大象传媒

At the start of the war I was living at home in the small village of Pulverbatch, in Shropshire. Each day I travelled 8 miles into Shrewsbury to work in a tailor鈥檚 shop.
I was in a reserved occupation, making Army uniforms, so when my age group had to register for service I was not called up. However when it came time for my cousin Vera Edwards to register we decided to volunteer together. By volunteering we could choose which service we went into and we didn鈥檛 want to go into the Army.
Our papers came through and we went for a medical at Shrewsbury. On Tuesday 3rd March 1942 we boarded a train at Shrewsbury which took us to Wolverhampton where we met up with four other girls. An army truck then took us to Bridgenorth. Vera and I had thought we would be able to stay together but we were parted immediately as her surname began with E and mine S. It was bitterly cold - there was snow on the ground - and when Saturday arrived I was still in civilian clothing, whilst Vera was already in uniform and not allowed to leave the camp, so I went into town with a few other girls and we had a cup of tea in a caf茅. I was so fed up and homesick I would have gone home but they had collected at work and given me a present and I was no longer in a reserved occupation so I would have been called up anyway.
We were given all our kit at Bridgenorth and we must have learned basic drill there, then after a couple of weeks a train full of us WAAFs went up to Morecambe where we were billeted in various guest houses. Most of the time there was spent either in lectures or marching up and down the 鈥減rom鈥�. When our postings came through Vera was to go to Cardington, Bedfordshire and I, along with about four other girls, was to go to Wick in Scotland. Everyone kept telling us it was a terrible place and it never stopped raining there. We were given our inoculations and I was taken ill after mine so all the others went off to their postings and I was left behind in hospital - the art-deco Midland Hotel, right on the seafront, was being used as a hospital at that time. I hoped that my posting might be changed but as soon as I was well enough I was given a little box of sandwiches and my travel instructions and I found myself heading for Scotland.
From Morecambe I travelled to Carlisle where I eventually met up with an airman who was going to Inverness. He said 鈥渟tick with me and I鈥檒l see you alright鈥�. At about 2 o鈥檆lock in the morning we got to Carstairs and we walked up and down the platform until our train arrived. I had no idea how far north Wick was, and thought we were nearly there, so I sat all night with my pack on my back. When we reached Inverness, my train was already standing in the station and this airman pointed it out to me. The train took me straight to Wick and when I arrived I didn鈥檛 know what to do. Luckily I wasn鈥檛 alone as there were quite a lot of airmen heading for the same aerodrome and a lorry had been sent to collect their belongings. All the kit bags were thrown into the back of this lorry, my pristine white bag mixed up with their grubby well-used bags - how they laughed - and I walked up to the camp with them.
I stayed at Wick carrying out general duties until after my marriage to Arthur Willing in July 1943. He was in the RAF, stationed at Gloucester, so after our wedding he put in to claim me and on 10th November 1943 I was posted to Gloucester as a tailoress. I remained there until I became pregnant when I applied for a discharge on compassionate grounds. On 18th August 1944 I left the RAF.

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