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The London Clinic in World War 2
From October 1939 until July 1940 the London Clinic was closed to patients for necessary changes to meet wartime need. The walls were strengthened, upper storeys vacated and repurposed. Operating theatres were transferred from the 8th Floor to the basement. Shelters were created in the basement where patients from the 3rd and 4th Floors could sleep. WW2 came close to home for the London Clinic with bombs falling in the Marylebone area and in Harley St.

Wartime links were established between The Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the Clinic. The London Clinic became the hospital of choice for surgical operations necessary to alter the appearance of agents who were to operate behind enemy lines in Nazi occupied Europe. High ranking military officers were also admitted and treated for various conditions. These included Archibald Sinclair Secretary of State for Air  and General Dwight D. Eisenhower Allied Supreme Commander who both worked from the Clinic when they were patients. The Clinic staff were vetted for security.

The London Clinic wartime Matron was Miss Jean Decima Jacomb who was born on 11th January 1894 the tenth child out of thirteen of a very affluent family. Her family lived in Ewell and her father was a wool broker in the City. During WW1 Jean Jacomb trained as a Registered  Nurse at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. She also went on to qualify in Midwifery, gaining experience in Whitechapel. She held senior posts at St. Bartholomew's and other hospitals. She become Supervisor of St. Bartholomew's District Midwives and then Matron of The Cancer Hospital (later to be renamed The Royal Marsden Hospital). She was appointed to  the London Clinic in 1938. Check Ancestry and put website

It fell to Jean Jacomb to put the London Clinic on a wartime footing as described above. Her manner has been described as  gentle, preferring to guide rather than drive staff. Due to absence of records it is not known the precise extent of Jean Jacomb's clinical achievements. However she received the highest tributes from the Executive and Trustees of the London Clinic on her retirement in 1949. The weight of responsibility on a Matron during the most exacting times received acknowledgment. She was credited with establishing the highest nursing standards always displaying calm authority and maintaining an unfailing presence.

Jean Jacomb was an ardent traveller and spent her retirement travelling the world, she was  also a great socialiser. Aged 90 she was admitted to a Kensington Nursing Home and passed away on 13th June 1988. )

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