FOUR nights of partying landed Nurse Dawn Griffis in serious trouble with Matron.

Nurses at the Horton General Hospital at Banbury were often invited to balls, with women in evening dress and men in tuxedoes, dark suits or dress uniforms.

Matron held an annual ball which all off-duty nurses were expected to attend – a grand affair at one of the ballrooms in Banbury Nurses were also allowed to go, with Matron’s permission, to dances in the officers’ mess at RAF and Army camps in the area, in full evening dress and with transport provided both ways.

But Mrs Griffis, then Nurse Alsford, recalls one occasion in 1959 or 1960 when partying went on longer than expected – for four nights!

Memory Lane this week

She recalls: “A small RAF camp was closing down and we had permission to stay out until 1am. The next day, there was a call to the nurses’ home.

“One of the officers said the party was still going on, though no longer formal. Were any of us interested in joining them?

“About six of us were interested. We told them we had to be back by 5am, so we could get back into the nurses’ home without being seen. All went well for three nights, each of us catching a few hours’ sleep during our off time during the day.

“When it came to leave on the last night, we had to go back in a broken-down vehicle - you could see the road through the floorboards.

Oxford Mail:

Prizegiving ceremony at Horton General Hospital in 1958

“The only way to keep the doors shut was to get in and tie rope from one door to the other. The engine had very little power. With five of us and two fellows, it was pretty well loaded.

“When we got to a hill, the car gave out and we had to walk four miles. We got back to the hospital just after 7am and we were due on duty at 7.30am.

“We knew if we tried to go through the nurses’ home we would be spotted, so we thought if we walked through the main part of the hospital, we’d get away with it.

“At about 9am, I was summoned to Matron’s office and told that someone had seen me come in with someone else.

“She asked me where we had been, who the other person was, and if there were any more involved. I told her we had been to a party, that the car had broken down, and we had to walk back making us late for curfew.

“She asked me if I expected to be able to work after being up all night. I told her I thought I would be all right.

“She didn’t know we had been without sleep for four nights. She told me I would be of no use to the patients, having been up all night, that I was to go to my room and sleep and I could not have a late-night pass for the next two weekends.

“I didn’t have any money, so I couldn’t have gone anywhere anyway.

“When I got back to the nurses’ home, the others were relieved I hadn’t told on them.”

Mrs Griffis, who now lives in the United States, had the last laugh, however.

She recalls: “I think I came off best - I got to sleep and they all had to work through the day!”

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