Most trainee nurses lived in nurses’ homes. Many had to pay their board and lodging; all had to make small salaries stretch a long way. 

Louise Garvey recalls that, “I think my first pay was £7 for the month, as I lived in ... Most nurses had to live in then, it was not like now. So it was £7, after they had taken out my board and lodgings and food. You had to be in by 11pm and you had to get a written note from matron if you needed to stay out later than that. Matron would check if you were in and some people climbed out of windows after 11pm!”

Lena Hunt recollects: “Normally we had to live in the nurses’ home during training, and be subject to all the rules and regulations of the home sisters. We had to be in by 10.30pm, but if you had a late pass you would have to be in by 11.30pm, after which time the front door to the home was locked and we had to try and get someone to let us in – without letting the sister know if possible – or there would be trouble the next day! The night porters often helped us to sneak in. We had two late passes and one sleeping-out pass a

week. I think the matron and sisters probably felt that they had some parental responsibility for us.”

Lynette Richards-Murray’s salary was “only £9 a month in my hand and out of that £9 a month I used to send home half of that and live on the other half. Being a civil servant in Guyana it sounded like a lot of money but I didn’t

realise they were going to take money out for taxes, superannuation, national insurance, boarding and lodging. You know you had to let it stretch. You didn’t have to buy food but of course you needed things like stockings.”

Student nurses drinking tea and eating cakes (Royal London Hospital Archives)