大象传媒

Mildred Ferrie became a typist in 1938 and shortly after this joined the women鈥檚 army. She was originally posted to York, alongside other female recruits. They arrived for the job wearing their best clothes, with the intention of looking round York before travelling to the barracks. However, contrary to their plans they were met in the station and marched to a wagon, where they were piled on. When they arrived, the women were given horrible uniforms, which incorporated oversized silk knickers! Every morning at 6am they would have to run round a field wearing just these knickers and their blouse. At night, a female officer would go round and ask the women if they were happy and generally well. On the first night, Mildred said she was unhappy and wanted to leave, and was assured that she could as she wasn鈥檛 under army law. However, by a few days later on the following Friday, Mildred felt happier as there was a close knit between the women, as they were all typists together.
As part of exercises and much to the dismay of Mildred, they were marched in threes around the barrack square. One day, a young boy arrived on a bike asking for a typist, although all the women were typists, the major pointed to Mildred and said, 鈥測ou can have her鈥�. She was sent in a wagon to pick up ammunition, but could not sign for the order because she had only one stripe, because she was an unpaid member of the army. In order to be able to take the ammunition, she had to be given another stripe, which led her to be paid a clerk鈥檚 wage. This made her unpopular with some of the other women, but she was content enough.
Although York was an unarmed barracks, it was bombed, so the women were moved to Harrogate, and stayed in Queen Ethelburgh鈥檚 school. This was a women鈥檚 training centre, led by only one man, Major Watson, to whom Mildred was typist. On one occasion Mildred was asked to type the drafting orders. The Major asked Mildred if she had checked the typing, to which she said yes, so the Major signed the order without checking it. Unfortunately for Mildred, she had written 鈥淒aft Orders鈥� instead of 鈥淒raft Orders鈥� at the very top of the page! The Major presumed she had done this to make a fool of him, which of course she hadn鈥檛. Nevertheless, he had Mildred transferred within 48hours to a small medical battalion in Berwick upon Tweed. Luckily, the officer in charge was kind and helped to get Mildred transferred back to Newcastle, where she continued to be a typist.
During all of these experiences, Mildred was engaged to a man called John Ferrie. He was a prisoner of war from 1941 to 1945, when he was rescued by the Americans and sent back to Newcastle, where Mildred was waiting. They agreed to marry that year. Luxury items were scarce during the war, but a female officer whom Mildred had worked with lent her a wedding dress and other things. It was also difficult to find a photographer, and on the day their photographer had been to a few weddings before theirs and arrived drunk! Despite this they still got some good photographs. As Mildred was now a married, she was discharged from the army but John was kept in on bomb clearing.

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