Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-30
BUSY NURSE Common" NIECE
OF KING, WORKER IN HOSPITAL
Princess Arthur Relates Her
Experiences in Caring
for the Sick.
Royal Lady, as Incognito,
Makes Notable Record, and
Shirks No Tasks.
BY WALTER T. ROBERTS.

| Written exclusively Cor The Star and The
North American Newspaper Alliance
LONDON. England. September %
| The Princess Arthur OF Connaught, who
| is a niece of King George. her mother
being the Kings sister. the Princess
| Royal, not long ago became a state
registered nurse.
Her registration certificate is the
highest that can be gained and that
she should receive it is interesting, for
she is the only professional nurse
in England who has ever won state
registration certificate.
1t can be gained only by nurse
who goes through years of severe train
ing in a big general hospital as a
nursing probationer and who Is capable
of passing difficult examinations in
medicine and surgery.
The Princess Arthur, wealthiest royal
lady in England and in her own right
the Duchess Of Fife, under an assumed
name entered as a nursing prohationer
at St. Marys Hospital, Paddington, one
Of the toughest districts in London. and
put in three and-a -talf years training.
After that she had to work in two spe-
cial hospitals.
Only two members of the hospital
staff at st. Mary's knew the Princess S
identity. To doctors, nurses and patients
she was Nurse Conner, an ordinary pro-
hationer, and in every respect treated
like one.
Princess Proud of Achievement.
When entered the hospital" said
the Princess, in the first interview a
member of the English Royal family has
ever given for publication, II entered a
IN t7G
thought could scarcely have existed
The training of a probationer is very
severe and the hours long-twelve hours
a day I grew distinctly thin on the
food. But hard as are the conditions, I
look back upon by period of training
as among my happiest years.
i gained an experience of life that
will remain with me and be helpful to
me while I live
You must picture the Princess in the
early years of her hospital training as
living not only in new world, but in
new atmosphere that must at times
have been most distaSteful.
She had most luxurious home where
her least wish was command. AS she
is member of the royal family, every
person she met outside those of royal
rank was her social inferior; duchesses
I'll tOACu W iACI, 0uhCc, dIlOdSodUO1S
prime ministers bowed low over her
hand; she was addressed as Nam"
Performed Mental Tasks.
All the highest rank and great wealth
give woman she completely gave up
upon becoming probationer. She was
set to perform the commonest tasks.
She learned to give patients a bath,
how to feed them when they couldn't
feed themselves, to make beds and to
make them with perhaps a heavy pa
tient in them and to make them quickly.
She, who had never received an order
in her life, learned to take them, per-
emptorily given, and to obey them
promptly. The princess who had lived
in the most exclusive and cultured So
ciety of England learned how to fall
in with the rough-and-tumble life that
in the hospital wards went on about
her.
There was all the back chat" of
the young medicals-the chaff of the