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In 1938 I was secretary to Mr CV Clarke of the Low Loading Trailer Company in Bedford. The prospect of war had been uppermost in Mr Clarke’s mind since the scare in 1938 and he was very clever and forward thinking. He said that if war came, females would play a far larger part and converted the chassis of his horsebox trailer into a vehicle that could be towed behind a normal car. This would be fitted to carry stretchers in tiers to be handled by a female. Mr Clarke’s wife did not drive so, as I could, he taught me to drive the car towing the trailer. All that summer when there were A.R.P. Exercises in many towns along the southeast coasts, he would drive there and then I took over. I am not very tall so the car was fitted with wooden blocks on the pedals, and extra cushions on the seat so I could see over the dashboard. I learned to reverse with the trailer, unhitch it, and pull it over to where the casualties were, hitch up, this time with help, and drive to the hospital. After the Exercise ended Mr Clarke would then take over for the drive home.
I am not certain of the order of things around this time, that is between 1938 when war seemed imminent and 1939 when it actually happened. I know that Mr Clarke was certain war would come and started thinking on these lines, inventing devices of a war-like nature. Apart from the trailer he had ideas for a limpet mine — a mine that would stick to a ship below that waterline. In fact a version of this was used, I understand. When he first started experimenting I went round with the children to all the sweet shops in the town (Bedford) to buy aniseed balls, which we had to suck until they reduced to the size hr required! (‘What did you do in the War?’ ‘I sucked aniseed balls’!) I believe at one stage Mr Clarke went to Salisbury Plain to demonstrate some of his inventions to Sir Winston Churchill. As I had joined the A.T.S. in 1938 I was immediately called up on the outbreak of war.

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