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Patricia Bridgen Farley was a Wren (Womens Royal Naval Service) stationed at Portkil, Near Kilcreggan, Scotland during World War II, living in a house affectionately known to the group of Wrens that were based there as 'The Barn'. The Wrens came to be known as the 'Barnites'.
On one occasion, I was ironing in the living room at the 'Barn' at Portkil, when I looked out of the window towards the jetty. I saw one of the doctors in naval uniform come down the path from the hospital. He started disrobing and, at first, I assumed he must be going to take a swim in his underwear.
It was not exactly the middle of summer and I soon stopped ironing and took a closer look. I recognised him as one of the American psychiatric doctors I had met in the officers quarters, and realised that this man intended to swim, whatever the climate.
He plunged into the water and seemed as if he were trying to reach one of the merchant ships out in the Clyde. He'll never make it, I thought, and immediately went into the hallway to the phone.
I dialled the doctors' emergency number, they had given it to us for use if we took sick and needed care right away. I finally convinced someone that I wasn't playing a joke, that there really was someone from their outfit either trying to commit suicide or trying to reach the United States.
I was getting more and more anxious. Help did arrive, three strong hospital corpsmen who jumped into our little dinghy, and rowed out to where the poor man was floundering. Once back at the hospital, he was examined and deemed mentally disturbed, and sent back to the States for evaluation and treatment.
We found out that he was married with one child, and desperately missing both his wife and baby, so much so that he was trying to swim to a ship to take him home.
Everyone was upset about the incident, and I was praised for being on the spot and alerting the medics, but no medal! I always hoped that the poor man recovered after treatment and was able to go back to the family he so devotedly cherished.
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