Chorleywood resident star of London exhibition

18 April 2005

Chorleywood resident Joan Roberts had a great surprise when her daughter, Lindsey, told her there was an exhibition in London with a picture of her in it.

During World War Two Joan worked as a nurse for the River Emergency Services on the Thames.  Curators for the Museum in Docklands chose a picture of Joan in her uniform, wearing a tin hat, as one of the highlights of their special exhibition “Londoners at Work”.

Joan, Lindsey and her husband Unie drove down to see the exhibition and discovered that Joan’s picture was also part of the permanent “London at War” display.

Tom Wareham, curator at the Museum, showed Joan some more pictures from the archive of people working in the River Emergency Service.

For Joan it brought back memories of dodging doodlebugs while eating fish and chips, going to the cinema, wartime romance and sleeping on the hospital boat.  She remembered a very special sense of companionship that the girls in the service shared, saying they had a terrific time.

Tom said: “The picture of Joan and her two colleagues is one of our favourite pictures in the Museum’s vast collection and I wasn’t surprised that Joan’s nickname at the service had been “Twinks” after the twinkle in her eye.

“When you look at the picture and talk to Joan, you can see why one of Joan’s nine grandchildren said she knew it was her granny in the picture because she recognised the expression on Joan’s face that meant she was going to do something naughty!

“Joan actually added a lot to our knowledge of the picture by telling us about her time in the River Emergency Service.  From the cap badge that Joan brought in we realised that many of our photographs date from the early part of the war when the River Emergency Service was still run by the Port of London Authority.”

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