RAF nurse inspires WW2 book on haunting experiences

A former RAF nurse who cared for prisoners of war during the World War Two has inspired a biographical novel based on her haunting experiences.

Jane Edwards, from Yeovil, never talked about her work caring for allied soldiers in Asia until a few years before her death in 2023, aged 99.

Her daughter-in-law, Gillian Edwards, has now written a debut novel The Posting based on Jane's recollections of her life in Sri Lanka and Singapore serving with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF).

Gillian said: "She was traumatised by what she saw of these men and the cruelty, and she struggled throughout her life to recover from that."

"A novel from that era based on a true story from the mouth of the person who actually experienced it - and especially a woman - is probably quite unique," Gillian added.

Jane was posted to Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) to treat survivors rescued from the Changi and Sime Road camps in Singapore.

"The first we knew about it was when she wrote a diary called The Ramblings of an ex-WAAF, spanning 1939 to 1946, and we were truly astonished to read it," said Gillian.

"She recalled the prisoners' eyes being haunted and sunken and a lot of them had rotten teeth; the first sight of them shocked her to the core.

"Jane recalled that they were like skeletons, their bones sticking out and they could barely walk," she told BBC Somerset.

The Posting tells the fictional story of a headstrong girl called Jane who, like her namesake, embarks on a courageous journey to Asia, where she confronts death, grief and moral conflict as she tends wounded airmen, liberated prisoners of war and former enemies.

"All the bare bones of it was absolutely true," said Gillian.

Jane returned to work as a theatre nurse at Yeovil Hospital after the war.

One of her two sons, Hugh Edwards, said: "At that time I had no idea what she had done during the war; she certainly wouldn't talk about it.

"It only came to light after the deaths of my father, Alan, in 2006, and my brother, Bill, in 2012, when mum was in her eighties."

Hugh said he had been as surprised as the rest of the family when he read her diary and was amazed at the amount of correct detail.

"I'm sure her dedication to caring started during the war.

"The experience she gained at this early stage of her life had a lasting effect on her," he said.

"At the end of her life it was quite a relief for Jane to tell her story," added Gillian.

"She told me it was very therapeutic, particularly after her husband and youngest son had died."

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