大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Rose Anderson, and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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[relaxation]
You didn鈥檛 get much time to yourself. No, you wouldn鈥檛. And another thing. I think the ones that hurt me most of all, once I had to put my very very dear friend of mine into the incinerator that we had. She died over there. She was a wee baby on a diet, and she went out then into her job as a cook. And she went out to the, out back into her own job again, and whatever way it was she took bad health doing it. She was long time up there, and I had to go and 鈥� you see, you have to be very tough, they just hand you the clothes and you have to put them down. It鈥檚 awful if you know them. If you know a person, it鈥檚 worse to have to go and, you know, do that with them. But there were, as I say, you just had to get on with it. You didn鈥檛 ask questions.

The food wasn鈥檛 bad in the army. We had plenty of it. On the wards, anyway, we had plenty of food there. I won鈥檛 tell a lie. And as well as that, I don鈥檛 鈥� I love the army, that was it. My father was in it, my uncles were in it, so I was eventually one of the girls that went. So I don鈥檛 think 鈥�

They felt resentful instead of being kind. You get that catty bit. They shouldn鈥檛 be in here. See, they have to know everything.

鈥�

But otherwise I enjoyed the army, I enjoyed the life because I was brought up sort of strict myself. Not hurt or anything, but you didn鈥檛 鈥� half the things you were meant to, manners and so on.

We had ENSA shows in the barracks 鈥� in the hospital, I mean. In the hospital over there we had ENSA shows. And we had, you didn鈥檛 get much time off duty, but you got whatever time you had to go into Belfast. But there wasn鈥檛 much time, but then I鈥檓 not like that. I鈥檓 now more like that than I was then. I met with an accident and was burnt in a fire, so I don鈥檛, I didn鈥檛 at that time, I was very sensitive. And that was the main thing. And I can鈥檛 say nothing wrong about it, only that I didn鈥檛 like what it was for. I won鈥檛 look at the films on TV, because I鈥檝e seen so many young men destroyed.

[Yanks]
They were after all the girls! Not all in the army, there were civilians as well.

[They were over here as civilians too?]

They were stationed different places, and then they came in and the girls would go off with them. They were very fast-living, I鈥檓 telling you. I never went out with them, as I say, but 鈥� well, I never went out with very many until the one I was married to. They were great for picking up, whether you were married or single, that鈥檚 what I was told 鈥� they didn鈥檛 care.
They had money and they had sweets and they had nylons and they had things other people didn鈥檛 have. That was really the real reason, I suppose, why the girls went off with them.

[different music?]
They did. And they were beautiful dressed. Ours was a sort of a rough khaki uniform. Theirs was like more of a French fine material. But they were all right. I never found anything wrong with them. They gave nothing in the NAAFI sometimes, things like that. But I鈥檝e never, they just, I suppose they said to themselves 鈥渢here鈥檚 no tomorrow鈥�, maybe. That was it. That was life.
But a lot of people know me because I was stationed here.

鈥�

it鈥檚 hard work and you get very little pay. Compared with other people, very little pay. You sort of went to the NAAFI for something. That was the only thing I can鈥檛 stick people that were in the big money in the munitions, but they resented us, and we were working for skins. Buttons. You wouldn鈥檛 go mad with your money.

[Leave]
I went home to Dublin. I鈥檓 from Dublin, but I went home to Dublin for my 7-days leave. You got 7 days, and then you get a, you get papers that you got down free 鈥� you didn鈥檛 get money, you just got the paper, and then you got your money.
My father was in the army in the last war, the big war. I don鈥檛 like to say anything wrong, but I think that the [Dublin] people on the whole, they don鈥檛 discuss things as much. We鈥檝e had them here. They come here for alarms and Trafalgar. I鈥檓 always, I always go there.

[VE Day 1945]
It was great. They jumped mad, they really went mad and all. That鈥檚 what makes it so sad that, we didn鈥檛 have peace.

I was in the 25th Batt RAMC, and I really would love for some of them to get in touch with me.

[VE day]
I was in London, representing here on VE day. I was on the television. We only had 1 from the army, and that was me. There was a girl from across the road there, she was the Navy. Ann Peggy鈥檚 sister, she was in the navy. She lives over there now. And the other one, the man was from the RAF. One from each section. We were sent to London, we got a 4-star hotel, everything laid on from us. My son met me, he lives in London, and he said 鈥測ou should go home for the weekend, stay up with me鈥�. I go up there very often.

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