November 16, 1944, Meerut, India. “... I wish very much you could come out here - The
animals just walk around the road & hedges. The children are all barefooted and always
salam you & salute you when you go by. The women carry colossal things balancing on
their heads just as they used to in the Biblical days, and wear the same robes... you only
ever see a horse & cart... bullocks & carts... the other day I saw a naked woman to the
waist walking along unconcerned & the other side of the road was a dead man stark
naked on the way to his burial... We are having a lot of issue with our uniform of which
have to pay ourselves... George (the captain) has given me a zanbar skin which he shot
himself... it looks very effective on my stone floor - No men are allowed to the
bungalows at all but they can come to our mess on personal invitation.”
January 22, 1945 (Sri Lanka jungle camp): “I have moved to another country. I was
indeed very sorry to leave Meerut... things are so awfully cheap in India and so terribly
expensive in Ceylon... They don’t have tongas in Ceylon, only rickshaws... The country
itself is not so poverty stricken...even the children can speak a bit of English...”
February 3, 1945: “... Commander Merriman, the head of the F.A.N.Y.s out here told me
that as this camp is such a long way from town - we are 12 miles out right in the jungle -
She would like to start up a hairdressing salon & has arranged for me to leave the
switchboard on Monday for good...”
March 7, 1945: “...Last night I went out to a Navy Mess for Dinner & Dance & met a
nice Lt. Commander who is only down here from India for a fortnight but that is always
the way... lunch with him tomorrow... the Grant Orient Hotel [Colombo]”
March 10, 1945: “I am going to ask if I can go to Calcutta - we are only supposed to be
at a station for 6 months but you know how the FANY organisation is... awfully slow at
everything. Nobody helped with the salon. I did it all myself... If I move again I shall
naturally go back to switchboard work or registered clerking... I hate being stuck right
out here in the jungle... here you can’t move outside the camp unless you have a date
who brings transport...”
March 22, 1945: “...such stiff rationing... all material [fabric] has now been rationed in
Ceylon...There are a lot of rumours again about moving... we will have to be prepared to
rough it to that country beginning with ----- there is such a shortage of it in England... “
“...there is a lot of dirty work to do and the RAF are the people who help to do it...We
had a big explosion in the harbour about 2 days ago - a ship exploded - there is a very
strong anti-British Pecha (pasha?) here - we have to be very careful when we go out.”
April 16, 1945: “... I am going to Kandy next weekend with our C.O. Cpt. Graham
Weall - to do their hair for them...”
June 6, 1945 (Calcutta): “I am due off to Ceylon tomorrow. John has gone back to
Burma & the Japs... what an interesting leave I have had - married - honeymoon - all so
unexpected... John has given me a lovely ruby ring he swooped his shirt for it & 14 rps
off a Burmese man 85 miles up the Rangoon Rd just after one of the big campaigns had
finished. I have got a lot of his loot which he’s collected off dead Japs. Jap flag &
suicide knife - Jap money etc...”
July 12, 1945: “... John is in the Regular Indian Army... when the war is over he does go
back to a lower rank but he hopes to be a Col soon... He might give up his army career
& go into Rubber plantations. It all depends on what he is offered & the salary etc.”
July 16, 1945: “John’s mother used to own a lot of Rubber Plantations out in Burma - he
was born out there. She sold out just in time before the Japs arrived so didn’t suffer any
financial loss... John is very particular about food & wines etc.... he tells me I have a lot
to learn to be a good hostess as I shall be in charge of the servants, ordering the food,
running the house, & most important to him the wines & spirits... During our
honeymoon I often had to entertain about 9 or 10 jungle types both at lunch & dinner -
he was always very kind & helpful... Mount Lavina is very beautiful...”
August 1945 (Voyage to Calcutta): “... I am alive & kicking... Travelling first class
seems to suit me OK. We have a valet to run our bathwater, another one to deliver our
tea... I shall be very interested to know if my letter to you was censored... owing a very
rough part of the sea I was sick only once...Elizabeth Arden sends parcels to India for
anyone who gives an order... There is tons more I want to tell you - but can’t owing to
the censoring regulations... I cursed the day I ever packed my civvie clothes with me for
the voyage - they are strictly banned - also we are carefully watched - we must be in our
cabins by ten pm... these precautions because there are so many males around I
suppose...”
***
Miss Deirdre Jenkins, serving in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, identification No.
18547, was a cadet/ensign (ensign being equivalent to second lieutenant in the British
Army), initially stationed in Meerut, India, as a switchboard operator, then moved to a
camp in the palm jungles of Ceylon with Force 136 which was part of SOE (Special
Operations Executive) in Southeast Asia. Perhaps having an ancestral Australian
connection, her father was Mr. C. Jenkins whom had a residence in Melbourne,
Australia, as well as in Hendon in London.
The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry is a British independent all-female registered charity.
Formed in 1907 it was active in both nursing and intelligence work during the two
World Wars, and served as a first aid link between the field hospitals and the front lines.
It was given the yeomanry title as all its members were originally mounted on
horseback. And, unlike standard nursing organizations, the FANY saw themselves
rescuing the wounded and giving first aid, similar to a modern combat medic. Their
founder, Sergeant Major, later Captain, Edward Baker, a veteran of the Sudan Campaign
and the Second Boer War, felt that a single rider could get to a wounded soldier faster
than a horse-drawn ambulance.
Each woman was trained not only in first aid but signaling and drilling in cavalry
movements. In September 1938, the FANY Corps was asked to form the initial Motor
Driver Companies of the Auxiliary Territorial Service, called the Women’s Transport
Service. A small part of F.A.N.Y. - highly secret at the time and later famous - served as
a parent unit for many women who undertook espionage work for the Special
Operations Executive. Recruits were trained in one of four fields: Motor Transport,
Wireless Telegraphy, Codes or General. They worked on coding and signals, acting as
conductors for agents and providing administration and technical support for the Special
Training Schools. Their work was top secret and often highly skilled. Members operated
in several theatres of war, including North Africa, Italy, India and the Far East. Thirty-
nine of the fifty women sent into France by SOE were FANYs, 13 of whom were
captured and murdered by the Gestapo. Many decorations, of both the UK and other
countries, were awarded for their service and outstanding courage. Among these, four of
the highest UK decorations were the George Cross awarded to Odette Hallowes (who
was incarcerated and tortured, but survived the war), to Violette Szabo and Noor Inayat
Khan (both perished in captivity and were decorated posthumously). Nancy Wake’s
awards included the George Medal. Now officially the Princess Royal’s Volunteer
Corps (renamed in 1999, after being given permission by Anne, Princess Royal to use
her title), it is now referred to as FANY (PRVC). The original name has greater
recognition, however, and greater prominence even in official publications and on its
website.
(#4658960)
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