Kathleen Berger trained as a doctor and entered the Army in WWII, rising to the rank of Captain. When she was demobbed she joined the Bermondsey Medical Mission. After the war, new housing estates were built in the London suburbs and people were moved out. With no GP practices in the area, people would walk miles back into Bermondsey. In 1950, Dr Berger was asked to become the family doctor to the Coppice Estate in Petts Wood, south east London.