Love & war

'Having to flee for my life, being shot at and almost torpedoed were not what my father had in mind for me, as we waited in the Piccadilly offices of the National Society of Day Nurseries to look at their list of positions for nannies, nurses and governesses. Like many fathers in the 1930s he wanted to make sure that if his daughter went to work in another country she would be as safe as possible.

'I grew up as one of eight children in a very happy family. My parents felt their daughters as well as their sons should train for a profession. I wanted to look after children, so at 16 I enrolled at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford, Essex. I qualified at 18 but then went on to gain my SRN and did general nursing until I was 22. I still desperately wanted to be a nanny, and I applied to be a governess for Prince and Princesse Guy de Polignac, an aristocratic French family who wanted an English nanny. I honestly did not expect to get the job. There were 12 other applicants and in those days 22 was considered very young for a nanny or a governess. But I was the one they chose, and soon my trunk was packed and in 1938 I said goodbye to my family and set off across the Channel, little realising how long I would be gone, or how much would happen to me while I was away.