NURSING AT CANNES

Waikato Times, Volume 196, Issue 22548, 5 January 1945, Page 2

NURSING AT CANNES

NEWS OF NEW ZEALANDERS Cabled advice has been received by Mrs R. C. Napier and Mrs A. J. Coutts, both of Remuera, Auckland, that their sister, Miss Frances MacGibbon, from whom they had not heard for the last two years, is safe ) and well at Cannes, in the south of France, where, as a nursing sister attached to a large hospital, she has been throughout the war. Originally from Dannevirke, Miss Mac Gibbon was trained at the New Plymouth Hospital, and on the completion of her training left for England. After a year's holiday, she took a post-graduate course at Edinburgh, and then did private nursing for a time. Immediately war broke out she was called up by the Ministry of Health, and was sent to Surrey to a large emergency hospital, where she had charge of a block. No sooner was she established, however, than she received a letterfrom the authorities at Sunnybank Hospital, Cannes, begging her to try to obtain her release from her duties in England and to join their staff at the French hospital, where the need was very urgent. As a result, Sister Mac Gibbon left Folkestone for Boulogne on November 4, 1939, two months after the outbreak of war, and travelled through France to the south coast. She was therefore in the French hospital before the German occupation of the country, and has remained there ever since. Just before the fall of France she was chosen to take charge of a large convalescent hospital for Allied officers at Cap d’Antibes. The place consisted of three large private houses, one of which was formerly the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. After the collapse of France the scheme had to be abandoned.