Nurse Pat Smith - WWII
Welcome to Listen To Older Voices, a program produced by Rob Greaves for
Uniting Melba and podcast through the Toorak Times and Tagg.
Listen To Older Voices presents the stories, views and opinions of our older citizens. It is predominantly in a life & times format, with interviewees reflecting upon their lives from earliest memories. An underlying principle of the program is to promote the concept of positive ageing, reinforcing the principle that older people have & continue to make a valuable contribution to both their local & wider community.
This is Part 1 of a 3-part program on the Life and Times of 98-year-old Patricia Smith. Pat was born in England in 1920 to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father, who was in the English army. Pat tells us that class distinction that was rife in England at this time and despite the family having a limited income and 8 children, Patricia still believes she had the best life.
As she grew up he mother offered her into “service” with a rich family, as it was the only way that her mother could improve her prospects. She ended up working for the family of Commander Pitcairn, one of whose ancestors gave his name to the Pitcairn Islands. Her prospects came to a crashing end with the declaration of WWII and she became a nurse, stationed in Portsmouth.
It was there that she met the man she would marry, Roy Smith and in this program we learn of the circumstances that bought them to Australia at wars end.
Click to hear Patricia Smith – Part 1
Previous LTOV Programs can be accessed clicking on this icon – 
[Listen To Older Voices receives funding from the Commonwealth Government through the Commonwealth Home Support Program Program]
