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Living in Edinburgh at the beginning of the war, I can well remember the plentiful air-raids. I was once on my way home when a very large bomb fell not too far away from me. I was told to get into the air-raid shelter quickly. Whilst I was in there, I was offered a cigarette but I refused it as I did not smoke. However, I was told to try one and was assured, that it would take my mind off the bombing. When I lit up, I swallowed most of the smoke, which of course was a silly thing to do and I was choking myself daft. They were right. It did take my mind off the bombing, and not just mine but many other people present in the shelter.
Prior to joining the A.T.S. in September 1941, I offered my services to the A.R.P. and of course I was accepted. I found that I was out almost every night. Whenever the siren sounded, we had to meet at our service building and from there, we were dispatched to our respective duties. My worst memory is of the night the Germans flew over Edinburgh to bomb Glasgow. It was a very scary thing to watch the bombers going over. We were warned that, on their return they would probably drop the bombs they had left on the city. These long sleepless nights inevitably took their toll and my work began to suffer a little.
I had already joined the A.T.S. when the order to call up the girls born in 1920 came through. I was glad because the thought of working in a munitions factory didn’t appeal to me at all. At least I had been able to make my own choice.
The first month of training was terrible and my feet were a mass of blisters with all the marching. We had men instructors who were awfully strict.
As a qualified shorthand typist, I wasn’t given a choice as to which job I was going to do; consequently, I spent the first years in the Scottish Command Headquarters, working as a secretary to a major in the Catering Department of the Army. He was connected in some way to Lyons, a ‘well to do’ restaurant in London.
After a while, I applied for a posting to the Orkney Islands and got it. I left my home town and travelled to Stromness, where I spent two happy years. Although I still remained in office work, and working for a Major, I enjoyed it tremendously. I think all the girls enjoyed it as there were very few women and hundreds of men. Not being able to dance was no excuse for not enjoying yourself, but I soon learned.
I picked up my stripes and was given the enviable job of Ration Corporal. We had rats by the score and I just hated being in the ration store. There was a tough little assistant cook from the Gorbals, who almost always went in, in front of me. He used to bang on the door to scare them away. We did in fact lose quite a bit of food, and at one time we had to destroy the meat as they had been eating it.
Whilst I was on leave, the P.O.W.’s were sent to put poison between the iron walls for them. I was glad I was on leave, as they had to come up several days later, to prise the walls apart to get the dead rats out.
I was still in the Orkney Islands when the Japanese surrendered and I can tell you, we had a terrific few days with no work done. We had most of our fun down on the docks, as this was the only place where the ground was flat. One old fellow from one of the cottages, brought his bagpipes and as you can imagine, we all danced the highland dances; even those of us who weren’t Scots.

Muriel Robertson.
Maryborough. Victoria. Australia.

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