The Amazing Mr Frank Mays, Three Counties Hospital Nurse
1938 / 1973
Frank on the Three Counties Hospital cricket pitch 1938.
Frank on the Three Counties Hospital cricket pitch 2009.
Mr Frank Mays is a local resident who started his working life at the Three Counties hospital in 1938 and retired in 1973. He spent his whole working life at the hospital and is probably the last surviving Three Counties Hospital Nurse of that era. This is his story.
Frank Mays was born 94 years ago on the 23rd June 1915, He was born and lived on “The Square” in Henlow which has now long gone. Frank can recall many early memories of Henlow and it’s many characters in the early part of the last century, He can tell fantastic stories of people who he remembers from his childhood and tell you about areas of Henlow that have now disappeared with the passing of time.
His memory is so sharp that you would think he was talking about times that happened only a few weeks a go rather over 80 years past. Times, dates, names, places, all flow as if these memories were installed in his mind only a short time ago.
Frank started work at the Three Counties Hospital in 1938 purely because of his love for cricket, Even as a child he would go to school with a cricket ball in his pocket. In later years he played excellent cricket for Henlow and it was not long before Frank showed promise, Andy Carllile of Henlow offered Frank a place at Lords Cricket ground in London starting off on the grounds staff. Frank asked his dad if it would be ok to go, In typical dad style he said “ Ask your Mum”, but Mum put her foot down and said “ Well, where are you going to stay?” Frank explained to her that he would find lodgings, “No, I’m not having you go there” Was Mums Reply .
Later on Franks Mum died of cancer and Frank asked Dad if he could go to work at the ‘sylum’ as it was known locally,In the early life of the hospital you could only apply for a nurses job if you were a good sports person or a good musician, Funny how it did not seam to matter if you had good people skills, as long as you were good at one of the two subjects You stood a good chance of getting a job.
Dad was not very keen, but as Frank loved his cricket so much and dad knew how much Frank wanted to go,he gave him permission, Frank knew the Three Counties Hospital had a very high standard of cricket, many of the top class players had played there and young Frank wanted to be a part of the team. He had no interest in being a nurse , Frank says :
“ All I wanted to do was play cricket, I was mad on cricket, I heard all about the cricket up there {three counties hospital}, real high class, teams from Kent, Hampshire ,Middlesex, Surrey. All played there and I ended up playing against them all”.
Frank was a fantastic cricket player and found his way into a job at the hospital and on the cricket team with relative ease.
His working life began at the hospital in 1938 aged23 and a long career in sports and nursing lay ahead of him . Cricket and Bowls were the loves of his life, but Frank worked very hard at his nursing and became a very highly respected member of the hospital team. Frank was very good at dealing with patients who could be very troublesome and so many other nurses would say “Go and get Frank, He will sort it out”.
Frank was still living at home when he first started at the hospital and had to cycle from Henlow to the Hospital and back everyday come rain or shine or even very deep winter snow, Frank says “ One year the snow was so deep I had to pick my bike up and put it over my shoulder and walk to work”. Being young and fit his cycle ride to work would normally take him about 15 minuets.
Frank reported for duty, His first job was to lock his bicycle up, Frank saw George
Teasdale at the lodge and was told where to put his bike, George told him if he
had a chain for his bike to use it! Frank was then given key set 29, these would
open the wards, cupboards, cabinets, in fact everything that Frank would need to
un-
The set of keys that Frank was issued with were for the Male wards and departments, He recalls how the Female ward keys were slightly different, Frank says with a smile:
“The Female keys were a little bit different, if you had a girl you couldn’t get her back into her wards with your keys, so what we used to do was take them around the back and give them a lift up to their window, if they had already left it on the latch before they went out, they used to get on our backs and then on our shoulders and get in through that way. You had to be careful because you never new who was about. but quiet a few used to do it!”
At first Frank found the patients very intimidating, many would shout and scream and be abusive, they would fight and become very threatening, Frank recalls:
“ I had a very small room just off the ward as after a while I had to live in, at night some of the patients would go mad and throw there urine pots at the doors while shouting and screaming, I remember standing and shaking with fear wondering if they were going to smash the doors in or something. You were expected to go in and sort it out , you know, if there were any fights or anything. I weren’t going to do that! I hadn’t got hardened to it at that stage, I didn’t have a uniform or nothing then”
