大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Elizabeth Perez of Stockport Libraries on behalf of Joyce Scott and has been added to the site with her permission, she fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

"At the outbreak of the war, the Government decreed that women born in 1921 were liable to be conscripted into the Women's Services, Munitions or the Land Army. The three women's Services were the WRENs, the WAAF and the ATS. You were deemed not liable for call-up if you were in a reserved occupation (bank clerks being one of them), but I worked in insurance and that was not reserved. Had I decided that I wanted to join either the WRENS or the WAAF, I could have volunteered to serve in either one of those by leaving my job, but I wanted to be called up as I expected to return after the war and companies were obliged to keep jobs open for returning personnel. That meant going into the ATS (Army) and this was the "cinderella" of the Women's Services as the vast majority were conscripts and our uniforms were not as smart as the dark navy of the WRENS and the lighter blue of the WAAF.

I met my long-time friend Joan on Stockport station in June 1942 and we were posted to Droitwich in Worcestershire to a training camp, billeted in a requisitioned hotel and issued with our uniform (khaki - not a very flttering colour). Training consisted of hours of drilling (hard on the feet at the outset) and being taught the basics of army life - quite different to the one we had left behind in civvy street.

After the initial training period of about three weeks, we were posted to various parts of the country, having been allocated our "trade" i.e. clerks, drivers, cooks etc. Joan and I were in the first category and found ourselves in civilian billets in Walsall, a Midland town near to Birmingham, where we had a fairly lively time including being on fire-watch duty at certain times as Birmingham was a bomb targeted city. The population as a whole was not over-friendly by our Northern standards. Our next move was to York where we stayed for two years until Joan and I split up, she going to the European theatre and I to East Africa.

York was a nice city, but a garrison town and choc a bloc with Army and Air Force troops, so we had quite an enjoyable social life visiting the many forces canteens and the very popular cinemas in the town after work was done. Joan and I worked as clerks at Northern Command H.Q. and shared with others the same billet, a requistioned house this time. We each had our bikes sent from home and were able to roam round the country side (thankfully flat) on our days off.

In 1944, with Joan already having volunteered for service in Germany (the Women's Services were not conscripted for overseas duties) as her fiance was there serving in the British army of the Rhine, I decided that I would like to go somewhere further afield, reckoning that I would probably have the chance to visit the Continent after the war was over, but was unlikely to go to Africa again (which turned out to be true). So East Africa it was to be, and after some delay and a week or two in London at a holding unit, I and the rest of my detachment were shipped out on the troopship "HMT Ranchi", formerly a P & O liner, from Greenock on the Clyde en route for Mombasa on the coast of Kenya. This ship was too large to sail through the Suez Canal so we had an unscheduled stay in Egypt, working at G.H.Q. in Cairo, before embarking on another troopship for the final stage of our journey via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to Mombasa.

I worked at H.Q. East Africa Command in Nairobi, trying my hand at being a shorthand typist to a very nice Lt. Colonel (who kindly made allowances for my ignorance in transposing some of his army jargon). In our free time we were royally entertained by the very hospitable community, mainly ex-pats, who invited service men and woemn into their homes. Generally speaking the war seemed a long way away; no rationing, no blackouts, no bombs. Fear of the war escalating was the reason for the military presence in Kenya, which was at that time a British Colony, and the reason for our being there was to release men for other duties if trouble arose.

After taking part in the victory parades in Nairobi in August 1945 for VJ day, my Unit sailed for home early in 1946, again via the Middle East and another stop-over, arriving in the UK in March 1946."

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.