I'll never forget it! I was having terrible trouble, I couldn't breathe properly, my mouth was open.
The doctor came to the school, he used to come every year, and my mother came with me to see him about it. He suggested taking the tonsils and adenoids out. My mother agreed, of course, because I was suffering. I can't remember how old I was, I must have been about six or seven by then. That would have been in the late 1930s, I think.
I remember my father carrying me up to the school. He was the chauffeur to the doctor, so he was able to carry me there in the car. My father took me in and I remember him putting me on a.. cookery table, I think it was. Then this man came from somewhere and he said 'You'll feel much better when you wake up' and this big rubber mask came on my face and I remember I was fighting it.
And then I came round and my father was by the bed and they took me into this big assembly room and all these other children were there, on mattresses, they must have gone before me, and they were all ill and crying, oh dear me. Anyway, the Red Cross people were attending to us, we knew them all, they were local people, and I think it was the Doctor - Doctor Edwards - who did the operation and they brought a specialist from Wrexham in as well, I can't remember his name. I think it was Mr Brown.
So, that was that, and then we were carried home, and my father took all the children back home afterwards, in blankets. I remember being put in the double room upstairs and feeling terrible and my squeaky voice! And then the nurse came the next day and said 'You can get up' and a week or two later I think I was alright. It wasn't a very nice experience. Anyway, I never had trouble after! Well, until last year, and I started having terrible sinus trouble, so I was sent to Bodelwyddan to the hospital there, and the surgeon who saw to my sinuses said 'You've had an operation when you were a child as I can see the scars.' So they must have been deep, mustn't they?
So there we are, that's how it was in those days. You just got on with it, didn't you? 
With thanks to Denbighshire County Council's archive department.
your comments
Abigail Jones
We are very lucky in this day! The worst I remember from my brother having his tonsils out painlessly over 20 years ago was they insisted he eat cornflakes before he left the hospital. That seemed cruel then but thank goodness medicine has progressed since the 1930's. Lovely to read your story Pam!
Fri Sep 14 08:43:23 2007
Graham Green, Canterbury, Kent
How lovely to read Pam's story and what a nice photo of her. I am a Corwen or rather a Treddol lad myself and have been living away from home in Kent for many years. I remember my late mother Eleanor Green telling me of such classroom surgery, it would not be tolerated today of course but I honestly believe that people were tougher by necessity then. Well done Pam, it was great to read your story. Any mention of Corwen brings a touch of Hiraeth to me. God bless all in Corwen.
Wed Aug 22 11:29:08 2007
Shelley Poole from Rhyl now Spain
I was quite shocked to hear that in Britain in the 1930s they did that kind of thing. I went to Spain in 1973 and had 2 children. My son was 6 years old and had treatment for his tonsil op, little did I know or understand he had them out just like you mentioned. I was horrified but couldn't do anything - just cry at what he suffered. He is 33 with his own son. Reading this, all those memories of that op came floooding back.
Fri Jul 6 08:46:48 2007
We're no longer accepting comments on this page but we still want your stories and memories so get in touch.
