Vera Nemtsova

Vera Nemtsova served as a medical officer with the 1st Ukrainian Front. She volunteered for the Red Army at age 18 after completing her first year at the Moscow Medical Institute. Nemtsova served in field hospitals from Stalingrad to Prague, treating thousands of wounded soldiers. She was decorated with the Order of the Red Star for her actions during the Lvov-Sandomierz offensive in 1944, when she continued operating on wounded soldiers under enemy artillery fire. After the war, she completed her medical degree and specialised in surgery. She moved to Oxford in 1990 to be near her daughter, who had married a British academic.