Nursing in India and Egypt

Personal Papers of Nurse, Midwife, and Health Vistor, Mary Baxter (nee Evans) during her Second World War service as a nurse in Egypt and India. File contains:

Welcome leaflet from the Bombay Hospitality Committee

Officer’s Personal Cheque Book

Diary of Mary Evans during her time working in India during the Second World War

Cinema Flyer from the Cinema Royal in Alexandria

Envelope from a business in Alexandria with an advertisement reading: “English Merchant Tailor and Outfitter, Alwyn L. Lester,”

Officer’s Record of Service, Army Book 436 - 1943-1944

Army Identity Card in India, belonging to Mary Evans

Services Guide to Alexandria, issued by the co-ordinating committee for the welfare of HBM forces in Alexandria

Three menus from restaurants in Alexandria, 1943

Copies of Bank Statements issued in Bombay, 1944-1945

British Army Identity Card belonging to Mary Evans

Two pages containing song lyrics titled “We saw them all”

Mary Baxter (nee Evans) was born in Greater Manchester on 19 Mar 1915. She gained her first qualification as a nurse in c.1940 in Greater Manchester. She registered as a nurse in Tasmania, Australia in 1941 and saw war time service in India and Egypt before returning to Manchester to train as a midwife at St. Mary’s Hospital, Newton Heath in 1946. In 1950, Evans travelled to Australia again to work as a nurse and she returned to Manchester in 1951 where she subsequently trained as health visitor. She retired from nursing and health visitor practice in 1969 due to ill health. Mary Baxter passed away in 1999.

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact the RCN Archives in advance of their first visit.

Royal College of Nursing