Celia Packe's wartime experiences

Celia Dibblee (nee Packe) was fond of poetry all her life, and she wrote some poetry herself. During World War II, Celia was working as a VAD. The Voluntary Aid Detachment was a voluntary organisation providing field nursing services in hospitals and other places. They were not officially nurses, since their training was rudimentary, but Celia tended to call herself a nurse. She said "Poetry was a marvellous escape from the GREYNESS of wartime Britain - and it was an escape from my own job as a nurse working in various military hospitals.

There are some more poems in Celia's own wartime memoirs.

Night Duty

Written at Shaftsbury, December 1943

Everything is asleep.
The air breaths rhythmically.
The clock pulses evenly.
The radiator's temperature
Warms the room moderately.

The hour is three o'clock,
Time of low resistance.
Life waits for guidance
In this hour of evil,
Then throbs of[f] in silence.

Thoughts become empty.
Five hours till morning.
The sun is late dawning.
Down behind Melbury
She quietly lies snoring.

'Flu

Written at Shaftsbury, December 1943

For thirty one nights I've nursed For thirty one nights I've cursed.
	'Flu, 'Flu, 'Flu On "Officers 1 & 2"*.
Then I'd leave for thirty six hours To Razzle till money expires
	And forget the horrors of 'flu On "Officers 1 & 2".
Even a nurse can be ill I've learned For the tables were suddenly turned
	Instead of the train I caught the 'flu And returned to "1 & 2".

It was better than expectation Mrs Sommerville with inhalations Sister Cox with Mist Expect It all took great effect
	On that chesty testy 'flu On "Officers 1 & 2".
Although I've enjoyed my stay To the staff I cautiously say
	Do beware of catching 'flu On "Officers 1 & 2".

*"Officers 1 & 2" was a female ward.

Soldier's badges of the inside of Celia Packe's VAD cape

This is Celia Packe's VAD cape, black outside and red inside. She sewed on badges from the various soldiers that she nursed.

The Coming Invasion

Written at Shaftsbury, February 1944

This will be no gentle spring
Christened with April's tender showers.
Fiercely will Justice turn her back
On lovers, poets, lambs and flowers.

This will be a fearful spring
When retribution summons dread
Then, baptised with grief and tears
Will Europe bleed and count her dead.

Spring has brought, though eternity,
Fresh courage, hope, a time to pray.
Will crucifixion be her birth?
Who can say, oh who can say?

This was written three months before
the great invasion of Europe of D Day

Newspaper article about Shaftesbury Military Hospital - Nursing Times, July 21, 1945. Click on picture for large version.

Label says "Piece of silk from a German Parachute 1941

I suspect that my mother collected this! The careful labelling is like her. I assume that the rest of the parachute was used for making underwear, etc. Clothing and testiles were increasingly in short supply, and rationed, and parachute silk is - well silk! Celia Packe's own wartime memoirs describe an incident in 1943 involving German parachutists, but that is later. It makes one wonder exactly how many German parachutists arrived in Britain! And whether the British reaction was "Oh good! Silk underwear!"

The medals of Celia Dibblee (nee Packe)


Defence Medal and War Medal 1939-45	Dog tag