大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Maggie Smith from WM CSV Action Desk on behalf of Jacqueline Wilde and has been added to the site with her permission. Jacqueline Wilde fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

Part 8
During the time I was in Birmingham I had applied to go on an instructor鈥檚 course they wanted instructors for squad drill and physical training so I volunteered and I went on two courses for PT instruction and I got a Grade A , so I was made chief instructor for the division and twice a week I used to take the girls for squad drill and PE and this went on for quite a few years and I used to go to the training school, although I worked at the training school at the time I used to have my own squad there but when the students came to do their training there I would take them in squad drill and I would take them in PE.

About this time they were trying to recruit fire women for the fire service most of the young women either went into to the army or RAF or the navy or the land army so they were hoping for more fire women so they chose six of the girls, I was one of them and we posed for the newspapers so they could put pictures of us either on the fire float or holding the hoses in the newspapers with an article hoping that it would get more fire women to join the fire service and this was quite a success.

One amusing story that I remember we had a course on first aid and we had two first aid instructors, and the one always seemed to get his students through the courses, there was no cheating at all it was just that they got through, and the other instructor seemed to have some failures, though the one time my training officer said I think I鈥檒l go and listen and he listened at the door, and he found the instructor that got all his students through the courses used to tell them stories about any particular part of the course that he wanted them to remember. He used to illustrate it with a rude joke and they鈥檇 all have a good laugh about it, and then when they were sitting at their exams and they came to that particular part they鈥檇 remember what he wanted them to remember, because of the joke he told them, and this way they all remembered and did well in their exams. I don鈥檛 know whether that would apply today but at least it got them through their first aid exams. The majority of the firemen had to have St. John Ambulance badges so that they had a knowledge of first aid, so if they went to the fires and people were affected by the smoke or gasses or whatever they could administer to them there.

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