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I was born in Torquay and worked there just before the war in the Ministry for Labour until the autumn of 1940. I was sent to Bristol to send our call up notices for people who had already registered for duty. In Bristol I was in digs for the first half dozen raids. A bomb fell on the side of the house where I was staying. We were in the basement and were covered in dust. We went across the road to a house where some Henry Hall band members were staying. The next day we discovered that the house was unsafe but I could get my clothes and decided to go home to Torquay. I walked in unannounced to my parents. While in Torquay I went to the cinema and saw a news reel about bombs sent me under my seat. I stayed in Torquay for a while until arrangements were made to stay at the YWCA in Bristol but the night before I was to return the YWCA was bombed flat. Eventually I found more digs but I never got out of bed for an air raid siren again. I had decided my number was not on a bomb.

After a request for a transfer I was sent to Wellington in Somerset to do much the same job as done in Torquay. In 1941 I was sent to Exeter to support the city after it had been bombed. I registered people who were unemployed due to their places of work being bombed out. One evening on my away home I was delayed as the King and Queens train was also leaving Exeter.

I was in a reserved occupation and we weren’t automatically called up. Any women who registered would come to me for interview. I would tell them what work they would do if they didn’t’ want to join the forces. Finally in May 1942 I was called up. I went to RAF Innsworth, Gloustershire, the RAF records office. I was sent elsewhere to learn my drilling (squarebashing). I was in the WAAF (women’s auxillary air force) as a clerk with special duties. I then did a radar course and was post to RAF Sopley 2 ½ miles north of Christchurch. They hadn’t got any accommodation so they sent me to Middle Wollop for a couple of weeks.

I was stationed in a ground controlled interception station at Sopley. It was a highly secretive job at that time. I had to sign the official secrets act and I wasn’t allowed to discuss it with anyone until after VE day. I looked at radar tubes, smaller than the T.V. and from the tubes I would estimate the speed, height and course of an aircraft. Ex battle of Britain pilots were the controllers, these were all commissioned ranks. We didn’t get many enemy aircraft over the area. If the controller decided to intercept these planes the controller would talk to UK pilots on the radio based at Middle Wollop. The controller would say Angels at …. Which meant the planes height, give the speed and the general direction. Sometimes we saw night enemy flights but none was shot down on my watch. I worked a watch system.
Day 1 1 -5 pm and 10 — 8 am
Day 2 sleep and 5 — 10pm
Day 3 8-1 pm and 24 hours off

We often went to London on our day off or to Bournemouth when we should have been sleeping! There was no discipline expect self discipline, no one was in charge of the house we stayed in or our drills and I believe I had an easy war. I was sleeping the night of D Day. I came off duty at 11pm and at 8am next day I heard it had happened. In January 1945 I was sent to Norfolk to and RAF station in Happisburgh. We did very little there until the end of August 1945. We only worked one morning or afternoon a week. It was a beautiful summer spent on the beach. I was sent back to RAF Innsworth to the records office for 3 months and was demobbed in December 1945. It was a relief to be out.

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