In 1970, when I joined the Women’s Clinic in the Department of Health as a nurse/midwife, my supervisor was Dorothy Snape. She was much older than I and looking forward to retirement so that she could move on and make way for younger nurses. She was a joy to work with and always managed to see the humour in the most annoying situations.

Dorothy Snape, née Spurling, was born in 1905 and grew up overlooking Tiger Bay in St. George’s. She often described life as being very simple and recalled as a child, the excitement of travelling over to St David’s in a donkey cart. There were no motor cars but there were trains.

King Edward VII Memorial Hospital opened in 1920 and prior to this, White nurses were trained at the Cottage Hospital in Pembroke with some even coming up from other islands in the West Indies. In 1924, at the age of 19, she entered the KEMH’s four year nurses’ training programme. I was surprised when she described the drudgery of her probationary period when she was expected to launder the patients’ clothes and to assist with cooking the meals.

Fortunately, she escaped this when she was sent to Montreal General Hospital in Canada for 14 months. Part of her training there included working in an Isolation Hospital, in a Maternity Hospital and a Children's’ Hospital. She returned to Bermuda at the end of this training and graduated in 1928.

When she returned, KEMH had an ambulance, but doctors either rode their bicycles or travelled by horse and buggy. When doctors approached the government for permission to have cars, Parliament denied them by a vote of 13 to 14.

Young, enthusiastic and anxious to begin her career, she became involved in the establishment of the Bermuda Wellness Society which was an initiative undertaken by a group of women to provide district nurses for all the parishes. By 1925, this evolved into the Bermuda Welfare Society which only employed British trained Queen’s Nurses. Her role in the newly formed organisation was to liaise between the nurses and the executive.

Eventually she married Frederick Snape, moved to Pembroke and had two children. When their daughter became seriously ill, the family relocated for a period to America to seek treatment. Pernicious anaemia was diagnosed in the years when the condition was misunderstood and, regrettably, she died. This had a devastating effect on the family who returned to Bermuda with their son Roger, who was born while they were abroad.

Pernicious anaemia is an autoimmune condition that prevents the body from absorbing Vitamin B12. Without an adequate supply of this vitamin, there are fewer red blood cells carrying oxygen throughout the body.

Mrs Snape joined the Maternal Health Clinic within the Health Department under the leadership of Iris Davis, Chief Nursing Officer, and Simon Frazer, the Chief Medical Officer. Women of all ages with health concerns were seen in the Women’s Clinic at no charge. There were ante and postnatal clinics, gynaecological checks, family planning advice and birth control. Dorothy Snape was a very compassionate, understanding woman who was loved and respected by the patients.

Every Tuesday afternoon I would join her in the blue, government-issued Morris Minor, and off we went on an expedition to locate women who had not kept their appointments. At that time many did not have telephones, many had health challenges and often there was no one to care for the other children or they lacked adequate transportation. She was deeply concerned about their health and the patients appreciated her genuine interest and concern. They trusted her and together, they worked to overcome the reasons for non attendance.

She often said that, “as a nurse, you have to be dedicated to helping people feel better”. This dedication had not gone unnoticed. In 1972 she was appointed a Memeber of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for service to healthcare in Bermuda.

Dorothy Snape died at The Packwood Home at the age of 100. Her husband had predeceased her.

At her graveside funeral at St Peter’s Cemetery in St George’s, attended by her beloved son Roger, and a small group of those who loved and respected her, I stood by her grave and reflected on the years we had worked together.

I remembered her for her compassion and patience with the most difficult of patients. I remembered her sense of humour; the love she had for her cats and the tea parties at her home on Pitts Bay Road. I remembered the occasional clandestine cigarette she enjoyed on the job and the delicious home made candy she brought to my room at KEMH when my son was born in 1971.

• Cecille Snaith-Simmons is a retired nurse, historian, writer, Fellow of Bermuda College and author of The Bermuda Cookbook

References:

CARE by J. Randolf Williams 1994

Bermuda Recollections 1993 (Ministry of Community, Culture an Information)

All images provided by the late Roger Snape