Freda Airey Was born June 1920 and lived at Sea View in the Carr Bank area, a rural road of houses and farms, between the villages of Arnside and Storth, on the Kent estuary in the South-East corner of Cumbria. She was educated at Kendal High School and was the only child of Charles and Elizabeth Airey.
She commenced nurse training at Bradford in 1938 when she was just 18 years old, and qualified in April 1941, registering with the General Nursing Council on 27th June 1941. The matron described her as ‘very happy and extremely conscientious.’ After qualifying she was appointed as a staff nurse in the operating department before joining the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS).
In early February, 1944 Freda was one of 1,506 people; crew and military personnel, on board the SS Khedive Ismail. A blog from The National Archives* records that this was an ocean liner built in 1922, not intended for military use, but now commandeered to support the war effort. SS Khedive Ismail was part of a convoy, sailing from Mombasa on the Keyan coast, bound for Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. On 12 February 1944 she was just west of the Maldives. It was early afternoon, many of the passengers were watching a film, whilst others sunbathed on deck when, without time for a warning, she was hit by two Japanese torpedoes and took only two minutes to sink. Around 200 people survived.
It was some weeks before news of the deaths was announced. The Bradford Observer in April 1944 reported Freda as ‘loved and admired’ quoting the stark message to her parents from the War Office stating that there ‘could be no possibility’ of her survival. Of the 77 women who died on that day 51 were nurses. Freda was one of three QAIMNS nurses and 28 QAIMNS reserves named in the British Journal of Nursing in May 1944. Others were with the East African Military Nursing Service (EAMNS).
Set against the staggering 50-56 million lives lost as a direct result of this appalling war, one death may seem insignificant. However, each life deserves commemoration and this was the worst loss of female service personnel in the history of the British Commonwealth.
*Women in the Second World War: The sinking of SS Khedive Ismail
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