大象传媒

I always wanted to be a driver, however my father did not approve of women drivers.
I had a job in the Civil Service and as soon as conscription came in, I joined the A.T.S in my lunch hour to be a driver and didn鈥檛 tell my parents until my papers came through!
I went to Gesford in North Wales to do my initial training where I passed my test. I was then posted to Chilwell for the 2nd half of my training on left hand vehicles, gun carriers etc. I was then posted to 31 V.R.D. Company at Castle Douglas Nr Lesmaghw Scotland. I was then a fully-fledged Convoy Driver. This meant we had to collect and deliver new vehicles. I was then posted to Ottershaw where we were very busy constantly taking things to south Wales and other places. They used to collect us by tender when we girls had delivered the vehicles.
I was picked to go on a further driving course - this entailed a skidpan and how to park troop carriers. Also had a wonderful Bedford 3tonner, which I loved to drive, as I didn鈥檛 have to double de clutch when changing gear. I was then able to collect the girls who had been delivering vehicles for the convoy and collect new recruits (who were male) from the station.
When D-day arrived (6th June), we were still delivering things to the docks and hoping to avoid the flying bombs. I was then chosen to be a driving instructor, which I didn鈥檛 really enjoy. I was then posted to Camberley, but my commanding officer got to drive the Queen. I was informed I was going to be posted overseas, so I went to Bristol and was with the 21st Group. I was sent to join the 721 Car Company in Brussels - this was staffed by First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and they were pleased to see us in the end, as they were very busy. We were not supposed to cross the Rhine, however we used to try and persuade our passenger that they needed to go over the Rhine.

I was in Brussels for V.E. Day. The roads were cobbled and we had Humber Snipes, which were very heavy, with large tyres and they would slide all over the road if we weren鈥檛 careful.
The friends I remember were Teddy Templeton, we were billeted together in a holding unit in Scotland and we met again in Brussels. And another friend who was good fun was Jean Andrews, though I think she is dead now.
When we were in Brussels we had garages we could keep our cars in, this made it so much easier to do the checks. However when we were in Germany, the cars were out in the open. They had to be drained every evening and the W O L F T B checks had to be done out in the open and in the freezing cold. If you were in a hurry you had to scrape the windscreen with a 2/- piece.

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