Nurse Rhodes, a dedicated healthcare professional

Introduction Joan Dorothy Rhodes’s life is distinguished by her pivotal role as the district nurse and midwife at West Coker Surgery from 1946 to 1976.[1] She played a critical part in providing community nursing at a time when the National Health Service transformed healthcare in this country. Birth in Little Eaton Joan was born two […]

Death on a Cornish Beach

In the summer of 1959, Geoffrey Coleman Smith of Whitethorn, Hill End, Hardington Mandeville, went on holiday to Cornwall with his wife, Margaret. He was the Accounts Director at the Yeovil gloving firm of Clothier, Giles & Co, and their factory had probably shut down for a two-week break. Geoffrey liked visiting Cornwall for its landscape and beaches and because of family associations.