大象传媒

This story has been submitted by Helen Hughes of the People's War team in Wales on behalf of Mary Sweeney (nee McQueen)and is added to the site with her permission.

Stationed at HMS Fieldfare, Evanton

I was 18 years old and I did not want to go out and work in a factory. I had always loved the navy and all my ancestors were fisher folk and I had always loved the sea. I went for an interview, and I had a broken
tooth at the time, I was told that if I had the tooth out I could join the Wrens so I had my tooth out. When I joined the Wrens I was living in Aberdeen, I was working in the Palace Hotel and I had worked in the
Imperial Hotel. I joined the Wrens at Dumferline on 4th January 1943 and was given the official number 47704. After training I went to HMS Fieldfare at Evanton as a Steward (G), which was north of Dingwall and
even further north than Inverness. My quarters were in Novar House; it had been hunting Lodge. The Officers steward got sick and was moved and 1st Officer said she wanted me in the wardroom, so I became an Officers steward.

I met my husband while I was there and one night after we were engaged, we went for a walk up Fyrish which was a hill behind Novar House. It was 1500 feet high, you could see all over the Murray Firth. Once we climbed
up there, we saw coming over the water a German plane, to our amazement he dropped his bombs in the water, he never tried for Invergordon or Alness where the RAF were, just dropped his bombs and went back from where he came from.

1st Officer, 3rd Officer and Sister used to have Officers from the camp calling in on a Saturday/Sunday afternoon and they would stay for tea. The cook used to make lovely scones and cakes, I used to keep a shoe
box in my locker, and I would fill it with what was left of the sandwiches
and scones. Bill would come up to the courtyard and I would slip him the box. He would then take back to camp where his mates would eagerly await his return, saying 'what's Queenie got for us today'.
One day the Canadian lumber jacks came up the hills behind us, and they sent an invitation down to us Wrens to go up there, so a party of Wrens were chosen by names in a hat and I was one of the lucky ones. 1st
Officer stated that Wrens who worked on aircraft wore bell bottoms, and
the others wore their skirts with their navy blackouts on. Before we went we had to lift our skirts so she could see we had them on. It was fantastic; they had a huge log cabin with a big long table, which was nearly the length of the cabin. It was laden with everything you could think of to eat, most things I had not seen since the start of the war. There were huge apple tarts, hams, turkey, trifle, chickens and chocolates, but no spirits. They were very kind to us and loaded us up with fags - me included because I smoked. If we wanted to go to the
toilet we had to go in twos with a P.O. She had to make sure there was no hanky-panky. We had to stay in the hut and if you wanted to go out you could only go to the toilet. When I think of it, the rations we had
as civvies, and seeing all this food - it was unbelievable. We all gorged ourselves.

Bill and I were married on 24th June 1944. there was no leave so we were married at the local church and all our friends came to the
service - it was lovely.

At the end of the war I was demobbed on 16th August 1945 as I was a married Wren, and they and pregnant women went out first.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.