大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People's War web site By Sutton Coldfield Library on behalf of Morwenna Beamond (nee Williams) and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

We lived about 3 miles from Conway, North Wales.

At the time I had my call up papers I was working as a store supervisor at Woolworths in Conway. I was 19 at the time, we all had to do something for our country, either Land Army, ammunition factory, A.T.S. Army, or W.A.A.F Air Force, or Navy Wrens. I didn鈥檛 want to go into the factory, I disliked the colour of the A.T.S., but I wanted to join the W.A.A.F. I had 3 months exemption and I joined up within a month. I had to go to Chester to enlist to see if I was fit enough and the right height, and medical examination, (I had to pass nine doctors). I well remember the girl in front of me didn鈥檛 pass, I passed and the one after me didn鈥檛 pass, the one in front was so upset she burst into tears as she had set her heart on joining the WA.A.F.

My brother Emlyn was the eldest. He had already joined the army as Royal Artillery and went overseas to Burma. My oldest sister Mair, went to Wrexham to work in a factory, my youngest sister Glenys was too young, but she had to pick potatoes, peas and beans for the farmers, as there were no young men left.

I finally left home in September 1942. My mother came to see me off at Chester with my case. It was very emotional and I was wondering what lay ahead for me, after living in the country and not having been very far from home. We were put into RAF trucks and our first camp was at Innsworth, Gloucestershire. We were not allowed out of camp at all, but they had everything on site, shops, entertainment, theatre, the lot. Our sleeping quarters were long Nissan huts with a wooden floor and a big stove in the middle with a chimney that went through the roof. There were about 16 of us to a hut, iron beds, straw pillows, three horsehair biscuits as they were called, and blankets. Those pillows were so hard and uncomfortable we hardly had sleep, just lay and talked most of the night. We were up next morning at 6am reveille. Our ablutions were outside quite a few yards away, in an open-ended hut; it was freezing cold with just a stand in shower, a few basins with no protection from the elements. I think we were there 2 weeks.

We were kitted out with our uniform, air force blue peaked hat with brass badge on the front, tunic with brass buttons and belt with brass buckle that had to be cleaned and polished every day. We were issued with three of everything, skirt, blouse, tie, trousers, same coloured horrible elasticated knickers they were so scratchy, stockings with seams that had to be straight at all times, knife, fork, spoon, mug, housewife with needles, cotton and thread, we had all our possessions in a kit bag.

From there we went in trucks to Morecambe near Blackpool. We were billeted out with different families and went square bashing every morning in one of the streets at 6.30am, freezing cold as it was winter then. Then they took over the bus station for our square bashing. At least we were inside. Very cold place in the winter, you could hardly stand on the prom the sea was so rough.

Our landlady wasn鈥檛 very nice, mother and daughter. She put us up three floors in the attic. It seemed all they wanted was the money. I was taken quite ill there after an injection. The girls told me the medical officer had been to see me for 3 days, but I couldn鈥檛 remember anything about it. She said I had a bad reaction to the jab. So after that I refused all injections.

We had our passing out parade on the prom on a very cold frosty morning. The officers came and inspected all of us one by one. That morning I had put my stockings inside out as I thought they looked better with the seam on the inside. An eagle eyed officer was at the back of me going along the row and tapped me on the shoulder and said, 鈥淏e at my office in the morning". But the next morning we were leaving and scattered to different parts of the Country, so I didn鈥檛 go, so I got away with that!

They gave me and another girl, Rose, some instructions and told us find our way to the train to Farnborough in Hampshire.
We were both excited and scared, we had never been to London, but we had lots of laughs on the way. The train was full and when we got to Euston the station was full of people in uniforms and red caps were everywhere. We had to find our way from Euston to Waterloo station. We were going up and down escalators and lifts until at last we found the right underground station. It was packed with civilians all along the walls with their bedding as all the underground stations were used as air raid shelters. It was a scramble to get on the train with our kit bags; we were packed like sardines, everyone rushing to get to their destination.

When we got to Waterloo, it was the same there; crowds of people everywhere looking for the right platform. We eventually got on the train, worn out, and as that one was packed with people in uniform, we had to stand nearly all the way.

Our arrival at North Camp was a great shock, there was hardly anyone left on the train by then. Off we got with our kit bags. All there was, just a level crossing station, not a soul to be seen anywhere, we were nearly in tears, right in the middle of the field no houses or anything to be seen. We crossed the line and got to a road, started walking and at last we saw two figures coming down the road. It was getting quite dark by then. They were two Canadian soldiers, we had a chat. We were so pleased to meet them, they took us to their canteen, gave us a good meal, then took us to Farnborough to report.

We were then taken to Ettrick cottage where we were billeted. Close to the camp, was a research station. It was lovely, a nice big private house; our bedroom was on the ground floor, looking onto the lovely back lawn. There were eight beds with lovely mattresses, proper pillows white sheets and blankets. It was sheer luxury. We all got on so well, what a blissful night that was, two bathrooms, it was heaven. We had a dairy opposite, it was so peaceful, I loved it. Next morning we had to report to camp up at 6.30.

I was a waitress in the Officers mess, men of course. We had to take turns serving in the bar and answering the phone in the manager鈥檚 office. They were a grand lot of men. Being a Research Station I suppose we had the best of everything. Food was very good, plenty of choices. We were not short of anything, not like the poor civilians on rations. We had no home leave at this time until we got settled at Farnborough.

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