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At the age of 19, I decided I wanted to be a driver in the A.T.S. I was sent t o Camberley Surrey, where I had to train in map reading, first aid and driving. I passed all the exams and tests, and clearly remember the parade where we marched passed and saluted the officers. I was then able to wear the F.A.N.Y. flash across the top of both arms of my uniform. This stood for First Aid Nursing Yeomanry originating from the time when the nurses went around on horseback in previous wars and the name stuck. I was first posted to Honiton, which I did not like. Therefore I was transferred to Tavistock, in South Devon near Plymouth. There were buildings, roads and statues dedicated to Sir Francis Drake everywhere you looked. This move suited me much better.

I drove a big ambulance with canvas sides and because I was of diminutive stature I had to be hoisted into the drivers seat. I had to lean out to reverse the vehicle to see where I was going, and I remember one day leaning out so far that I fell out.

Another time an officer asked me to stop so he could go to the toilet and I thought that I would take the opportunity to go as well. When I came out I presumed he too had returned so I drove off. When I reached our destination there was a phone call -could I go back and collect the officer where I left him? He was very irate and never asked for me to drive for him again!

One day we heard that Plymouth which wasn’t far from us had been heavily bombed so we decided to have a look for ourselves. It was awful! The town was so badly bombed as bad as they had said and I remember crying at the sight. What I remember was the bed! There was a building with the front sliced off one side. I could just see the bed perched alone upstairs in the remains of what had been someone’s house. This image has remained in my mind ever since.

One day, as I drove over Dartmoor the wind was so strong it blew my vehicle over. I was on my own at the time. Although I wasn’t hurt this put me off driving and I was transferred into the Stores, where I issued spare parts for the vehicles. This was a good move for me because it was here I met my husband.

He was a driver mechanic. He came into the Store for his spare parts and got more than he bargained for — me as his wife. We did most our courting on Dartmoor amongst the ponies and were married in Tavistock in July 1943 at the Registry Office. I remember that the Registrar was very deaf and we had to shout our responses. We had a lovely honeymoon in Newquay. My husband and I had just got married so we found a bedsit. It had a big old brass bedstead with fancy brass knobs on each corner that used to rattle. We removed the knobs and the landlady said where have my nice knobs gone? We assured her they were in the drawer and could be put back.

Within a few months I had to leave the army because I was having a baby and came back to the North East leaving my husband behind in Tavistock until he got posted to the Far East. When I went into labour in June 1944 at my parent’s house all I remember was the midwife sitting on the end of the bed singing a song about her grandfathers balls, verse after verse as I lay there in agony. There was a great clap of thunder as the baby was born and at that moment a big crow came down the chimney covering me, the midwife and the baby with soot. It fluttered round the room causing more mess and my father had to come up and throw a towel over it so little Bobby was covered in soot.
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I remained with my parents for the rest of the war and then joined my husband in Malaysia, exchanging one war for another.

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