This week’s post offers an intimate, firsthand glimpse into the lives of nurses during WWII, as captured through the sketches of Lorna Moore.
Lorna (Liz) Moore, née Woolcock, was born in Unley, Adelaide, and pursued her studies at the South Australian School of Art. A talented freelance commercial artist, she moved to London in late 1938 to further her career and explore the world.
Having trained at the South Australian School of Art, Lorna became a successful freelance commercial artist and eventually pursued her career overseas. A commissioned piece for Swan and Edgar, a popular department store in Piccadilly Circus, London.
However, with the outbreak of World War II, Lorna realized her artistic skills were no longer in demand and decided that her wartime role would be as a nurse. Her journey began with volunteering for the Land Army, attending first aid and poison gas lectures, and assisting teachers in evacuating children from London’s East End to the countryside.
Failing to find employment, Lorna untimely decided to return to Australia, using her £90 round-the-world fare to board a blacked-out ship traveling back home.
In 1941, Lorna began a 3 year General Nursing Training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, supplemented with a 3 month postgraduate course at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital, now the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Material and spare time was scarce in the wards, but Lorna took every opportunity to sketch her surroundings, even if it meant using the reverse side of a patients record. She received further encouragement from her peers, who would take on extra roles to grant Lorna more time to sketch.
“Liz keep drawing. I’ll finish up you!”
During the war years, much like everything else, paper was also rationed and encouraged to be reused. Patient records were double sided, with multiple files on the same piece to minimise wastage. Patient confidentiality took second priority to rationing.
It is unknown if this record belongs to the same person depicted in the sketch.
In this sketch, Lorna has represented a group of nurses as angles with wings and halos. This could be because angels are synonymous with goodness and are often used to describe someone who offers comfort and aid to others in times of trouble, the key role and responsibility of nurses. This sketch also highlights some of the roles and duties that had to be performed by nurses.
“Liz, you draw old Fred in the corner bed and I’ll do the pans for you”
Trading Table Be Early was selected as the cover artwork for Lorna’s book, Six Hundred Unmarried Women: A Nurses Sketch Book, 1940 – 44 which was released in 1996. The original artwork was to be used as a poster for one of the hospitals trading table fundraisers for the war effort. Occasionally, the nursing staff would organise a trading table or a game of bridge as fundraisers for the war effort and victims of war.
For a nurse coming off shift at 10PM, there was little time to study and rest before the start of the next day at 6AM. Nurses would study in each other’s rooms or go for a walk, ‘hearing and testing’ each other.
This drawing was done at the Magill Wards, which were an annex of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Nurses were rostered to work at the Magill Wards during their training. A part of Lorna’s duties here was to tend to Polio patients. The clearly highlighted red flannel cape was worn by registered nurses over their dress uniform when not at the patient’s bedside, as depicted in this sketch.
“Throughout her life her pen has never been still”
Written by Anna Grigoriev, CALHN Health Museum