大象传媒

At the age of 20, I was conscripted to join the ATS. I was in the ATS for 3 years. I was in service first and then for the last two years I was a driver . I was in the ATS from 1942-1945. During my 3 years I was sent to different places in England including Leicester and Edinburgh. During my 6-week stay in Edinburgh I learnt to drive. I got a lot of experience of driving in Edinburgh due to the number of hills and valleys. Once I was able to drive I was given the chance to drive a 15 hundredweight truck. However, my main job was to drive the officers about, taking them to the places they needed to be. A lot of the driving I had to do was in the dark, but I was not frightened as I knew that this was my job so it had to be done.

During my time as a Driver, I was also often sent to Saxmundham in Suffolk to collect the food rations. I also had to take the injured soldiers to Colchester, which is where the Military Hospital was. I had to get used to being able to drive in the dark, with no signposts and not much light. If we had to go somewhere we had to rely on maps and the light we had got. Most of the time we were driving in blackouts and even the lights on the traffic had to be hooded.

After a year as a driver, I was sent to Colchester for compassionate leave, where I stayed for 2 years. During my stay in Colchester, I met my husband Reginald. He was a civilian cowman. We married on January 22nd 1944. We then moved to Hemingstone where we lived for 56 years. As the war was still in full swing when we married, we had to live on rations for everything. Clothes were rationed, as well as food and sweets, even furniture was rationed! We were given coupons for the right amount of everything, so even if we wanted to get extra we couldn't.

Before I joined the ATS, a friend and I were cycling back from Hemingstone when we were caught in an air raid. We cycled home as fast as we could and we could hear bombs dropping and shrapnel flying around us the whole time.
The day that war was declared as over I wore a skirt which shocked the other male soldiers as they only ever saw me in trousers.

I believe the ATS bought out my personality , as I was shy before I joined. There were some really nice people in the A TS, especially Dorothy Haines who I still keep in contact with, even though she lives in London. She was a cook in the A TS.
I was glad I was in the ATS as it took my mind off the bad things that war bought.

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