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NOSTALGIA: Farewell to sister Jean




Nostalgia - retirement of sister Jean Williams from West Suffolk Hospital in 1992 ANL-160507-162526005
Nostalgia - retirement of sister Jean Williams from West Suffolk Hospital in 1992 ANL-160507-162526005

This week’s photograph was taken in February 1992 during a ‘send-off’ for sister Jean Williams at West Suffolk Hospital.

Friends and colleagues gathered to pay tribute to sister Williams who was retiring after 40 years of nursing in Bury St Edmunds.

She had worked in the operating theatre at the town’s former hospital, where she began her career in 1948 (only leaving nursing during the mid-1950s to bring up her two children), and became sister on the day and emergency ward when the current one opened in the 1970s – a post she held until her retirement.

HEADLINES FROM THE PAST

10 YEARS AGO

Residents in Elmswell were thought to be going bananas after a campaign against the parish council saw the yellow fruit appear all over the village.

Parish clerk Peter Dow had bananas shoved through his letter box, while an inflatable banana had been found swinging from the village sign and stickers depicting a bunch of bananas – with Elmswell written underneath – had been mysteriously stuck around the village.

Mr Dow said he believed the campaign stemmed from comments in a press report in which Elmswell was labelled a ‘banana republic’ and that some people had even shouted racist comments at him.

He said he thought the reputation of the council had been damaged.

25 YEARS AGO

Parishioners in Bildeston were pleading with a district councillor to help them furnish their church with an affordable water supply.

The 14th century St Mary Magdalene church was situated at the top of a steep hill and water for social functions and for flowers for graves had to be taken it in heavy containers, while the only toilet facility was a chemical toilet.

Vicar the Rev Roger Dedman said, because the hill was half-a-mile long and quite a distance from the village, the church could not afford to run a separate supply from the mains.

Farmer Clive Arthey, who was also a district councillor, owned land surrounding the church which had a water pipe and had been asked to allow the church to pay for piping.

100 YEARS AGO

Mr H Goodfellow, of King’s Road, Bury St Edmunds, has received official information of the death of his second son, Prvt E R Goodwin, who has been missing since May 8, 1915.

This is Mr Goodwin’s third son to lay down his life for his country. The youngest son, Prvt T A Goodfellow, is with the 2nd Suffolks out in France, where he has been for 15 months.

-- The Russell family, of Thetford, several members of which are well-known throughout West Suffolk and Norfolk, have a record of which they may well be proud so far as the present war is concerned.

The four brothers hold commissions in the 16th West Yorks Regt and it is a noteworthy fact that every male member of the family of military age is serving King and country.