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This story has been submitted to the People’s War website by a volunteer from Lincoln CSV Action Desk on behalf of Irene Paterson and has been added with her permission. Mrs Paterson fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

My name is Irene Paterson (nee Corke). I joined the WAAFs in 1942 when I was 17 ½ years old and was stationed with a Barrage Balloon detachment in the Southport and Morecombe area of Lancashire. My friend Eva from Chingford, near London and I both volunteered to be moved up to London. We struggled with our kit-bags on to the train, changing trains at Crewe arrived in the East End of London. We were stationed around London at Tottenham, Bethnal Green, Finchley Park and around the docks at various times.

My friend Eva and I used to do 24 hour guard duties in shifts with a truncheon, a whistle and an Alsatian dog named Rex for protection. One night on guard duty I was on the late shift with my friend Eva and told her to have a rest while I kept watch and then we would swap over for my turn for a rest. If anything happens I will give you a shout . All of a sudden I saw three figures coming towards me, I shouted ‘Halt, who goes there!’ but they didn’t answer. I then shouted ‘Put your hands up!’ The noise had woken Eva who asked what was wrong. I told her to guard these three men while I went to the ship in the dock for help. I spoke to the Captain who said in broken English ‘me no understand’, so I said ‘You come with me’ Well it turned out they were Norwegian seamen and had been to a pub and got lost. They had come over the fields to find their ship. I did this only with a truncheon, whistle and dog. At least the RAF men had guns!

Another time we had to guard next to a graveyard in Islington. I used to dread guard duties there but it was ok off duty when we went to The Angel pub for a night out.

I met my first husband, Stanley Rixon, through my mother. She and her friend Mrs Hall were sitting having a drink in a pub in Southport and there were two spare seats next to them. Two sailors asked if they could sit down there and my mum who was like me said, ‘come on lads, of course sit down’. They got chatting and my mother told them I was in the WAAFs stationed in London and pulled out a photograph to show them. They were stationed in Portsmouth but were on a gun-firing training course at Ainsdale nearby. ‘When you are in London, why don’t you call in and see her?’ Well one day we were ‘storm-bedding’ the balloons dressed in battle dress, sea boot socks and Wellingtons. My hair was long so I had a shoe lace tied round it and a scarf over this to keep my curlers in. Al of a sudden a group of WAAFs came in and said there was a gorgeous sailor here to see me. I told them to keep him there until I could get rid of these things, put on my uniform and skirt and tidy myself up. Well, we eventually met and he asked me to go for a drink with him at a pub nearby. I had a gin and tonic with ice, which was THE drink at that time and he persuaded me after many refusals to have another one and walked me back to the balloon site. He had to get back to Portsmouth so he shook my hand and said he would write to me sometime; he never even kissed me! All the girls in the camp were excited and waiting to hear how our date had gone on. Anyway he did write and saw me twice more and was then posted to N Ireland in the Naval Police. He wrote from there and asked me to marry him when he came home and I said ‘yes’

We were married in Southport Register office at 11 o’clock on December 9th 1944. I was wearing my WAAF uniform and he was in his naval uniform. We had to grab a soldier off the street to be a witness to our wedding. Because everything had to be done in a rush and also with food rationing, we didn’t have a wedding cake but settle for a meal in a café afterwards. Unknown to me my father, who was a warrant officer in the camp at Southport, had arranged a big ‘do’ complete with a band in the NAAFI. He was very proud of me standing side by side with a sailor husband. Our ‘honeymoon’ was just the one night we stayed at a friend’s house, then we parted company at 12 o’clock the next day. My husband went back to Portsmouth and I went back to London. That was the last time I saw him for two years. He was on HMS Emperor, an aircraft carrier, an American one, so when the war in Europe ended he was off to Burma and the Far East.

With the war about at its end I was stationed at Uxbridge and one night we had gone to bed in our bunks and suddenly the door flew open and all these RAF men stormed in and pulled the bed clothes off us (good job I didn’t sleep in the nude!). ‘Come on, the war’s ended, lets all go out and get drunk!’ they said. So off we all went and had a great time celebrating the end of the war in Europe.

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