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From dirndl skirts and rambling roses in their hair to dungarees and big boots, my three sisters’ lives changed dramatically. During the war it was compulsory to work in shipyards alongside time-served men, who expected women to do equal work.

My sister, Joyce, was eighteen years of age and was taught how to pass on red hot rivets to the welders repairing war-damaged ships. She told mother that she enjoyed this work. My other two sisters, Jean and Mary, worked alongside the joiners in the joinery shop, making bomb racks, clearing up, and varnishing and repairing the wood on the ships.

Dismantled parts of submarines were always there to be cleaned of grease and grit. Despite wartime dungarees, heavy boots and oily boats, my three sisters still put rambling roses in their hair when going to work.

Maureen Black via Dundee Central Library

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