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This story was submitted to the People's War site by Eileen Linder on behalf of Gill Mcdermott, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions
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It was absolutely amazing going to the RN College at Greenwich from Portsmouth in 1943.My Commander had said that he would give me a boost up and I went up to RN College at Greenwich which was a tremendous surprise to me. We were all sent up there in our ordinary wren uniform and came out like little blossoms. It was at a time when London was being heavily bombed. We were put up in a wonderful hospital right near to it in Greenwich, that was our living quarters. Then we just crossed the road to the wonderful old buildings from days past, alongside the River Thames, and we were told to find a room such as so and so, because Supt. French who was the 2nd senior Wren officer in the whole of the service would be speaking to us. And we went into a room which had an enormous table and 41 seats. 40 girls were taken in each week, for a 3 week course, on how to be an officer and how to behave yourself. And Supt French sat at the top. And she said, now I am going round you and I want you to tell me your surnames as I reach you. And we did that. Then she went round again — and the next time she went round half of us. The last time she remembered every single one of us. I was there for 6 months on a Met course and she never forgot me when I saluted her. And I remember being close to her on one occasion and I said — "Ma’am how do you do it".
And she said, "It is my job, if I didn’t do it I wouldn’t be doing my job".
But the funny thing was. Just before I joined the Wrens and I was in this coffee restaurant in Bridlington with my mother there were two wren officers who I asked how I could join the wrens. And they asked me what I had to offer. Supt French was one of them, and she said when she got to me she said ah I remember you in the Regal Café in Bridlington. And that’s a memory because that was 4 years later.

During the raids somebody would say my brother has got a couple coming up from Portsmouth or somewhere and wants a couple of partners. And we would go up and dance the night away in one of the old famous hotels. And the blower would go off, as we called it, and we would all go down to wherever we were supposed to go. And it was all part of life then, it wasn’t considered extra-ordinary at all.

It would be foolish to say that we weren’t frightened. The old heart I think began to race a bit further you know. And you talked about what was happening at home, what your mother had written in the last letter, almost anything but talk about what was going on outside.

I seen tremendous amount of destruction and death . And the people were so wonderful. When you went into the underground they all had their little place. Each had a place to put their mattress which they kept every night. And woo-betide you if you took somebody else’s place. And they would have a special time when they came down with tea trolleys, and if they had any cakes or anything everybody would contribute a little bit. If there was some tea they would give a few spoonfuls to the general — all we got was 2ozs of tea a week. Then there was a singing period, all the old songs from the First World War, and the new ones. And it was great fun.

Morale was terrific and we only needed to see Churchill and indeed one day I was coming off night duty at Bletchley and he was coming out. He used to travel up from Downing St up to Bletchley by train. He had a little tunnel made between the station and Bletchley Park grounds so that he couldn’t be seen arriving and going. I was just walking out alone and he was walking with Montgomery and all the hierarchy. And he said excuse me and he walked over and put his hand out and took hold of my hand and said you are doing a great job my girl. They say every one has their 15 minutes of joy, well I had my 5 seconds of joy.

I just had a tremendous enthusiasm for him, and I have done every since. I had a row with somebody at a Christmas party with no drink involved or anything. And this chap hates Montgomery and he said how can you like him, his mother was a whore and his father was a drunkard and I said I think this conversation is getting a little difficult and he turned his back on me. He was an old man of Churchill’s age.
we were surprised to see Churchill and his entourage at that time.

Because they had a lot of meetings there, he had his own special room there. And they met a great number of times there, but of course we were usually on duty when he was there. But he was always my hero anyway. Actually there was a time when he just went down a little bit in my estimation because it was said, and how true it was I don’t know, that he had ordered everything in Bletchley Park to be destroyed in case there came another war, and all that was useful information to the enemy. So I thought, oh no, he can’t do that, everybody worked so hard to get all that.

But at Greenwich, first of all, all I was doing this how to be an officer.It involved such silly little things as getting used to be served by a girl with white gloves on. Each of us were served by a steward with white gloves on. And how in the middle of the war can you get used to having a choice of 31 different flavours of ice-cream. Or facing a wonderful banqueting table, which had a boars head with an orange in his mouth.

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