大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from Swavesey Village College on behalf of Natasha and has been added to the site with her permisson. Mrs Chillingworth fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

When war was declared I was 19 years old living at home in an industrial town in Lancashire with my mother, my brother aged 14 and a younger sister aged 9. My father was in the RAF in the first world war and was still on the reserve list in 1939 which meant he was available to be recalled and in the middle of the night we were all wakened by a loud knocking at the door-the police to deliver my father's recall papers plus a travel warrant and an order to report at an RAF station in Yorkshire the very next day.
The first thing which changed our lives completely was the BLACK OUT. All street lights out, vehicles only allowed side lights, and then they only had to show a narrow strip of light in the centre. Torches were allowed but then only if they too had just a narrow strip of lights visible.
All windows to be screened by either the new black-out material or very thick originals curtains so that only a glimmer of light was shown.
Early in the war air-raid wardens had been appointed in each area and many shouts of "Put that light out!" could be heard.
During the 1st few months of the war all evening activities eased. No youth clubs, guides, scouts, evening performances at cinemas and theatres etc, but gradually as we came accustomed to the dark, and also more brave they started up again. Also early in the war each house had been issued with an air raid shelter usually erected in the garden.
One evening I had take my sister to a cinema in the town to see an American film which had been included to the press- Fantasia.
As we walked home the air raid siren sounded. It was a horrible noise arising and falling of all the works buzzers in the town. We still had about another mile to read home, so, as we were all advised, we knocked on the door of the nearest house for shelter. In the distance we could hear the bombs falling. It wasn't until some 3 hours later that we heard the welcome sound of the "all clear" a continuous sound on the buzzers and so were able to continue walking home there to be greeted by a very distraught mother, she was quite frantic naturally, as she had been at home alone listening to the bombs dropping, not knowing whether we had been in danger. No private phones in those days to let her know what was happening.
During these years having left school at 14, as my father had refused to sign a form to permit me to sit an exam at 11 plus which was necessary in order to attend a grammar school-he thought girls should not be educated-I then attended a evening school for typing from where I got a job as a typist in a timber-importing company and still lived at home but then in 1943 when I was 23 and the war continued, and 15 youth clubs boys of my contemporises had been killed, a group of us girls decided we ought to do more, so I joined the WAAF.
First of all we all had to do a 3 month induction course at Cranwell-RAF main centre with lots of lectures, as if we were back at school and then i was posted to Birdlip, a hill station in Gloucester shire as a teleprinter operator. There we had to transmit n code of 51 letters of 4 figures-all the messages which the wireless operators in the next room had received. While the operating station was up at the top of the hill our living accommodation was at the bottom of the hill. We worked in shifts from 8am to 2pm- 2pm to 10pm and then an all night one.
In the camp conditions were quite sparton. We slept in a wooden hut- 24 of us-12 beds down each side with just enough space between for a narrow cupboard for our belongings. There was also a room at the end for our cases. There were 2 round coke stoves at each end called tortoise stoves which we had to take in turns to get up early to light.
But the worst thing we had to get used to were the wash huts. A similar wooden building with washbasins either side but to reach it we had to go outside, in all weathers along a path of about 20yds. We did have hot and cold water taps to the basins, but no other heating. There were 4 bath cubicles at the end of the hut.
To get to our shifts we had to travel in an open truck that carried a water tank, which took all the fresh water that the station at the tap would need each shift. So, we the 16 staff going on duty were sitting on forms each side of the tank. Our only covering a canvas top, in frosty weather the 8 o鈥檆lock journey was very hazardous and one morning I slipped on the icy metal, I then had to be taken back to sickbay in the camp, and thence to the RAF hospital at Innsworth with a back injury for a 4 week stay. It felt like heaven to be tucked up warm, my friends were allowed special leave to visit me.
Every 12 weeks we were granted a 7 day leave warrant and for this we didn鈥檛 have to go home, but could have a travel warrant made out to travel further a field, a WAAF friend and I took good advantage of this going to the Lake District and to Scotland many times, and even on one memorable occasion by boat from Holyhead to Northern Ireland where 2 girls in uniform were a very unusual sight and a great fuss was made of us.
Finally I must pay tribute to the YWCA and the YMCA (young men鈥檚 and young women鈥檚 Christian associations) these volunteers from all the churches in many towns and cities ran very cheap canteens and/or hostels for all service personnel.
They did invaluable work for us all.
In spite of the hardship I am grateful for all the wonderful experiences I had during the war. All the travelling, the interesting people I met. The many friends I made, none of which would have happened if I鈥檇 remained in my northern industrial town.

After the war, in which so very many of our young people lost their lives, there was a desperate shortage of teachers so one of our options on demob was to join a course for emergency teacher training which I was able to join and thus began another career as a teacher.

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