MATRON Edith Preddy wasn’t the only one to impose strict rules on patients and visitors at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.

Reader Basil King remembers Sister Ford making it clear she was boss in the wards she ran at the hospital.

As we recalled (Memory Lane, May 23), Miss Preddy restricted visitors to two at a time after finding eight around one bed, including two with youngsters in prams, one with a new-born baby and one with an older infant in arms.

She said: “There is a danger of the Infirmary becoming a bear-garden if people behave in this way.”

Mr King, of Cranbrook Drive, Kennington, came across Sister Ford after being struck down with appendicitis at the age of 12 in 1937.

He writes: “I was carried out from home to an ambulance and taken to the Radcliffe Infirmary, where I was examined by two doctors. It was decided to operate on me.

“I remember being wheeled into an operating theatre, where a small gage was placed over my nose and anaesthetic dropped on to it. I thought I was suffocating. It was not a pleasant experience.

“I woke up in bed flat on my back with sheets pulled over me so tightly and tucked in at the sides that I couldn’t move.

“I later found out that all the other patients were in the same predicament as it was ‘doctors’ rounds’. Conducting this performance was Sister Ford, who ruled the ward with a rod of iron. I was later informed that I was in Morris ward.

“About two days later, the wound decided to fester and I discovered this during doctor’s rounds. I called to Sister Ford who was nearby.

“’Do not speak, boy, I am conducting doctor’s rounds’, she said. So I suffered in silence until Sister Ford had finished her duties.

“The nurses, immaculate in their uniforms, suffered the same discipline as the patients. Sister Ford ruled supreme.

“Visitors were treated with the same discipline. Two visitors were allowed at the bedside and no more. There was visiting twice a day, in the afternoon for two hours and again in the evening. I compare yesteryear with today, where discipline has apparently gone by the board.

“Nurses laugh and chatter, numerous visitors crowd around beds and televisions blare out. Come back, please, Sister Ford.”

* Any more memories of Matron Preddy, Sister Ford and others who ruled the wards? Write and let me know.