Aileen Palmer (6 April 1915 – 21 December 1988) was a British Australian poet and diarist. She worked as an interpreter during the Spanish Civil War for a mobile hospital and later in an ambulance unit in London during The Blitz. With a history of institutionalisation for various mental breakdowns, her diaries chart her exploration of her own sexuality and mental disease. Among her papers are many unpublished novels and an autobiographical compilation, which form a notable collection for scholars to evaluate both gender identities and mental illness in her era.
Early life
Aileen Yvonne Palmer was born on 6 April 1915, in London to two of Australia's most noted literary figures, Nettie (née Janet Gertrude Higgins) and Edward Vivian Palmer, known as Vance. Within six months of her birth, Palmer's parents had returned to their native Australia, setting up their home in the Dandenong Ranges, near Melbourne. In 1917, her sister Helen was born and the two girls began their education at home, schooled by their mother. In the 1920s, the family moved to Caloundra in South East Queensland, where Nettie continued their education. She was described as a shy child, who had myopia and was left-handed.
In 1929, the family moved to Melbourne, and Palmer enrolled in Presbyterian Ladies' College. She went on to complete her education, studying French, German, Spanish and Russian, graduating from the University of Melbourne with First-class honours in French language and literature in 1935. While she was in school around 1931, she began writing an autobiographical novel, Poor Child—a Posthumous Novel in which she discusses her awkwardness, as well as her infatuations with various teachers. She also wrote of a psychology book on sexual inverts, which one of her teachers had given her to read. Her 1932 diary also retells the relationships and activities of a group of young women, which Palmer calls "the mob". Though ostensibly written as a private journal, comments by other members of the mob indicate it was probably an open document, at least to other members of her circle. Written in code, using abbreviations and obscure terms, the women appear to have been emotionally interconnected and shared an interest in reading and writing music and poetry, as well as shared physical intimacy.
European sojourn
Palmer began working as an activist before graduating from university. Enrolling in the Communist Party of Australia in 1934, she worked on the immigration campaign for Egon Kisch. Soon after her graduation, she travelled with her family to London and participated in anti-racist rallies. She journeyed on to Vienna, where she spent three months translating works by Helene Scheu-Riesz, before moving on to Spain. In 1936, she was engaged as a translator for the planned People's Olympiad, but the event was circumvented by the start of the Spanish Civil War. At the time, Palmer was living in a house rented near Barcelona by her parents in Mongat. When the Coup d'état occurred, she and her family were evacuated via Marseilles to London. Having not wanted to leave, Palmer separated from her parents in France, contacted her friend Isabel Brown, who worked in the communist circles in London, and joined a British medical unit. Originally hired as a typist, she served as a secretary and an interpreter in Spain for the next two years.
Working on the battle front from August 1936 to the middle of 1938, Palmer rode with ambulance drivers and kept records of the wounded, sending injury and death reports to the central war office. During the Battle of Brunete, fighting was intense and the field hospital was close to the action, which led Palmer to feel depressed and unstable. She asked for leave, which was finally granted in August 1937. Though her parents urged her to remain in England, Palmer returned to Spain the following month, where she joined the 35th Hospital Division in Aragon. By December, the unit was in Teruel, in sub-zero temperatures, with food and supply shortages and intense fighting, retreat and recapture. Eventually the medical staff were evacuated and returned to a medical hospital in Barcelona. When Franco's troops divided Spain in half, in May 1938, Palmer returned to London. She worked for the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief through 1939, distributing leaflets, carrying out publicity events, and attending rallies. She wrote a novel, Last Mile to Huesca about her time in Spain, though it remained unpublished.