大象传媒

I was 20 when war was declared. I lived in a small village called Spofforth, 5 miles from Harrogate, 3 miles from Wetherby.
After I left school in 1936 I worked in the Ministry of Health (divisional medical office) in Leeds. We had a team of doctors and dentists who carried out medical examinations on people, drawing what is now known as Sickness Benefits to make sure they were not malingering. We covered most of the North East of England. Lincolnshire was very difficult to arrange transport with very infrequent trains and busses. We were closed down and sent home in August 1939 as I found out later when I joined the WAAF. My old office and panel of doctors and dentists had become the medical examination centre for the Armed Forces.
It was a glorious September, I roamed the fields picking blackberries and wondered how the world could be at war. My fianc茅 was pleased to have such wonderful weather, he had joined the RAF in 1936 ( Boy service a shilling (5p) per week and a stamp to write home to mother). The regulars were turned out of their quarters to sleep in hangars or under planes, giving up their beds to the volunteer reserve who were being called up.
During the previous year I had trained with the St John Ambulance Brigade in first aid, home nursing, personal protection against gas. A first aid point was set up in my village hall to which I reported whenever the siren sounded. My father was a special constable so we usually left home together. He spent the duration of the alert patrolling the village to make sure that there were not any lights showing. There was one habitual offender who thought that because the house was in the middle of a field, their lights wouldn鈥檛 matter.
Spofforth only had one bomb in September 1940, aiming for our one anti aircraft gun, but we had a lot of alerts as planes passed over high in the sky heading for Manchester and Liverpool. My fiance鈥檚 father was the night operator on the telephone exchange at Wetherby. When he introduced me to his parents, they introduced me to the telephone exchange. In those days you put plugs in holes to call numbers and in air raids it could be chaotic. The first list of numbers to be called were for air raid yellow (meaning enemy planes approaching). Often before all these could be called, air raid red would come through with an even longer list. Eventually I was called back to the 鈥渄ay job鈥�. Two changes had taken place in my journey to Leeds, my bus no longer went there but to the munitions factory at Thorparch (now the British Library) which had operated during the first world was. So now I had to change buses at Wetherby with an hourly connection which didn鈥檛 always connect. All the seats had been taken out of the buses and put round the edge of the bus leaving a central space for straphangers, which could be fun in the blackout but meant that many more people could be accommodated. We called them 鈥渃attletrucks鈥�. I reported to the Ministry of Health regional office, (other colleagues went to the newly formed petroleum board of ministries of food or mines) In the regional office we evacuated expectant mothers. Large houses were requisitioned, Hazlewood Castle and Stockeld Park to name but two (all I can remember). Expectant mothers in the later stages of pregnancy plus children under school age moved to live in these houses which were equipped to become maternity homes until after their babies were born leaving the 鈥渄angers鈥� of cities like Leeds and Bradford for comparative safety.
In 1940 we liaised with the Channel Island civil service to help evacuate many inhabitants as possible as it was seen to be impossible to defend. I had never visited the Channel Islands but had read about their great beauty and felt sorry for them having to come to the Industrial North East, but the alternative was grimmer.
Female born in 1918 registered on the 14th June 1941 for direction of labour to services, munitions, land army, etc. If I remember correctly all women under 35 or maybe 40 were directed into some kind of work often taking local jobs in place of younger people. At this time women did not go out to work after marriage so this was a great change. As a civil servant I was in a reserved occupation but the following year we had a memo, saying, that although we could not be conscripted, we could volunteer, subject to the consent of head of department. (And married women were brought into the civil service for the first time). So I volunteered to join the Women鈥檚 Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF). I had visions of becoming a plotter meteorolist, watchtower assistant even, but after reporting to the RAF Innsworth (Gloucester), the officer allocating trades took one look at me and said Civil Servant 鈥� Admin. We had a week confined to camp at RAF Innsworth being kitted out and learning to conduct ourselves in public, and then we were posted to Morecambe for the next few weeks. Innoculations, vaccinations, lectures, drill on the bandstand (in November), then I was posted to 7 PRC (Personal Reception Centre) RAF Harrogate. There were two stations with WAAF in Harrogate, the other being Air Ministry. If there was any trouble in town(eg too much celebration on New Years Eve) each blamed the other. 7 PRC was the reception of aircrew who had trained in Canada, South Africa, Rhodesia, etc and were awaiting posting to units. We were all billeted in hotels plus some very large houses where shift workers, cooks, waitresses, etc lived. My 鈥榯rade鈥� of Admin had four parts. I had to be trained and pass a trade test in each discipline of catering, equipment, office procedure and drill. (My drill trade test was taken in front of the Majestic Hotel with dozens of aircrew cheering me on through the windows).
I had nothing to do with the office procedure with which I was familiar. I sort of kept house at the Adelphi Hotel, welfare work really, making sure that the hotel was clean (carpets had been taken up and long corridors were scrubbed by Aircraft Hand General Duties; a glamorous name for not very glamorous jobs.) We lived in hotel rooms; three, four or six to a room. In my room three of us shared. To cut out the scrubbing of the floor we stained it ( and our hands) with Permanganate of Potash.
The girls booked in and out at our Guardroom. We had the sad task of telling the girls when their fianc茅s or husbands were missing, and in one wonderful case I remember telling this WAAF that her husband had made it to Spain. I also brought them back when they ran away.
If you behaved badly enough, often enough, there was something called Dishonourable Discharge and the girls were directed into other war work. One little Geordie lass tried everything under the sun to get out, who could blame her? She was the ACH who scrubbed the passages. I think it was the plate of scrambled egg she hurled at the WAAF officer which finally got her on the Northbound train.
We had a group of twenty four UT (under training) telephonists to be marched to and from the Post Office each day, once twenty four Polish WAAF with not a word of English between them, but they were quick learners.
We made our own entertainment, decorated the hotel with shrubs and evergreens from the garden at Christmas. We had a wonderful mixed choir (60 strong) which broadcast on a programme called Forces Merry Go Round, which featured the Navy, Army and RAF in consecutive weeks. We sang folk songs and were told that we were the first choir to broadcast 鈥淐rimond鈥�, although well known in Scotland.
Our entertainment officer, Flight Lieut Hilliam, in peacetime, was half of a popular duo, base and tenor, called Flotsam and Jetsam, who sang popular songs at the piano. He organised concerts, wrote sketches and pantomimes, found us beautiful costumes to wear which was a change to uniform. We put on our concerts at the Royal Hall in Harrogate. The star of our shows was LACW Edna Simmons, older sister of Jean Simmons who was just starting her film career at the age of 16.
Our Station Commander was Leslie Ames previously Captain of Kent County Cricket Club; everyone played their part in this war.
My fianc茅 arrived back in the UK in December 1943, our 3 year engagement spent with him in South and West Africa. We were married 10 days later in an unheated church, Paddy with his blood thinned by the African sun, me out of uniform into a white lace dress (lace not rationed) which cost 26/6d to be made by the dressmaker. Friends lent me an underskirt, tiara, shoes, veil, my bouquet of chrysanthemums 鈥� the only flower available in December. The local grocer鈥檚 wife managed to find the ingredients of a cake, no icing 鈥� a cardboard cut out on top of the cake.
I applied for a posting to RAF Syerston where my husband had been posted, pleased to be going on an operational station, but by the time it came through I found I was pregnant so it was back to civilian life. Back to Mother and Father because there wasn鈥檛 any houses available in my village in 1944. Back to learning to cope on rationed food. When it snowed we made pancakes using snow in place of eggs, making sure that the cat hadn鈥檛 got there first. I was provided with 100 extra clothing coupons for myself and my baby. Again I was lucky that I lived in a Village as friends provided baby clothes, lent me a baby bath, cot and crib. It was possible to buy a utility pram 拢7.9.3d but it was very basic, 鈥渨obbly鈥� when child number 2 arrived 20 months later 鈥� I found a second hand Silver Cross twin pram.
No, I haven鈥檛 a wonderful memory, I kept a diary of early days of my Daughter and Son with costs of equipment detailed 鈥� eg 10 yards of white ribbon @ at a penny halfpenny per yard. Life was not easy. Coal needed for warmth and hot water was rationed; soap powder for the washing was rationed apart from food and clothing.
In her first year my baby Daughter was found sleeping in a room where all the water in the plant pots had frozen, but she survived.
My husband was discharged from the RAF in 1947 after 11 years service. We were allocated a council house the following year, wood only allowed for upstairs floors, composition floors for downstairs. We painted the hall scarlet, in the two rooms had a carpet, square recesses in corners painted black, furniture on dockets. We went to Leeds especially for our curtain material 鈥� there was only one pattern to choose from. We were thankful for anything.
As the story unfolded of the suffering endured by many other people in the world, I realised how lucky I had been in 鈥渕y war鈥�. The most dangerous part of it being taking the Church collection among the Aircrew (bless them all).
On the Sunday Church Parade I remember the comradeship and the sharing of those days with pleasure.

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