大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Jan Kilgariff of Renfrewshire Libraries on behalf of Isobel Gold and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

I am Isobel Gold. I joined the WAAF in December 1942. At my medical the doctors said my blood pressure was too high, but I persuaded them that I going in as a clerkess. Unfortunately for me the barrage balloon girls were being disbanded and were given all of the cleric jobs, so what to do with me. I was 5鈥�3鈥� tall, and the officer said if I stood up straight, I could join the Military Police at 5鈥�4鈥�. No Way! I eventually became a teleprinter operator in a bomber station before finishing up at Redbrae, Prestwick.

Another funny story happened to me when the war ended. The establishment thought it would be a good idea to send the forces on courses to prepare them for Civvy Street. One course was on computers and as I had been a comptometer operator in Civvy Street I thought it would be interesting and applied for it. Guess what! They sent me on a cookery course to a big old-fashioned house at Porth Bay, Newquay in August. The weather was glorious but the course dreadful. Learning to cook on a range and how to iron a handkerchief. We did bake and entertain children from a nursery and another day we went to a sewage works where the officer thought we should collect marrows to make jam. We didn鈥檛 think so, so on the way home we slipped them out of the door of the van and arrived back with only two or three. The officer was annoyed. I was told computer coursed were only for men.

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