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In World War One, Dartford had three main functions. Weapons were made here, there was a huge airfield and there was an important military hospital. Very little remains of the old Southern Hospital built on the slopes of where the A2 now lies, but it was the place where thousands of German prisoners of war were nursed back to health. Their stories would’ve disappeared into the sands of time had it not been for a nurse who worked there, Margaret Maule. She kept diaries and an autograph book which has only recently come to light in a suitcase inside a store cupboard at a university in Scotland. Nobody knows how it got there but it’s now been given back to Nurse Maule’s family. Ian Harkness uncovers the story of Margaret Maule and the many German POW she nursed in Dartford. Location: Dartford, Kent DA2 6LZ Image: Dartford during the war, courtesy of Dr Mike Still.