Mary Morris - her wartime diaries

Mary Morris (picture above) was born Mary Mulry in Ireland in 1921 and arrived in London in 1939 to train as a nurse.

Throughout the war she kept a diary which was donated to the Imperial War museum, along with her nurse's uniform sometime in the 1980s, where it remained unnoticed until discovered recently by Carol Acton. (Carol Acton is Associate Professor of English, St Jerome's University at the University of Waterloo, Ontario specialising in war writing, especially autobiographical works).

These diaries are now being published for the first time by Orion 

The diaries start in May 1940 and finish in 1947 and cover her time in London during the blitz and as a volunteer for military service with the QA's,  following her over to France soon after D-day as part of one of the first field hospitals to be set up there. This is not only Mary's story, it is the recounting of stories that the young soldiers told her as she tended their wounds and perhaps more importantly, let them talk out their nightmares.

(This blog has been set up by Mary's daughter Kathy and Kathy's husband Tim. We would invite anyone who is mentioned in the book, or their relatives to contact us, or the publishers, if they have any information that they can add to Mary's extraordinary story)