A nurse who treated wounded soldiers in WW2 and survived three bombings during the blitz has died after a Covid outbreak at her care home.
Eileen Wood, 96, trained as a nurse in London during the war, went on to be a fevers nurse and later worked at a maternity hospital.
She tragically died on November 12 after contracting coronavirus when an infected patient was released from hospital to the residential home in Shrewsbury, Shropshire where she lived.
Her daughter Angela Launchbury, 69, who was also a nurse, said her mother was “in her own way, part of the generation to whom we owe so much gratitude”.
Angela had only been able to speak to her mum via video call in the weeks before her death due to Covid regulations meaning relatives could not visit care homes.
Angela added: “The care home she had been in did not have any cases of Covid, but then a patient was transferred there from the hospital and they had an outbreak.
“It was upsetting, obviously, but she had a fantastic life and she reached a great age.
“For older people in residential housing, it’s been really isolating.
“I saw her a couple of weeks before she died, but we had been video calling her.
“Between the two lockdowns, we could visit, but we had to stay two metres apart. I just wanted to give her a big hug, but we couldn’t because of Covid.
“She understood clearly why we weren’t able to hug her.
“She had been a fevers nurse before the NHS, so she knew why it was so important during a pandemic not to spread the virus.”
Eileen was born in Warrington, Lancs., and moved to London aged 18 to train as a fevers and general nurse during the Second World War.
She cared for wounded soldiers and also treated civilians injured from German bombing campaigns.
Angela added: “She trained to be a nurse in London, she had worked at Warrington Hospital until she was old enough to go to London to do her training in 1942.
“She’d never even been on a train on her own before.
“She absolutely loved her job, she dedicated her life to the NHS.
“She remembered life before antibiotics and remembers using them for the first time. She was one of the first nurses in the country to inject antibiotics.”
Eileen survived three bomb blasts while nursing and, on one occasion, was treated in hospital before going home to get changed and start a night shift.
She met her husband Charles while he was training as a soldier after they hit it off at a tea dance and married in 1947.
Angela added: “One on occasion, she was on the bus going somewhere and there was an air raid. She didn’t remember what happened, but she was covered in dust and blood.
“All the nurses in London wore an armband for which hospital they worked at.
“She was found and taken to the hospital. She was back on duty that night.
“That’s just how it was during the war, people just chipped in and did what they could.
“She said it was terrifying, but at the same time there was huge camaraderie.”
Eileen returned to Warrington shortly after the Second World War where she set up home with Charles.
The couple had the children, Ronald, Angela and Bernadette, and lived in the same street from 1950 until Charles passed away in 1985.
After his death, she retired to Wem in Shropshire to be closer to Angela, where she lived until she moved into a care home in 2014.
Eileen, who had four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, was cremated at a private ceremony attended by close family.
But Angela hopes a Requiem Mass will be able to take place once Covid restrictions have been lifted.
She added: “We had a small ceremony, but we are going to have a celebration of her life in the spring when more relatives can come.
“Mum was a devout Christian, so she always wanted a Requiem Mass.
“Her remains will be returned to Warrington Cemetery to be with my dad.
“She was very hard working and very honest. Her life was her family, we were her whole world.
“For Ronald’s 70th birthday, we had a big family get together and she joined us with some of the children.”