The Flying Nightingales
A hidden aspect of World War Two nursing history.
Flying Nightingale uniform at the Florence Nightingale Museum
Imagine being a nurse with gunfire erupting around you and being ordered not to leave your patients. Those were orders given to the Flying Nightingales, a team of nursing orderlies with a critical D-Day role. I thought I knew about the basics of nursing history during World War Two and then came across an inspirational exhibition about the Flying Nightingales. I had to admit that I had never heard of them. However, I discovered the story when I recently visited the Florence Nightingale Museum in London.
The Florence Nightingale Museum is next to St Thomas’ Hospital and celebrates the life of the famous nurse. Whenever I go, I find the museum fascinating with its stories of the Crimean War, the eerie phonograph voice blasting from Flo’s bedside table, and even her pet owl. Her work on statistics fascinated me the most as she was the first woman to join the Royal Statistical Society and, even then, was registered as a man.
In addition to the permanent display, the museum has temporary exhibitions, including one that focuses on the Flying Nightingales. The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, known as WAAF, was formed in June 1939. Women were actively recruited a few months later when the Second World War broke out. Roles included technical, domestic and administrative work with two weeks of basic training on recruitment. First aid training was also included.
One week after D Day, Dakota planes took off from RAF Blakehill Farm in Wiltshire. With a nursing orderly joining the crew on board, the planes headed for Bayeaux, where they dropped essential supplies and evacuated injured soldiers. Orderlies found themselves with several seriously injured men on the flights back. The first was Corporal Lydia Alford, who received fourteen casualties to take back to the UK. Intriguingly, although the flight was repatriating the wounded, because the planes were also carrying ordnance, they were unable to display a red cross, making them vulnerable to attack. In fact, two Flying Nightingales were killed in the line of duty. Margaret Campbell’s plane was shot down, and another aircraft with Margaret Walsh on board crash-landed.
The Flying Nightingales carried out many flights, bringing injured soldiers back to the UK. They received very little recognition for their role, and by the end of the war, over 50,000 men had been repatriated, none dying while in the hands of the Flying Nightingales. In 2008, the Duchess of Cornwall presented the remaining seven Flying Nightingales with lifetime achievement awards.
They were remarkable women, inspirational, and courageous.