Ceremony Article

Rhona Jason-Smith, Sharon Walls, and Phyllis Jason-Smith

The following is an article was published in the Dominion Post, Wellington, on the 25th of February, 2005. Copyright © 2005 Fairfax New Zealand Limited.

France honours our wartime heroes

Hank Schouten

The French Government has honoured Paraparaumu woman Phyllis Jason-Smith's efforts treating thousands of seriously wounded soldiers during the liberation of France in World War II.

Wearing the Legion d'Honneur presented by French Veterans' Affairs Minister Hamlaoui Mekachera, she recalled the time 60 years ago when as a nurse she helped treat wounded soldiers.

Mrs Jason-Smith, 87, said her unit of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was landed near Caen after the D-Day Normandy landings and was to have four days to set up a hospital.

But there was no chance. Within hours casualties started pouring in. They had no electricity, water or beds, so the nurses were on their knees as they cared for their patients. At night they had Tilley lamps and they worked around the clock without rest till they dropped, Mrs Jason-Smith said.

Her daughter, Rhona, who is assistant director of nursing at Canberra Hospital, said what her mother and other nurses did in Normandy was amazing — they treated 24,000 badly wounded soldiers in four days.