When I first interviewed Joan Young-Gooden on October 16, 2008 she was 74. We had worked together at Lefroy House, and attended in-service courses and nurses meetings together. Yet, until that day, we never knew that we had trained at the same hospital in the English city of Portsmouth, Hampshire.

When her daughter sent me the photograph of her mother for this article, I remembered the familiar handwriting of the matron on her certificates and wearing the similar staff nurses’ uniform and hospital pin — things over the years which I had forgotten.

Joan was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Orion Young, of Ely’s Harbour, Somerset. At that time her father, like so many Somerset men was employed at the Dockyard. The Youngs became even more well known in Somerset when their identical twin daughters, Joan and Janet, were born in 1934. This caused quite a stir in the Somerset community and they attracted lots of attention, as their mother always dressed them alike.

Joan attended West End School and Sandys Secondary School until 1952, when at the age of 18 she began her nurses training at the Cottage Hospital Nursing Home in Happy Valley, Pembroke, where the matron, Mabel White, enforced strict discipline upon the probationers.

Probationers were allowed only half a day off a week, from noon to 7pm, but the matron demanded they stay for 12.30pm lunch before they could leave the premises. Transportation to Somerset left every hour, thus leaving her little time to spend with her family — and especially her twin sister.

This situation became so depressing that Joan was reluctant to leave home and return to the hospital. Her mother found the situation extremely concerning and discussed the situation with Eustace Cann, their family physician, who wrote to Matron White about the worrying effects the training was having on Joan’s health. He recommended she be removed from the local nursing programme and sent to study in England. Dr Cann proposed the British training programme because King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and the Bermuda Welfare Society refused to accept American nursing certificates. According to Joan, Dr Cann’s letter infuriated Matron White, but her parents were adamant and removed her.

In those days, all applications for training in England were reviewed by the matron of KEMH. I found this particularly interesting, as the hospital did not accept Black nurses or Black nursing students, yet had the power to discourage and prevent them from training in England.

Shortly thereafter, Joan was informed that her application had been rejected. She was very disappointed and contacted her brother, Orion, who had left Bermuda as a Dockyard apprentice, had married and remained to live in Portsmouth, in the South of England. He immediately went to the hospital to check, only to discover that his sister’s application had never been received. Recognising the disappointment, he advised her to come on holiday and apply to St Mary’s Hospital while there.

In 1954, she left Bermuda alone on board the Reina Del Pacifico for the eight-day voyage to Liverpool. To her horror, Orion was not there to meet her in the North West, but upon checking with a train station employee, she was advised to take the train south to London because it was more than likely he would be waiting for her there. To her great relief, the advice was correct — and she and her brother then travelled farther south to Portsmouth, Hampshire, on the South Coast.

Joan completed her general and midwifery training at St Mary’s Hospital in Portsmouth and worked there for a while before applying to study at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Stoke Mandeville is known as the birthplace of the Paralympic movement, and is considered a pioneer in using sport for rehabilitation. Joan’s focus was on the treatment of burns. She spent 1959-60 studying and working in the Nuffield Burns Unit, treating all types of injuries, including chemical and electrical burns, skin-loss conditions and jaw injuries, as well as specialising in the intensive-care support department.

In 1960, Joan married Lewis Young, who was originally from Barbados. Interestingly enough, she was a Young who married a Young. They moved to the historic town of Bedford, in Bedfordshire, where she began working at Bedford Hospital, which cared for veterans from both world wars.

Tragically in 1963, Lewis Young was killed in a road crash, leaving Joan to raise three young children on her own. Undaunted, she continued to work in many senior posts in England to support the family, and in 1968 married David Gooden and had another child.

In 1970, she returned to Bermuda with her husband and four children. She immediately found employment as the evening supervisor at Lefroy House in Dockyard and was later appointed assistant matron, a position she held until her retirement in 1986.

Nurse Gooden continued to work in private-duty nursing for 15 years after retiring from Lefroy House and dedicated herself to the care of her widowed father.

Mr Young was a familiar figure in Somerset who could be seen every evening, walking up Scotts Hill Road to enjoy supper with his daughter and grandchildren. By this time, her twin sister had married and moved to live in America.

Joan volunteered as a nurse on school sports days, in summer camps and for travelling groups. She was a member of the Somerset Cricket Club, St James Church Guild, the Somerset Brigade Band Auxiliary, the White Hill Salvation Army Home League and the Friends of Lefroy.

She was very involved in girlguiding and encouraged many Somerset girls, including my own daughter, to become involved in the Brownies and Girlguiding, and later became the Western Commissioner. In official uniform, she was a striking figure — proudly leading her Somerset troupe in parades.

The Sandys community was deeply saddened in 2015 when we said farewell to this much loved nurse. She had generously volunteered her time to this community, and had lovingly cared for seniors with dignity and respect at Lefroy House.

Her twin sister, Janet, continues to live in America and returned to Bermuda last year to celebrate her 90th birthday.

Leila Joan Gooden, the Somerset community still remembers, and still misses you.

• Cecille Snaith-Simmons is a retired nurse, historian, writer and author of The Bermuda Cookbook. This is the third of a four-part spotlight on Bermudian nurses for Nurses Month. With thanks to Marla Smith and Bruce Gooden for the photograph and information on their mother