大象传媒

My mother passed away 15 years ago, but she would be 83 now. As a young person, I only half listened to her war stories, but she described many of her highs and lows throughout the six years that she spent in the WRENs. She joined the WRENs in 1939 when she was 18, near the beginning of the war. I am very glad she was willing to talk about the war because now I can give my children some sense of the sacrifices made for their freedom.

Mom grew up in Cardiff. Her boyfriend at the time was only about 19 and was assigned to a submarine in the Mediterranean. He died quite early in the war when the sub was torpidoed. My mother kept in touch with this boy's mother who was an officer in the Women's Royal Navy. She recruited my mother. Mom moved to London against her family's wishes; she was an only child.

I remember her telling me that she worked as a mail censor, cutting bits out of letters from the troops - anything that might give away military secrets or facts about the British troop movements that might endanger lives. She felt sorry to have to cross out parts of letters that soldiers had written to their loved ones. During this time, she was also working a night shift as an ambulance driver in London - one of the big old canvas covered trucks. She said that one night she and her partner were strafed by a German plane which left a bullet hole down through the top of the cab and right through the seat between them! They saw the machine gun fire coming down the middle of the street right at them and that it gave them a terrible fright. Another time, a 600 lb. bomb fell outside the ambulance depot during the night, but did not detonate. They came out in the morning and found a large crater in the driveway and the bomb down in the hole!

She later worked as a chauffeur for various naval officers in Plymouth. Through this work, she met a young man who had just been assigned as a destroyer captain. They dated for a while and he was hoping that they would become engaged. My grandmother didn't like him though and ordered my mother to stop seeing him. The only other fact I remember about the captain was that on the day his new destroyer was to leave dock, the engine room put the ship into reverse by mistake and slammed into the dock, forcing another six months in drydock for repairs!

In the final year of the war, Mom was finally engaged to be married to Tony, who was a pilot. By all accounts he was dark-haired and handsome and they were very happy. Sadly, on the very last day of the war he was killed when his plane crashed into the English Channel. She heard the news on the radio in a list of casualties, but she also told me that she woke up that morning with a premonition that something bad was about to happen.

Mom met my father in 1948. He was a medical graduate who had spent the war years in Scotland and had only gotten his Naval commission as the war ended. Mom said she married him as quickly as possible since she was now convinced she was jinxed! They went to Canada in 1953 on an RAF exchange, and decided to stay permanently, which is why I am a Canadian. They had three children and were married for 35 years until Mom passed away in 1988.

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