the child to the nursery and collecting him. So I was looking for something that allowed me some flexibility and a job came up in Wandsworth for a community physiotherapist and because St James’s was part of the Wandsworth Health Authority I was successful in getting that job. It was a wide-ranging job with patients. I worked there until 1978. It was difficult to get any other jobs in terms of seniority because the next stage up would have been superintendent. In 1978 I had my second son so I stopped working for a while and resigned my post. I then saw a job with St Francis Hospital in Dulwich, which was an elderly care hospital attached to King’s College, there was a deputy superintendent post. I applied and got the job. We had students and junior members attached to us, teaching to be done and managerial tasks. I was there until 1983. From 1983 to 1991 I worked in Tooting Bec Hospital as an assistant superintendent physiotherapist.”

Hazel Watson took time out to have children. “I spent about two years or so at the hospital I then got married in 1959 and had my daughter … I looked after my family and I didn’t work again until 1964. I worked at Guy’s Hospital. I was a domestic housekeeper in the evenings … My duties were bringing the patients their meals, filling up jugs of water, washing dishes, getting the trolley ready and sending it back to the kitchen. My husband was a carpenter so he would come in and take the kids. I worked in that position until the early 1970s.”

A children’s Christmas party, Bethnal Green Hospital, 1960s (Royal London Hospital Archives: BG/P/14)