A Voluntary Aided Detachment or VAD.
Deborah with a group of New Zealand soldiers stood on the up platform at Brockenhurst Railway Station.
The Nurse in the middle on the station platform is Deborah Pitts-Taylor, a Voluntary Aided Detachment or VAD. She had come from New Zealand, 12,000 miles to accompany her brother, who was desperate to enlist in the Army although aged only 17.
Motor cars were Deborah's first love and she drove ambulances bringing soldier patients from Brockenhurst station to the No1 New Zealand Hospital. She also took patients out for motor rides and picnics in the Forest.
Cruelly, her young brother was killed on his 21st birthday fighting in France; Deborah found it hard to continue her voluntary work, but stayed on until the end of the war. When back in New Zealand she spoke fondly of Brockenhurst and later her daughter and granddaughter were married in St Nicholas Church. Both brides placed her wedding bouquet on the Cross of Sacrifice in the graveyard.
Deborah died on ANZAC Day in 1979 and now her great granddaughter attends the Brockenhurst ANZAC service each year.
We believe this is Deborah stood by her ambulance.
