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I was in the Navy, I had joined in 1940 before subscription had even started. I was up in Scotland, in Rosyth, that’s near where I lived. The Naval base was actually the Scottish submarine base, but being a woman I joined the WREN’s and worked in the Mess Hall there.

I remember the sound of the engines, you knew they were German planes by the droning noise the engine made. It was the same for everybody really, when the bombs hit. I remember my mother and I were in our beds, and a bomb would go off, we didn’t want to get out of our beds! We didn’t get an awful lot of bombing, but we got our fair share.

Being in the WREN’s was great, we enjoyed it, had a laugh, and made some good friends out of it. We would have concerts and I remember we did the khan khan, the sailors loved it! Although there were grim times, we enjoyed it, we all pulled together.

We had an invite to go to this Aerodrome at this hanger where Gracie Fields was singing, we went and came back by train the day after. We were sitting in this compartment with the sailors from the night before sitting opposite us, and they were saying, ‘Who were those gorgeous WREN’s last night?’ and we were them! They didn’t know that though! But it was us, just without all the glamour. We had been all made up with our make-up and dresses with all the stage lights, it was brilliant!

Being in the Navy, we were never short of anything, we always had food. There was this Rum, Navy Rum it’s called, and I remember it was about eleven in the morning and the sailors were asking us to take a sip, it would have been offensive if we didn’t, so I had some. One minute you're standing and the next you're on the floor! I don’t think they give it out anymore, it was so strong!

But looking back at it all, I wouldn’t do it again- you forget over the years, there was a lot of sadness. It was a war. But I did enjoy my time in the WRENs.

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