大象传媒

This story was submitted to the 大象传媒 People鈥檚 War site by Wymondham Learning Centre on behalf of the author who fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

I was a telephonist when war was declared. My first job after leaving school had been in the Census Office. It was a temporary job and I turned 16 whilst I was there. After a series of temporary jobs, at 19 years old I drifted into the telephone service, which was expanding rapidly at that time. I did not enjoy the work but in those years of depression, you were relieved to have any job. I worked in Harrow, which I did not like either. A friend of mine often used the expression, `how suburban` and to me Harrow was just that.

After the speech declaring war, I took a call at the exchange from a hysterical woman, demanding to be told what to do. I told her to go to the shelter when the sirens sounded and to keep her gas mask with her at all times. Eventually, she calmed down and listened to me and I think that she would have done anything that I had instructed her to do in the end. It was a good job that she could not see me, as my colleague said, 鈥淵ou were as pale and as trembling as the rest of us, but you sounded calm.鈥�

For a while I worked for the London Telephone Service, which was part of the GPO in those days. I was a kind of `temp` and I would be contacted on a Friday at my last place of work and be told where I was to report to the next Monday. At the beginning of one week, I reported, as instructed, to the Air Ministry at Adastral House. I went to the switch room but there was a cable breakdown due to the weather and I was sent to the staffroom for a cup of tea. Shortly after, the supervisor rushed in to tell me that there had been a mistake and that I should have reported to the Air Ministry at Bush House. I said, 鈥淲ell, girls, my stay with you has been very short.鈥� I left. Life at Bush House was very dull as it dealt mainly with the rescue of personnel who had come down in the North Sea.

Subsequently, in 1940, I was working at the Wembley Exchange. I remember that I once bravely rang a supervisor to complain that I had been told to report to two different places at once. I was living with my parents at the time in Greenford.
My mother鈥檚 sister, her niece and her niece鈥檚 mother arrived from Hastings, escaping from an expected invasion. Beds had to be sorted out for all these people and we borrowed one from an acquaintance. This lady鈥檚 house was bombed during the night. She was killed and all that remained of her home was the bed .One day I received a phone call, telling me not to go home to Geenford that night, as our home had been bombed. Geenford was in line with Northolt Airfield. Fortunately my parents were safe and we all went to stay with my elder sister, Grace, and her husband in Ruislip. The following morning my father and I hitchhiked to Greenford to see what could be salvaged. My father asked, 鈥淲hat is this blocking the front door?鈥� It was the back door.

In February 1941, I volunteered for the army and chose to be a theodolite operator. To be selected for this job, you had to have normal sight without glasses. As I only had normal sight with glasses, and as the job was over subscribed, I was not chosen and I was persuaded to go into signals. I received my basic training in Harrogate, followed by special operations training in the Isle of Man where the scenery was rugged, rather like Scotland. Then I was stationed at Beaumanor, near to Loughborough. This was a highly secretive establishment, sending daily reports to Bletchley Park. The mess room had been the dining room of a nice house. The view from the window was very English 鈥� a grassy, wooded hill and a windmill, which was burnt down sometime after.

Well-known people had lived in this house, including the poet, Robert Herrick, and members of Princess Mary of Teck鈥檚 family. On the main oak staircase at the entrance, there was a window with many coats of arms. I was amused by one, which bore the name of Julius Caesar (Sir Julius Caesar - a cricketer).

I remember evenings when we would ride in a lorry to the De Montfort Hall to listen to symphony concerts.

After VE Day, I was transferred to Harrogate. The Commanding officer regretted that we could not have remained together as a group. I received a Class B release to the Civil Service.

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