大象传媒

I was on holiday, staying with my grandmother and aunt when war was declared. I was 15 years old and lived in north Kensington and attended Burlington School, Wood Lane (near Wormwood Scrubs Prison!) I should have gone to Oxford with my school as in the event of hostilities that had been arranged; however I was away, my parents decided to leave me with my relations in Fleur-de-Lys, Mon and they arranged that I would attend Hengoed Grammer School for girls again. I had spent the school year September 1935- October 1936 there, having passed the 11+ exam! But my parents left for London due to my father's ill health- he was a coal miner- and so I was a London schoolgirl for three very happy years. Back to 1939.....
I had oodles of relations in and around Fleur-de-Lys, and many friends so I was a very happy evacuee, I settled in my old school, walking a couple of miles down the valley and up the mountain to the school. It was a very healthy life and loving sport, I was quickly in the netball and lacrosse teams. Chapel important. Cinema outings with boy cousins! It was also my matric year however and many nights were spent 'under the stains' because Bristol and the south Wales Valleys were targets in the first winter of the war, but in spite of broken slepp patterns, I did well in the exams and so was ablt to leave school in the July 1940 and return to my parents in Kensington- just as London became the target for bombing. I'd celebrated my sixteenth birthday and for a few months worked as a clerk in the G.E.C in Holborn office. That autumn the journey to work by bus regularly had to go by a different route owing to the bombing of London.
My parents had to moved to a house further down the road, which had a re-inforced basement where we all slept during that period- mother, father and four daughters and a friend who was our lodger! The maisonette- the two lower floors of the house had been occupied by Clifford Curzon, the pianist and when he moved out to the country he left his grand piano or a beautiful Butil cabinet in the very large sitting room. We had our full-size table tennis table there as well! Music and T.T were our pastimes at home.
My sisters and I became V.A.D's at our local hospital- the Princess Marie Louise hospital in Kensington. Jean and Valerie Trimble were also V.A.D's there. My eldest sister was a civil servant and worked in the P.O.S Bank and after a few months at the G.E.C I left there and started work in Blythe Road. We cycled to the office so did not have to rely on public transport. There were frightening times and I remember walking back from the Portobello Road with my mother when a stray German plane straffed us- but missed us! Sights of bombed houses each day with some walls still standing with pictures on the walls and curtains hanging, even a bath intact I remember one time. We worked very long hours; 48 hours and 52 hours sometimes and in addition to our sessions as V.A.D's we did fire-watching on the rota at night in the office. Being young we took it all in our stride and once the summer came, we were down at the C.S.C.A Sports Ground for tennis whenever we could manage it.
My father was a van-driver for the R.Kerner and Son, a wholesale confectioners. Mr K. had number of retail shops and when the manger of his Praed St shop was called up, my mother took it on. She was experienced as she and my father had a number of businesses in their early married life after my father had been invalided out after his war service. He had shrapnel through his thighs and was in hospital for 3 years but when he had recovered sufficiently he went back to mining (he always limped however) The Praed St shop was immediately under the St Mary's Hospital so the staff and med students were among the many customers she got to know. Sir Alexander Fleming was one and I helped her (Mum always had some cigerettes under the counter for her specials!) Sometimes I got know them too. One special occasion I was invited to attend a piano recital in the school. The pianist was Solomon and what a treat that was!
One of my sisters was married in April 1941 and soon after that our house suffered from some bombing. Emerging from the basement when the 'All Clear'sounded, we found the stained glass window over the front door, lying in tact on the hall floor, not a bit of glass even cracked and the dining room window complete, lying on the table! Bomb blasts played funny tricks! We could have stayed there because although windows and doors were damaged my father managed to do some running repairs. However Mr. Kerner, when he heard the news, he suggested we move to Greenford, near the Glass factory, where he had a retail shop with living accomodation over. Bombs later in the war did drop nearby but by then there was a Morrsion shelter in the kitchen- our dining table for the rest of the war!
My sister and I travelled by the Piccadilly line from Sudbury Hill station to Hammersmith and then walked to Blythe Road office, sometimes arriving late, but always 'going to work' whatever the conditions.
Towards the end of 1942, my sister joined the W.R.N.S and completed the course to become an engine mechanic in the Fleet AirArm. By this time, having met my old maths teacher from Burlington School, I entrolled at Britebeck college following her advice. I studied most evenings, and all day Saturdays and Sundays, what with my office job and other commitments I didn't achieve the results I had hoped for so I too joined the W.R.N.S and was called up in Anugust 1943 to do the intial training- washing floors and dishes and square bashing for the compulsory 6 weeks at the Mill Hill Depot, which was satisfactory completed and I was accepted to train as a F.A.A. Radio Mechanic. This was a nine month course with the first 16weeks studying at the Battersea Poly. We lived in a 'Wrennery' in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea and walked over the bridge each day, lunching in the canteen. Evenings we enjoyed ourselves in the Service Club in the West End, dancing and meeting servicemen from all over the world, quite romantic for a 19 year old girl. There was a lull in the air-raids at this time- only the occasional tragedy.
Then off we went to H.M.S Ariel, a 'stone-frigate' near Warrington. What excitement on arrival to see half-a-dozen F.A.A planes parked on the parade ground, Walrus, Fulmar, Barracuda and Swordfish that I remember. We lived in huts on the boundary of the field and had lectures in laboratories learning practical and academic skills for a R.M job. (In Battersea we had worked in the metal shop where we made some tools- screwdriver and centre punch I remember.) We had film shows in the hanger and ENSA entertainment and dancing of course!
At the end of the course, it was now April or May '44 and the F.A.A had trained more R.M's than they required so we volunteered to do another's months training for General Service in the Navy, which included Morse transmitting! My three friends and I made our way to Hampshire to the small WRNS quarters in Droxford- Soberton Towers, a large house that had been requisitioned by the Government. We travelled to a training 'stone-frigate' a few miles away each day in a lorry, and the woods were packed with servicemen in tents, again from all over the world. We met many at social gatherings in the evenings and continued to enjoy service life!
Then one night we were kept awake with the noise of thousands of aircraft making their way across the channel to the D.Day invasion. In the morning on our way to our lessons, the woods had emptied overnight- not a trace of army occupation- that we could see; quite incredible.
The war was not over however and having completed our course we moved on to Haslemere. Our quarters were in the beautiful grounds of a small country house called Grayswood Hill on the outskirts of th town. The WRNS officers lived in the house but most of the wrens lived in huts in the grounds, very well equipped 8 bunks to a room and a couple of bathrooms. Everything had to be 'ship-shape' as we had done all through. Bedspreads properly tucked with 'hospital corners' and the blue ancjor in the centre.
We discovered that the A.S.E (Admiralty Signal Establishment) had laboratories in the woods around and it was here that we met our boss- Lt Commander Bolton R.N. What a lovely man! He welcomed us and explained that we were also an experiment! He was having a couple of lorries fitted as testing stations and therefore we were to learn to drive! So another course! This time in London, staying in naval quarters in Westerfield College and being taught to drive and the simple mechanics of the internal combustion engine by the B.S.M in holland Park area. We went out in pairs with an instructor and drove in and around London and passed in record time when we returned to Haslemere.
Our job was to learn any new modification to radio receivers or transmitters that the 'boffins' invented. We were taught what to do in the labs and then off in own lorries to ports all over the British Isles where new ships were being built or old ones in for 'refits', do the 'mods' then drive our testing stations lorries out a few miles and test them. The dockers were surprised and amused to seee us on board! This exciting work, took us to Greenock, Liverpool, Newscastle, Belfast, Portsmouth, Lowestoft- I can't remember all the places.
We worked on Battleships, A/c Carriers, Cruisers, destroyers and one submarine, which I hated. A highlight was when we did some 'mods' on S.S. Franconia, which was being fitted out for the Yalta Conference.
On leave in London at times, me and others experienced both V.1 and V.2 bombing. I happened to be on a 48-pass when a doodle-bug's engine stopped overheard at my home. We dashed to the Morrison shelter and thought the explosion must have been very close- it was, and a lot of the glass factory was hit. That period when the engine stopped was always the most frightening. I was no 'hero' but these are recollections of a service girl.
Soon however the war was over, V.E celebrations were the order of the day. We carried on with our 'mods' for a while and then my 'de-mob' papers arrived and I left the W.R.N.S in April 1946, to train as a teacher!! What another course!
Valerie Wallin (nee Foster)

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