Mary Ellen Morris (née Mulry; 15 February 1921 – 1997) was an Irish nurse and writer, known for her war diaries during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. These are stored at the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

and in June 2014 were published under the title 'A Very Private Diary', a reference to one diary entry: ''"15 June 1944, Bognor Regis: Should have headed this 'Somewhere in Southern England' but this is a very private diary..."'' She was born in

County Galway "Righteousness and Justice" , anthem = () , image_map = Island of Ireland location map Galway.svg , map_caption = Location in Ireland , area_footnotes = , area_total_km2 = ...

, Ireland and left her home at the age of 18, after passing the examination to train at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

in London as a nurse probationer. After training, she was transferred to Kent. Her diaries start here with the arrival of survivors from the

Dunkirk evacuation The Dunkirk evacuation, codenamed Operation Dynamo and also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, or just Dunkirk, was the evacuation of more than 338,000 Allied soldiers during the Second World War from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the ...

, and subsequently, injured pilots from the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. Here she also underwent training in fever nursing, a specialisation prior to antibiotics when whooping cough and diphtheria were fatal. Working at the 'home front' during

The Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

, she spent many nights moving very ill children and babies from their beds to safer underground shelters. Despite the wishes of her matron, she enlisted with the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserves, known as the QAs. It is with the QAs that she is dispatched to

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

on a troopship on 18 June, 12 days after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. The field hospital follows the troops into Belgium, where she cares for survivors of the disastrous assault on Arnhem, and then later into Germany. During her active service in Belgium she met her future husband, Malcolm Morris, in 1945. The diary ends in 1947 with the birth of their son, Michael.

Books

References

External links

Irish Times article

Irish Times article

Connacht Tribune article

Essay on Mary Morris's experiences, by Carol Acton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris, Mary 1921 births 1997 deaths Date of death missing Irish women diarists Irish nurses Writers from County Galway Place of death missing 20th-century Irish diarists Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom Health professionals from County Galway