Hale WI give nostalgic concert to remember

The show, at St. Peter’s Assembly Rooms, was researched, written and directed by Patricia Helingoe who also played the role of a nurse with the Voluntary Aid Detachment, one of 38,000 female volunteers.

She read a lighthearted poem written by an actual VAD nurse which she discovered at Dunham Hall WWI hospital.

It opened with a parade carrying posters urging men to enlist and was quickly followed with placards demanding that women get the right to work.

They got their wish and women from all walks of life rallied round to help.

Two members, Ann Mcguiness and Heather Walton, wrote their own scripts.

Ann Mcguiness read extracts from the diary of Martha, a munitions worker in 1916.   She spent her time assembling explosives and the TNT affected her hair, skin and lungs.

Heather Walton became an upper class woman and former debutante who joined the land army and became the leader of four girls toiling the soil.

Most moving was the testimony of Dorothy Firth, born in 1926, who recalled the war’s effects on her father.

A one minute’s silence followed to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

The evening ended on a lighter note with a sing-song of popular songs of the time accompanied by Sarah Booth on the piano.