"Memories of a medical student during the Second World War", by Dr Thelma Phelps

"Memories of a medical student during the Second World War": typescript, in presentation binder (27pp. plus cover). Pages 25-26 comprise copies of photographs, whilst p.27 is a photocopy of Dr. Phelps' card recording her training history.

As noted under Historical Background, Dr. Phelps describes initial training evacuated to St Andrews and to Exeter, drawing also on the memories of her fellow students Mary Helmer and Margaret Bywater, then gives her own recollections of clinical years in London (1942-1945), describing the difficulties of practising medicine whilst subjected to bombing. The training includes much on coping with war eventualities - bombing injuries, decontamination of mustard gas victims, etc. - and this is put into practical use when the hospital is hit during an air raid. During this period Dr. Phelps worked at the Royal Free Hospital, the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital and the Royal Northern Hospital.

In addition to Dr. Phelps' memoir of her student years, this collection of papers includes 4 pages dealing with her career "After Qualifying", relating her first job at Wanstead Hospital and her subsequent move to Nottingham, where she worked initially as a dental anaesthetist before specialising in community medicine. Two sheets in this collection comprise her reply, in 1985, to a request that she should summarise her activitives as a community medicine specialist, indicating the breadth of duties that this entailed.

Thelma Phelps joined the London (Royal Free Hospital) School of Medicine for Women in October 1939. Owing to the war, the school was evacuated from London and she studied in various locations: in St Andrews for her first year, then for two years in Exeter, then returning to London for her clinical years (1942-1945). Her fellow students included Mary Helmer and Margaret Bywater, and this memoir was produced as a result of a meeting of the three doctors on 10th June 2007 to pool their memories of their training: all three contribute memories to the sections concerning St Andrews and Exeter, whilst the London years comprise Dr Phelps' own memories alone.

Following her qualification, Dr. Phelps worked at Wanstead Hospital and as Assistant County Medical Officer in Dagenham. In 1949 she moved to Nottingham, where she worked first as a dental anaesthetist and then as a specialist in community medicine, undertaking a wide range of duties that are described in the papers collected here. She retired in 1987.