2-690-787 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Crisp white linen', 1940. From Life as a Nurse, booklet on nursing during World War II, in Tuck's Better Little Book series. At the beginning of the war it was estimated that up to 67,000 nurses were needed to care for the expected air-raid casualties - more than the number of trained nurses in employment. A Civil Nursing Reserve was set up - 7000 trained nurses, 3000 assistant nurses and also nursing auxiliaries. The auxiliaries were given fifty hours training in hospital before they started work. 6,200 from the Civil Nursing Reserve were working in hospitals in June 1940. [Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd, London, 1940]