Remuneration
In 1939, Morris Hirsch working a 70 hour week in his surgical rotation at the Non-European Hospital was still on a meagre remuneration of £5 a month, though still all found.
In 1939, Morris Hirsch working a 70 hour week in his surgical rotation at the Non-European Hospital was still on a meagre remuneration of £5 a month, though still all found.
This was enough to keep him in cigarettes but not to meet his modest petrol bills. He sought to augment the meagre cash earnings by joining in the poker school whenever work allowed, which was usually on non-intake nights, if he was recovering from a full night duty.
Poker was also a recreational diversion without leaving the hospital, which Morris was loath to do in case of a call. The venue was usually the houseman's quarters but they also frequented old man Paul's small tearoom across the road, where he made a backroom available for the school. Old Man Paul was not averse to the games going on into the early hours of the morning, a not unusual occurrence for some of the addicts.
Initially Morris lost what he could ill afford and was compelled to seek loans from his sister, Josie, who was relatively affluent. She held down an exacting legal shorthand typist position. As usual, she generously accommodated him.
However, experience, emotional control and some luck when needed, led to a turn around in fortunes. Josie was reimbursed and he gleaned a steady income in spite of some minor relapses. In the end he could boast that he earned more from poker than his job-slog!
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
Excerpt from Dr. Morris Isaac Hirsch's Unpublished Memoirs. Hirsch Archives.