End of an era as Devizes stalwart bows out (From This Is Wiltshire)

End of an era as Devizes stalwart bows out

10:29am Thursday 17th December 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

Medical secretary Mary Davis has spoken of her sadness in turning up for work at Green Lane Hospital for the last time last week.

Mrs Davis, 70, from Nursteed Road, Devizes, retired after 39 years working for the NHS in the town.

Speaking last Tuesday, her last official day at work, Mrs Davis said: “I felt very sad driving in today. It is the end of an era for me and I will miss it very much.”

Born in West Lavington, Mrs Davis was educated at the village school and Devizes Grammar School. She then took a secretarial course and got a job as a medical secretary at the then Roundway Hospital at the tender age of 17.

She took a 15-year break from 1962 to have a family but returned to the same site in 1976 as a personal secretary and, from 1992 to 1995, as a personnel assistant.

She has been team secretary at Green Lane Hospital, Roundway’s successor, since it opened in 1995.

Mrs Davis said: “When I first started it was very different from what it is now. For a start, Roundway Hospital had a huge staff and you were part of a very large organisation.

“Now at Green Lane it is a very intimate little group of us. I shall miss all of them.”

Mrs Davis, whose husband is well-known local singer Malcolm Davis, says she does not intend to ‘sit about’.

She will continue her voluntary work for the Alzheimer’s Society and will be available to step in at Green Lane to cover staff holiday and sickness. She will also be able to spend more time with her nine grandchildren.

Her colleagues at the hospital presented her with a leaving present of vouchers for Curry’s, where she intends to buy herself a laptop computer.

Tell us what you think -

Share your views at gazetteandherald.co.uk