Clodagh Finn: Blitz diary of an Irish nurse on Thames ambulance boat

Longford woman logged her experiences of war in a diary found by her relatives after her death

Aileen H Moore (circled) in a group photo of staff nurses at Devon and Exeter Hospital. Picture courtesy of her family

Irish nurse Aileen Henrietta Moore was on board an ambulance boat on the River Thames when German bombers blitzed London for the first time in 1940. She and her fellow civil defence volunteers had just had tea on a fine September afternoon, when bombing suddenly began with great intensity.

The boat rocked and they took refuge — “tin-hatted & hung with… masks” — under stretchers on board. At around 6pm, the volunteers cruised up the river to see what they might do to help before being called on to pick up 250 casualties at Woolwich.